Even though the book was first published almost a decade ago, it is still relevant today. The perspectives offered in the book are based on proven success of world class brands as told by top executives writes Tom Sitati in this review Brand Warriors.
“Corporate Leaders Share their Winning Strategies”. This phrase that features prominently on the cover of the book, Brand Warriors, edited by Fiona Gilmore is an apt summary of what the book is about. Even though the book was first published almost a decade ago, it is still relevant today. The perspectives offered in the book are based on proven success of world class brands as told by top executives. It is said that experience is the best teacher but with a book like Brand Warriors, which is a collection of brand triumphs and tribulations, your brand needn’t experience everything to get ahead. The book is rich with experiences every brand custodian would do well to take note of. Brand Warriors takes the reader through seventeen brands, from ASDA, the UK superstore to the Vodafone Group, a global market leader in mobile telephony. Contributors to this book are of high profile in the corporate world. In the current brand conscious world, this is most appropriate as brands are no longer the preserve of middle level managers but the chief executive. The book has a British bias and despite the lofty positions occupied by all the contributors, I could only recognize Richard Branson. Fiona Gilmore’s introduction, entitled “Brand Championship” is a gem. “Business is war”, she writes, “the objective is competitor destruction through superior industrial economies. Brand warfare is different: the brand warrior identifies the key conquest as the customer, not the rival”. She then proceeds to extol the virtues and necessity of branding before addressing other issues such as the much debated economic value of branding,