Having been in the franchising business all my life and understanding how hard it is to build a brand, I have probably read every other popular book on the subject. Some are good and most are excellent, as each one helps give you ideas on setting the stage for your brand marketing objectives. Branding on the Internet is somewhat new as before 1995 there was little if any Internet to speak of. One book I can recommend is:

“11 immutable laws of Internet branding” by Laura Ries.

This was a goods book. Where as I agree with MANY of the rules of thumb, I disagree completely with nearly all of the examples supporting their assertions. Most of the purported examples to prove their theories are outdated and out of context. I do not recommend this book to anyone and having personally called the author, I was a little concerned with the lack of business history and knowledge that went into the work. Too bad, it is a good subject. In my companies we are following most all of the basic marketing branding rules they consider relevant, and probably better than nearly all of the other companies listed or mentioned.

Internet Brand Marketing is important, but only a mere component of the whole. Sure it is important and you should pay attention to your strategy, but the customer will always vote with their dollar, so realize when reading such books that these people who write them actually are writing them to puff up clients they have and trying to sell marketing strategy services. They made errors in their assumptions of Microsoft, the reason for the Boston Market failure, their degree of confidence in Amazon.com, their domain name picking theories. I could nearly crush them in a debate on almost every single example they used to prove a point, as they cite case laws and business histories. On the points themselves they are plus or minus average in their correctness, and I would only challenge a few points, if any and only in certain contexts or situations. All in all however the book should be read with a grain of salt but definitely read by anyone who is in charge of brand marketing on the Internet, which by now should be every CEO in the country.

So, why would one recommend a book they disagree with? Because this book makes you think and question reality. You must constantly audit your brand image, you need to look at it from every perspective, trust me. So read this book and buy it online today.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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