I'm With the Brand: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. [Paperback]

I bought this book based on the synopsis provided by Amazon and the other reviews - a book that would reveal what effect culture has on branding and marketing, and how consumers interact with brands. I felt this book felt short of the mark given that it seemed to be aimed exclusively at the US market. Something not apparent from the blurb on the back.

Given that the author is a journalist, some people (particularly those with plenty of marketing experience) will find the style and tone of the book very different to the usual branding/culture books available. I felt it was a refreshing change - nice not to read the "academic" and "preaching" style of many branding books on the market. Having said, the book is very USA-based with North American examples of the influence of culture on brands (for example, skateboards, Red Bull, American Apparel and Nike). Even with Red Bull, there was only a passing mention of the fact it's Austrian.

Another disappointment was that yet another author comes up with marketing claptrap and mumbo jumbo - "the desire code" and "murketing" to name but two. I feel that too many authors come up with these crappy phrases - possibly to somehow make up for deficiencies? There are too many acronyms and buzzword bingo phrases to contend with already without having learn a new lexicon.

So does the book look at culture and the effect it has had on branding and marketing? If you live in the USA, then you'd probably think it's a good read - the book is basically aimed at this market. I found it to meander and skip in places - which I put down to unnecessary padding. There were times when I got completely lost and it seemed that the author was trying to cram in the effects of culture (and in particular young people) on advertising, branding and marketing, as well as looking at symbols and identities from both historical and current perspectives. I don't think you can go from discussing 80s hip hop in one chapter to advertising cars in the 50s. Perhaps if the Chapters followed chronologically, the book would have made more sense and less confusing.

Overall, I felt it just doesn't offer anything groundbreaking - I certainly didn't come away thinking "wow, learned something today." If you're expecting plenty of brand strategies, tips and tools, then you'll be disappointed. If you're interested in US culture then you may find it of interest, if you're not a fan of US culture then it's not a good read.

There's something familiar about the feverish talk of how social networking is the ultimate game changer, how Facebook will revolutionise our social life, how Twitter is an unstoppable force, etc. It all seems so....so 1999. If there was a message in the dotcom bust, perhaps it was this: new technology is all very well, but the fundamental rules of commerce haven't changed much since the industrial revolution. As for opening up new markets, that was the snappy new thinking that made the Silk Road such a hit.

Why, then, are marketers wringing their hands about the supposedly savvy new networked uber-consumers? Why the worry that "new media" will be the medium eats the advertisers' lunch? And aside from hand-wringing, what are the smart marketers doing about it? Moreover, if we're all such savvy consumers, where is the evidence of our taking charge and changing the world in our own image?

Walker's answer, taken from years on the consumer beat with the New York Times, is that today's consumers have more in common with their parent's generation than at any time since their parent's generation. And that we're all a lot more vulnerable to the same old shtick than we like to think we are.

Sure, new media means new channels to reach consumers. And, clever consumers like to posture about being indifferent to brand marketing. But clever marketers devise new strategies, and Walker makes the case that, far from being indifferent, we're participating in branding in a way a previous generation might consider co-optation. Meanwhile, back at the shops, the rate at which we are snapping up branded goods is accelerating to the point of, well, dangerously heating the planet.

The strength here is in Walker's reportage of the novel things happening in the world of marketing and consumer behaviour. He essentially asks what the real story is, if it is not about the revolutionary changes that are hyped everywhere, but harder to find in the evidence (save the fact that consumer's can now broadcast their kvetch about a brand as never before). His journalist's eye catches moments that are useful in understanding the real story unfolding right under our watchful -- but often unaware -- consumer's gaze.

Walker quickly sees through new media's new clothes. He outlines with clarity how marketers are indeed finding their way to success (and just like with the old mass media, and despite new online tools, it doesn't come cheap), and how we consumers are deluding ourselves if we think we're holding all the cards. Helpfully, unlike many marketing handbooks, which this book is not, the author accurately perceives the zingy excitement of the project of marketing, but reports on its practices instead of enthusing about them.

These strengths also come with the same problem that much journalism does: short shelf-life. Insights that may have been up-to-the-minute upon publication may prove to be just a snapshot of the very quickly moving social history of the digital age. He might have done better to take a note out of Seth Godin's playbook and published this as an e-book, updating and supplementing as new developments emerge.

The flip side of Walker's journalism credentials is that he's a bit weak as a marketing expert. There are moments one wishes he'd taken Marketing 101 so that some of his background exposition doesn't unfold like a mystery. Like: who would have guessed that marketers spend untold hours attempting to track and understand consumer behaviour? Well, among those who would buy this book, I'd say just about everyone.

His answers also seem caught at times between his well-researched conclusions (chiefly that the more marketing changes, the more it stays the same), and the apparently irresistible temptation of authors to stamp an idea as their own by minting a new word. In Walker's case, the word is "murketing" (murky marketing). To say that "murky" is a new concept in marketing is a bit rich: these days the quip about marketing belonging to the dark arts takes a walking stick on its daily perambulations.

Similarly his realisation that he, too, had been taken in by a popular brand tells us more about the author than about the fact that branding works, or how: he gets taken in by the rebel spirit of Chuck Taylors. Hey, I wore them too -- when I was 16. But as an indication of rebel spirit? Chucks are more an item of ironic self-parody than rebellion. Elsewhere, apropos of nothing, he lets slip that he lives in New Orleans' French-Quarter: proving that narcissists are vulnerable to branding right down to where they choose to live? In another book these wouldn't be worth a mention, but Walker's central thesis is that we adopt brands and artifacts to project our personality, and thus they undermine the reader's confidence in his insight. On the other hand, they remain minor gaffes.

Walker concludes that we actively develop and define our relationships with brands, and that consumers do more to shape the meaning of brands than might be immediately apparent. Relatedly, he makes the case for how brands have lives beyond the reach of their nominal owners (although it is the owners who benefit regardless). But the central lesson again is that none of this is new, and that so far as brands go, we need to learn for ourselves the wisdom of consumers who have worn the Chucks before us.

I needed reading up on branding in order to complete an assignment for uni.
This book was fantastic full of explanations and examples, written so that it is readable unlike textbook books, it was easy to read, easy to understand and perfect.

Would definitely recommend for anyone studying a branding/marketing degree!!