BrandDigital | BrandSimple: The Blog

I’m looking at the June 2^nd cover story of Business Week which is titled “Beyond Blogs; What Business Needs to Know about YouTube, Facebook and Social Media and Media Spending.” In addition to being a fascinating read, this article is also a perfect segue for why I’m changing the header of my blog. You see, in September of this year I will be releasing my newest book, titled BrandDigital. The purpose of the book is to help marketers understand the dramatic way the Internet and other forms of digital technology are changing the way businesses need to look at building brands.

Much like my first book, BrandSimple, which demystified the way powerful brands get built in general, the intent of BrandDigital is to demystify what many people find unnecessarily mystifying about digital technology and its effect on brands. And, much like the Business Week article helps explain what businesses need to know about blogs and social media, BrandDigital helps explain how smart companies are using digital technology and the behavior it engenders to build brands. My intent in writing the book was to sort out which digital tools and tactics are important to organizations of every size as they go about their branding strategy and execution, and which are just smoke and mirrors. BrandDigital was written after interviewing over 100 of the most knowledgeable and insightful people in the business of branding and digital technology. I spoke with corporate executives across an incredible array of categories, with digital technology gurus, with research and analysis professionals, and with top management in communications agencies. I spoke with bloggers, with developers of virtual communities, with members of social networks, and with trend spotters and venture capitalists. I spoke with people who have been in the business of building brands for the better part of long, established careers, but for whom digital tactics pose some questions, and with people whose youth makes digital technology as natural as breathing, but for whom brand-building does not come quite as naturally. I found that it is at the intersection of time-honored branding principles and new forms of branding opportunities that great brands are built.

Watch this blog in weeks to come for my thoughts on how building brands is transforming in the digital age.