Brand Intimacy
Brand Intimacy
A New Paradigm in Marketing
Written by Mario Natarelli and Rina Plapler
Category: Business & Economics - Consumer Behavior; Business & Economics - Advertising & Promotion; Business & Economics - Marketing - Research
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
On Sale Date: October 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-57826-685-2
From Patagonia to Apple, Whole Foods to New Balance, we love our favorite products--and, by extension, the companies that provide them. The emotional connections we form with our beloved brands and services are important relationships--relationships that are potentially worth billions.
In the fast-paced, constantly-changing world of the modern marketplace, brands must adapt or perish—strategies, methods, and techniques must evolve to remain effective and relevant. Are you using yesterday’s thinking for tomorrow’s challenges?
Brand Intimacy details ways to build better marketing through the cultivation of emotional connections between brand and consumer. The book provides lessons for marketers and business leaders alike who are seeking to understand these ultimate brand relationships and the opportunities they represent.
Divided into three sections, Brand Intimacy starts with Context and Understanding. This explains today’s marketing landscape, the effects of technology, consumer behaviors and the advancements around decision making. Through research we discovered that people form relationships with brands the same way they develop relationships with other people. This section provides guidance on how to think about complimentary concepts such as loyalty, satisfaction and brand value. We then explore and compare established approaches and methodologies and showcase why intimacy is a compelling new and enhanced opportunity to build your brand or market your business.
The second section, Theory and Model reveals and dimensions the brand intimacy model and dissects it into steps to help you better factor it into your marketing approaches or frameworks. Here you will learn the core concepts and components that are essential to build bonds and the role emotion can play to help you achieve greater customer engagement. You can also review the rankings of the best brands in terms of Brand Intimacy. A summary of our annual research reveals the characteristics of best performers, the most intimate industries, and differences based on geography, age, gender and income. By examining the top intimate brands, we reveal and decode the secrets of the bonds they form with their customers.
The third section is Methods & Practice, this details the economic benefits and advantages of a strategy that factors Brand Intimacy. Intimate brands are proven to outperform the Fortune 500 and Standards and Poors’ index of brands. Intimate brands create more revenue and profit and last longer. Consumers are also willing to pay more for a brand they are more intimate with. Conversely, we also explore a series of brand failures and lessons learned to help you avoid common pitfalls in brand management. We articulate the steps to build a more intimate brand as well as share a glimpse on the future where software will play a more important role in brand building. The book outlines a proprietary digital platform that we use to help manage and enable intimacy through collaboration, simulators and real-time tracking of emotions.
Business and marketing owners face an increasing difficult task to build brands that rise above the clutter, engage more and grow. Brand Intimacy explains how to better measure, build and manage enduring brands. Brands that are built to inspire as well as profit. Written by experienced marketers and backed by extensive research, Brand Intimacy rewrites the rulebook on how to establish and expand your marketing. The book is equal parts theory, research and practice, the result of 7 year journey and a new marketing paradigm for the modern marketer.
For more information, go to:
mblm.com/brandintimacybook
Also Available in E-Book (Amazon, Apple, B&N)
About the Authors
Mario Natarelli is the Managing Partner at MBLM in New York and an established marketing leader to executives and their companies. Over the past 20 years, Mario has helped companies of every size and type, working across the globe to transform, align and manage their brands to deliver growth and value. Prior to MBLM, Mario was the CEO of FutureBrand North America and Middle East and was the co-founder of HyperMedia. Mario is a graduate architect with a degree from the University of Toronto.
Rina Plapler is a Partner at MBLM and has built brands for over 20 years. She leads strategy at MBLM in New York and has held executive positions at FutureBrand and Gormley & Partners. Rina has worked with B2B, B2C and B2G companies and has extensive strategy experience across a variety of industries including financial services, tourism, health care, technology and telecommunications. She was the creator of FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index and MBLM’s Brand Intimacy Study. Rina has degrees from McGill and Harvard Universities.
Praise for Brand Intimacy
“A great look at what inspires people to engage with brands and how to use that to your advantage. Brand Intimacy, both the book and the concept, is important for marketers to understand and for brands to use wisely.” —Sami Main, Digital Media Reporter, Adweek
“Critical reading for any marketer or business leader. Brand Intimacy should change how marketers think about everything.” —Jill Malandrino, Global Markets Reporter, Nasdaq
“For those looking to grow their brand and their business, Brand Intimacy is a must-read. It is a thoughtful examination that questions our current thinking on marketing, while offering a better solution, borne through careful examination and consumer insights.” —Hamza Mustafa, CEO, PCFC Investments
“A must-read that captures the importance of appealing to instincts and emotions to build powerful brands.” —Fran Gormley, Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern
“With Brand Intimacy, brand experts Rina Plapler and Mario Natarelli unlock a powerful inner truth about brands—that the best ones create intimate, enduring bonds with customers that leads to revenue growth and value. Powerful and insightful, Brand Intimacy brings a fresh, new perspective on how to build brands and strengthen customer bonds in today’s hyper-connected world. The book blends science, analytics, psychology and research along with simple, practical examples to help brand owners and brands achieve their goals.” —Jonathan Bell, Managing Partner, WANT Branding
“We are in a new age. It is critically important to discover how our decisions are made, whether made about brands or our role in society. This book illuminates and quantifies the importance of emotion in the decision process and provides a winning construct to achieve emotional brand intimacy.” —John Diefenbach, Chairman, MBLM, and Former CEO, Landor
“Brand Intimacy is a comprehensive guide to brand building for any modern marketer or business executive.” —Richard Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein PR
“MBLM's insights and creativity helped us strengthen our brand and improve the way we connect with consumers.” —Giorgio Galli, Design Director, Timex Group
“This book is amazing and scary. It demonstrates how businesses are run is not how we manage brands. Aligning an organization, prioritizing emotion and thinking of brand relationships like human ones demonstrates a far more compelling approach than most business books espouse.” —David Spencer, Strategic Advisor, Golf in Dubai
