Breakthrough Branding

July 1, 2012

Kaputa (You Are a Brand!: How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success) here instructs readers on how to develop ideas into successful brands. She presents numerous case studies to illustrate success stories: Carole Middleton and Party Pieces, Reed Hasting and Netflix, Jack Dorsey and Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Readers are grounded in such nitty-gritty topics as selecting a brand name, creating the company or product's logo, seeking celebrity endorsements, marketing the brand, creating a company culture, and using social media to promote the brand. Kaputa stresses the importance of building "a personal brand--Brand You--in tandem with your business brand." Throughout, Kaputa includes "Brainstormers" sections in which she asks readers to consider specific questions, e.g., "How would you launch a business around a personal passion?" and "What are the new trends that might be a business idea?" Bibliographical references for each chapter are provided. VERDICT A practical and detailed work, this book should be of use to entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs, and business students.--Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2012
Author (You Are a Brand, 2006; The Female Brand, 2009) and marketer Kaputa posits, in this how-to-brand book, that the small idea is best, following it up with simple approaches to the brand promise, positioning, verbal and visual identities, and marketing (among other brandworthy topics). She provides direct and easy-to-grasp (and -apply) concepts within reach for any entre-/intrapreneur. Take the What's Your Pitch? chapter, focused on telling a story. She catalogs the choices and supplies ammunition in the form of real-life successes: David versus Goliath (think Apple). The redemption story (Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase). Rags to riches (Chris Gardner, of The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006). The love story (how Rubin and Page got married through the founding of Google). How to transform Small into Big? Be bold, she insists, whether it's dominating a category or taking advantage of good and bad luck. Throughout the text, brainstormer sidebars invite questions and commentary from the audience; too bad it's not a true workshop. Entertaining, engaging, and thankfully (and remarkably) untethered to marketing-, brand-, and ad-speak.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)