There was a time that if you had a product, someone would buy it. You didn't have to worry about reaching your target audience, how the packaging would make people feel, or how the product would make the consumer's life better. People were eager for new products so if you had something to sell people would line up to try almost anything.

Today, we have choices. So many choices. If you go to your local Wal-Mart looking for a toaster, you'll find dozens of different types. Each has a variety of different features that make each product unique. Trying to figure out which is right for you, depends upon your toasting needs.

The same goes for any product or service that you sell. In order to get consumers to choose your company when they go looking to buy, you have to serve their needs. To do so, you have to know your target audience and have a firm understanding about what they want.

Emotional Branding explores the buying patterns, needs, and belief systems of a variety of different demographics: the boomers through to the millennials, various minority populations, women, and the gay community. The book looks at how color, packaging, sound, scent, etc can be used to produce certain feelings. Put together properly, this information can help craft products and their associated advertising campaigns to suit the appropriate target audience.

As a personal branding coach, I have read many books and
publications watching for trends, and changes in the industry
to ensure my clients are maximizing technologies.

This was a great book that I could apply to my personal
branding methods, because Marc refers to emotional branding
which has very real connections with what you do in personal
branding, by attaching the product to the person, and using
emotional advertising you create loyalty, connection and
a more powerful message.

This was a great read, and I enjoyed his extensive knowledge
of the advertising industry and package strategies which
can still be applied to a person and product in a similar
fashion.

I would recommend this for some fantastic history of the
industry and development of emotional branding, and for me I
further applied it for my personal branding clients to create
very successful campaigns.

As the bestselling author of "31 Days to Millionaire Marketing
Miracles" I used these strategies for myself, the book, and
my clients.

Tracy Repchuk
Personal Brand Coach
http://www.personalbrandempire.com

31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles

You'd think that a book about emotional branding with a forward by Sergio Zyman would have something interesting to say. Unfortunately, this book make a number of good points but it's not all that interesting. Many of the points should be fairly intuitive and obvious for marketing people who have a clue. Some points made are interesting refreshers, like the importance and potential impact of invoking multiple senses in the consumption and purchase experience. Unfortunately many of the chapters are not newsworthy and can be summarized by their lame titles, such as "Women: The New "Shoppers in Chief" and "Gay and Lesbian Consumers: Sincerity is the Best Policy!"

The book mostly gives examples of brands that have done X or Y really well without leaving the average reader or business person with any concept about how the point is relevant in a gernalizeable sense.

Final gripe is that the book reads a little bit like an advertisement for the author's firm.

Absolutely fantastic book. Covers all the major concepts of emotional branding, including self concept and actualisation. I reccommend for anyone interested in this new and exciting concept.

Emotional Branding is a must, it is complete, well written and full of inspiring examples

The decalogue alone is worth the purchase

1) from consumers to people
2) from product to experience
3) from honesty to trust
4) from quality to preference
5) from notoriety to aspiration
6) from identity to personality
7) from function to feel
8) from ubiquity to presence
9) from communication to dialogue
10)from service to relationship

If brand managers understand truly and fully Gobe's ten commandments they will add value to the most valuable asset
they have, the brand

Emotional Branding is a must, it is complete, well written and full of inspiring examples

The decalogue alone is worth the purchase

1) from consumers to people
2) from product to experience
3) from honesty to trust
4) from quality to preference
5) from notoriety to aspiration
6) from identity to personality
7) from function to feel
8) from ubiquity to presence
9) from communication to dialogue
10)from service to relationship

If brand managers understand truly and fully Gobe's ten commandments they will add value to the most valuable asset
they have, the brand

This book has all the appeal of an IKEA coffee table: it looks great on the outside, but when you get down to it, it's nothing but cheap filler.

The concepts are tired (this is mere repackaging of 1987 material by a designer/design firm who is trying to drum up business). The writing is self-aggrandizing. This book could have been written in less than a three-page memo.

If you still speak with an arrogant dot.com era vernacular; if you enjoy using mantras like "recontextualizing the brand"; or if you enjoy hearing yourself breath, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

In the end, this book says a lot without saying anything at all. Buy something by Aaker (though he is a bit dated) instead.

Gobe is definitely on the right track here, but he drags on a little too long for my liking. He's got some interesting ideas on how to treat the brand and give it a personality, but I don't really see all the hype that everyone talked about. This book is on just about every "must read" business book list, and I'm sure in 2002 it deserved to be there, but in 2004 it's more like a "recommended reading." You won't regret reading this, but you might get something more out of a newer book.

Gobe is definitely on the right track here, but he drags on a little too long for my liking. He's got some interesting ideas on how to treat the brand and give it a personality, but I don't really see all the hype that everyone talked about. This book is on just about every "must read" business book list, and I'm sure in 2002 it deserved to be there, but in 2004 it's more like a "recommended reading." You won't regret reading this, but you might get something more out of a newer book.

I am sure that, for at least few months, in 2000 this book might have been poignant or even insightful to anyone outside of the marketing field and did not know they where being marketed to. The book is full of vague and general idea that could have easily been squeezed into a 5 page magazine article. Reading it was like sitting at a red light with my passenger, pointing, and saying "look, the light is red."

Problems: there is a lot of useless commentary; Gobe pushes political correctness in advertising; he generalizes about Baby boomers, Generations X and Y; he often supplies only anecdotal evidence for his ideas. On the other hand, he seems sincerely interested in the subject, and there's some real insight underneath all the BS. About what you would expect from an Ad executive.

I recommend this book to anyone wants to follow the new marketing trend of approaching consumers not in a rational way, but rather through an emotional connection that allows identification and enhtusiasm... taste, feel, smell, touch, hear: approaching the consumers using all the senses, allowing an holistic brand experience. A great book that stands out of the group, if you have to buy one book on emotional marketing, this is the one you cannot miss.

This is a good book that explains the importance of creating an emotional connection with the consumer when designing a brand. It is however too long as the same (good) concept is repeated many times in different words.

For anyone involved in branding this book gives very practical advice. A common complaint about business books is that they are all OK in theory but contain little in the way of explanations of how to do it - this book however offers not only theory and some good case study. Overall very impressive and a must read for anyone involved in sales, advertising or marketing functions. As someone has already said these guys really know their stuff and it works!! Another book I highly recommended is 60-Minute Brand Strategist by Idris Mootee. This book is LOADED with solid, meaty real world branding insights and techniques that can are being kept as trade secrets. You will probably find this book a real eye opener. If you're looking for a more balanced marketing book, suggest going for David Aaker's books, some Kotler's books.