Composed by the marketing faculty of the Kellog School of Management, Kellog on Branding is an excellent book on branding for marketers and those who are interested in the topic. It provides a framework to understand what makes great brands what they are. What do consumers think when they hear the name Apple in consumer electronics? In the car industry, what message does the BMW brand convey? What does Goldman Sachs mean on Wall Street? The book provides tools that enable an organization to uniquely position itself in the marketplace and differentiate from its competitors.

The book is divided into Four Sections. The first section provides a general overview of brand concepts: brand positioning fundamentals, the designing of a brand (perceptual cues), and what do brands mean to consumers. The second section focuses on branding strategies. The advantages of a pioneer brand and the challenges and opportunities for a late-entrant. Also covered is the strategy of leveraging an existing brand to launch a new product - brand extension; the section concludes with a discussion on brand portfolio strategy: guidelines and key principals in managing a portfolio of brands.

The third section considers the implementations of branding. First to be discussed is the different advertising techniques and vehicles a brand manager can utilize in laying the groundworks for brand-building. Relationship branding and CRM (customer relationship management) is also covered - the purpose of brand relationship is to allow subsegments of consumers to experience the brand in an individualistic or idiosyncratic way; CRM is the management of these experiences. The section then goes on to discuss the variations of branding; The challenges of business-to-business branding, service branding, and branding in technology markets are explored in three separate writings. Furthermore, key guiding principals in building a brand-driven organization is covered. The section concludes with a discussion on how brand value can be measured.

The last section includes seven case studies written by senior executives from companies such as United Online, Kraft Foods, UPS, etc. These case studies provide real-life illustrations of the concepts presented in the book and how they are applied in practice

In sum, Kellog on Branding provides its readers with the fundamental concepts and tools to build strong brands.