Book: "Brand Management 101 - 101 Lessons From Real-World Marketing"; Author: Mainak Dhar; Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; Price: Rs.249

Marketing or promoting a specific brand or a product is not rocket science, but yes, it is definitely about understanding your instincts with the effective implementation of "inexact science", says Mainak Dhar -- currently a marketing director with Procter & Gamble (South East Asia).

With a careful entwining of the events that Dhar himself has faced, he asks budding marketing professionals to look at things from a perspective which is not difficult to apprehend but not easy to realize.    

For example, he urges marketers to evaluate the impact that has been created on consumers' minds by asking the question - can people recollect my brand easily after being exposed to it?

Dhar has also very effectively highlighted a common mistake that advertisers or marketers fall prey to -- of getting too overwhelmed by celebrities and start selling them rather than the brand itself, which he very aptly termed "celebrity hijacking".

The book emphasizes the most invaluable feature that any segment of business faces today - competition. While Dhar strongly advocates the common practice of creating the ever-famous SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) chart, he also insists on focusing on what the competitor would never do.

Even at the cost of sounding rhetorical, Dhar insists on the importance of packaging and how it can turn on or turn off a consumer from the brand. Packaging of a product should be such that it would not only look different from similar products but one that would urge the consumer to stop and take another look.

Dhar, a graduate from Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and now based in Singapore, offers splendid reading pleasure by blending these tips with his practical experiences and highlighting his strengths as well as weaknesses that he learnt about. 

IANS | September 28, 2007

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