David Taylor & David Nichols 
The Brand Gym 
A Practical Workout to Gain and Retain Brand Leadership

This refreshingly simple, practical guide demonstrates how
brand management can boost business performance. It is the ideal
inspiration for creating growth in today’s tough economic times.
Following the template of the highly successful original version,
the book consists of a programme of 8 ‘workouts’ that will help
marketers raise their own game in key areas such as: insight,
portfolio strategy, positioning and innovation. The tools and
techniques in the book have been road-tested on over 100 brandgym
projects out of the last 8 years, making this book extremely
practical.

* Based on the inside stories of brand leaders who have achieved
success: Tesco, T-Mobile, Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. These
companies share their tips, tricks and warn of the traps to
avoid.

* 50% of the content is new or updated with the latest thinking
on ‘recession proof branding’, how to win when times are tough,
communication briefing, growing the core business and new research
with marketing directors on the key success factors of brand
leaders.

* The authors are most influential, appearing in The Guardian,
Marketing, Brand Strategy, Market Leader and The
Marketer. The CIM have called David Taylor one of the
‘World’s 50 most important marketing thinkers’.

Table of Content

What’s new in Brandgym 2?

Overview to The Brandgym Workouts.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: Being a leader.

Being a leader is better – Hollywood gum.

Leader Brands need brand leaders.

Brand-led business.

Staying in shape.

Inside Tesco.

1. Workout One: Follow the money.

Why branding still has a bad name.

Follow the money.

Business model vs. brand equity – Axe shaving and Special K bars.

Follow the money brief – Cointreau.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

2. Workout Two: Use insight as fuel.

Beyond findings to insights – Mucinex.

Don’t understand the consumer. Be the consumer – Nike.

360 insight.

Competition – Magnum.

Culture: looking at the bigger picture – Castrol.

Consumer: digging deeper to understand more – Harley Davidson.

Company: look within.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

3. Workout Three: Focus, focus, focus.

Focus is good.

The Danone story.

Different brand portfolio models – Gillette.

So, how many brands do you need? – Santander.

How many brands can you feed?

Setting the right strategy – Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

4. Workout Four: Build big brand ideas.

The power of vision.

Beyond box filling to big ideas.

Insight fuel – Pampers.

What are you going to fight for? – T-Mobile.

Sausage and sizzle – Richmond sausages.

The story of your brand – Pampers.

Test drive the vision.

Time to sign up.

Make it real.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

5. Workout Five: Grow the core.

The heart of a healthy brand.

Snow White and the 17 Dwarves – Frito Lay.

Two ways to make a million (or five) – Heinz soup.

Core growth requires more creativity, not less.

Remember and refresh – James Bond.

Renovation waves.

‘SMS’ (sell more stuff) – The Geek Squad.

Upgrade the core.

The power of packaging – innocent smoothies.

Core range extension – Ryvita.

Re-inventing the core – Warner Music.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

6. Workout Six: Stretch your brand muscles.

Building business, building brands – Gillette.

Why one in two innovations fail.

Why funnels don’t work.

Rocketing – a new innovation paradigm.

Destination – Powerade.

Combustion.

Nozzle.

Expander – Post-its.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

7. Workout Seven: Amplify your marketing plan.

Brand chapters – Jordans Big Buzz.

Harnessing online media – T-Mobile Dance.

Product as hero – Dove.

Be brave, break codes – Cats like Felix.

Tighter briefs are better – NSPCC.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

8. Workout Eight: Rally the troops.

People power.

Beyond brandwashing – RSA Insurance.

Step 1: Products people are proud of – Apple i Phone.

Step 2: Hire the right people and treat them right – Pret a Manager.

Step 3: Lead by example – innocent smoothies.

Step 4: Sell the cake not the recipe – Hellmann’s.

The five-month itch.

Key takeouts.

3-part action plan.

Handover.

References.

Index.

About the author

David Taylor and David Nichols are Managing Partners of the brandgym, a network of senior brand coaches that help teams to create a clear brand vision and the action plans to turn this into growth. Clients include SAB Miller, Tesco, Unilever, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, Kerry Foods and RSA Insurance.

David Taylor has been named one of the world’s 50 leading marketing thinkers by the CIM. He is the author of three other brandgym books published by John Wiley: Brand Stretch, Brand Vision and Where’s the Sausage?. He also writes brandgymblog.com, one of Europe’s top 10 branding blogs. David started his career in brand management with P&G before doing an MBA at INSEAD. He then started and grew the Paris office of Added Value, where he met David Nichols.

david@thebrandgym.com

David Nichols is a leading expert on innovation and the author of the brandgym book Return on Ideas: A practical guide to making innovation pay, in addition to Brands & Gaming published by Palgrave Macmillan. He started his career at OC&C Strategy Consultants, moving on to the marketing consultancy Added Value where he was Managing Director of Australia and then the UK. He has a first class degree in Aerospace Engineering from Bristol University and is an aerobatic pilot in his spare time.

davidn@thebrandgym.com