Fusion Branding by Nick Wreden

Nick Wreden has already written for Pool. His book on Fusion Branding encapsulates thinking about the future for brands. There has been much talk about how the brand will have to behave in the future. Cynics may say that this comes from consultants looking to make money by offering advice. The truth is that is a major underlying shift in the nature of marketing that comes from rapid and major changes in areas such as marketing communications infrastructure and, most importantly, the changing nature of the consumer, especially in developed markets.

The most important feature of the new environment is the shift from a producer-led economy through the customer economy to the demand economy. In short this means from mass markets to customer-focused products and services to totally personalised offerings. Mass marketing is in the past, one to one marketing is today and Fusion Branding represents the way in which manufacturers and service providers can address this demand economy. 

Fusion Branding is, not surprisingly, a multi-dimensional approach to the management of brands. The two key elements at its heart are excellence (in product/service performance as well as two-way communications) and an intense focus on what the individual's needs and requirements are. Delivery is paramount within this as consumers have frequently loss trust in and respect for brands that have over-promised and under-delivered. 

Branding is about relationships where trust and loyalty have to be earned. They cannot be built on the back of an advertising campaign alone or some positive PR. Like any relationship they have to be continually worked upon. 

The way in which the book is written enables the reader to use it in a number of different ways. Reading the whole book through is a major task such is the level of detail. However, each chapter has a useful summary and this enables the reader to get to grips with Fusion Branding quickly without reading the whole text. Each chapter ends with what is called Takeaway, a series of questions to help you apply Fusion Branding to your own operations. There is also a useful list of further reading.

There are many branding books that promise a roadmap to the future for brands. Fusion Branding is certainly one of the best of these as it recognises all the elements that make up a brand and how they interact. Many marketers remain stuck in the mass marketing era where branding is about adding emotional values to a product or service offering, segmenting your market to find the best target group and developing a unique (very rare) positioning. Consequently, it is not common to find brands that achieve a genuine relationship with the consumer. The world is full of me-toos and overhyped products that fail to deliver. it is time for marketers to become genuinely customer-focused. 

Review by Martin Payne