Manager par la marque [Management by Brand]

Most books about brand adopt an essentially marketing-oriented approach. The value of this book lies in its original approach, considering brand as a total management tool, and in particular as a powerful driver of employee motivation.
The authors know what they are talking about. They were closely connected with changing the France Telecom Mobiles brand to Orange in 2001, a campaign whose success was accompanied by a real cultural revolution at that company. Their observations and thinking therefore offer a rich selection of interesting tidbits.
– To understand how the brand can be an irreplaceable motivation factor, consult chapter 1. Chapter 3, which provides a more detailed analysis of the components of brand, is worth reading to deepen your understanding of the topic. The very brief chapter 7 – devoted to the limitations of management by brand and illustrated by examples like Pierre Cardin and Point P – provides a more objective view of the arguments developed previously.
– The core of the book is chapter 4, which gives details concerning the decisions that must be made to turn the brand into a motivation tool, e.g. how to organize the brand portfolio, articulate the external and internal brand strategy, etc. It is illustrated with examples from Club Méditerranée and Accor. Chapter 5, devoted to the concrete organization of launching a brand internally, is the logical extension of the previous chapter. Finally, chapter 8 completes the picture by analyzing the impact of management by brand on the various departments of a company.
– Rather more theoretical, chapters 2 and 6 seem less essential for practitioners, despite some interesting thinking on the value creation potential of brands and their ability to adapt to changes in the market.