Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Brands and branding and July blogstats

In July this blog had 31151 visitors, 15% up on June which was 19% ahead of May. Still going in the right direction but Summer lassitude must surely slow the growth soon.

We work closely with the world's leading branding organisation, Interbrand. They did an excellent job helping us with the launch of Palgrave Macmillan as a an established imprint with a new name. We also publish with them across a range of titles. I therefore take a particular interest in their annual report on global brands which has had quite a bit of press attention of late.

For those of you who can't be bothered to click to the report and scroll down here are the top ten global brands:

Coca-Cola

Microsoft

IBM

GE

Intel

Nokia

Toyota

Disney

McDonald's

Mercedes

Only one 'media' company, Disney. Google appears at 24, Sony at 26, Apple at 39. Amazon is 65. The first professional publisher is Reuters at 78. There is not a single consumer publisher in the top 100. No Penguin, no Random House, no Hachette, no HarperCollins - definitely no Macmillan. And yet I cannot remember an annual report of a publishing company which did not shout about the strength of its brand and the protection this gives a publisher from the challenges of a changing technological world.

And an old chestnut from British politics but I like it. Someone once asked a colleague why everyone took an instant dislike to Peter Mandelson (now the EU Trade Commissioner, whatever that is) and the answer was 'Because it saves time.'

#    |  Comments [13]  | 
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8/1/2006 5:29:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Brands are interesting. I would have thought that once upon a time Penguin (books not biscuits) would have been a Brand among the top brands.. not any more. And that is the only likely publisher.
What about Virgin as a Brand ? (as in Branson I mean...)
SUSAN HILL
8/1/2006 6:21:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Very few consumers walk into a bookshop or browse Amazon and select a book on the strength of the publisher's brand. Penguin used to have that influence, but I would doubt that many book buyers would know if they have bought a Virgin book (Losing my Virginity excepted) even though Virgin has such strong brand recognition. Product reliability and quality is a major factor in the success of many of the companies in this list and this drives consumer loyalty. With a product as varied and variable as a publisher's booklist it is difficult to meet consumer expectation on each and every title (based on the last one read), making loyalty to one publisher brand extremely unlikely.
clare
8/1/2006 8:32:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I really meant the Virgin brand as in all the other Virgin things - aircraft, cola, trains, music stores etc etc. the publishing is a tiny part of it. But he has done a terrific job of creating a Brand in the UK
SUSAN HILL
8/1/2006 10:55:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Personally, there is only one publishing brand I ever looked for as a consumer - Dorling Kindersley. I do look for authors, though! I also have yet to meet a publisher that doesn't think it's their brand that keeps 'em coming back for more!
ann michael
8/1/2006 10:58:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
PS - Richard your stats are wonderful because you're really doing a great job with this. You post enough and about interesting topics. Everyone doesn't always agree with you and you handle that well too - Congratulations!
ann michael
8/1/2006 11:52:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
It's really only in technical books where a brand can take hold. D&D in RPGs, Chilton in auto mechanics. Any other genre it's authors and editors who get noticed.
Alan Kellogg
8/2/2006 8:05:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Once upon a time the Victor Gollancz yellow covered books were a brand.. For anyone who is too young to remember.. Gollancz published all their titles with yellow, un-laminated covers.. they had no jacket image but a lot of writing..they especially include Sci-Fi and Crime when that was called Detective Fiction. And a lot of people bought ANY yellow-cover..it was a brand they trusted and that was that. Libraries had shelves of them. No one would dare do that now.
SUSAN HILL
8/2/2006 10:19:07 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Picador was a great brand once, too.
Jonathan Main
8/2/2006 11:33:00 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
The "Dummies" books. Titles along the lines of, "Paleoanthropology for Dummies". Now there's branding. :)
Alan Kellogg
8/2/2006 11:41:36 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Can I join the Darby & Joan meeting please ? How about the Garden Expert titles by D G Hessayon : successful branding combined with mega sales. That's the way to do it Mr Punch.
Clive Keeble
8/2/2006 12:57:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Nobody has ever doubted that there are lots of brands in publishing - Lonely Planet, Oxford, Millers, Stephen King, Brodies Notes etc etc - and they are valuable. The point is that not a single one is in the top 100.
richard charkin
8/4/2006 1:46:47 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Whan an author has moved the goal posts to become a brand - e.g. James Patterson - the publisher is just a delivery source, surely?
crimeficreader
8/8/2006 7:10:37 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Dear Crimeficreader

The answer to your question IMHO is yes - plus banker.
Richard Charkin