How does a brand--a company or one of its products--stand out in an ever-louder and more chaotic marketplace? Why do customers develop intense and lasting bonds with some products they consume, but not others? What do winning brands do better than their competitors? Generations of marketers have pondered these questions, and Married to the Brand offers thought-provoking answers.

Based on 60 years of research from the Gallup Organization, the book combines a thoughtful, data-driven approach with a playful metaphor. Author and Gallup researcher William McEwen sees customers' interactions with brands as markedly similar to the in-depth, extended relationships we see in marriages. From his opening pages, McEwen draws parallels between customers' feelings about brands and romantic relationships. For example, he points to the differences between "dating" and "long-term engagement". He explains how both commercial and romantic relationships require trust to start and build, but passion to flourish and sustain. He describes situations in which people might fall in love, then later seek a "divorce".

Like other recent classics about brand marketing, like Scott Bedbury's A New Brand World and Al and Laura Ries' The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, McEwen's book makes good use of anecdotal personal examples. He uses stories about individual consumers' interactions with the Starbucks (coffee) or Morton's (salt) brands, for example, to illustrate one of his central points: that brands grow not just from products, but from an overall customer experience which may include the original advertising that first drew attention to the brand, personal memories tied to the product, interactions with sales staff, the appearance and location of the physical store in which the product was purchased, and so on. He summarizes by describing a framework of "5 P's" that drive customers' perceptions of brands: product, place, promotion, price, and people.

Taken as a whole, this book's lessons provide a provocative and interesting rethinking of brand management for marketers in a wide variety of industries. As McEwen himself writes, emotions connected to brands "aren't merely warm and fuzzy, nor should they be relegated to the world of greeting card poetry and Hollywood scripts. Emotions are both powerful and profitable, whether a company is marketing hamburgers or microprocessors." McEwen challenges his readers to build their brands patiently, over time. He attacks the conventional wisdom behind most companies' customer relationship management (CRM) or loyalty-marketing programs. Perhaps most importantly, he is realistic in stating from the book's outset that even the best brands will engage only a minority of their customers in true "marriage"-like relationships. But for the readers willing to invest the effort, in this book and then in the brand building that follows, the payoff appears worthwhile. --Peter Han

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book about relationship marketing
Comment: This is one of the great marketing books of our age. We focus so much on the product's features and benefits in marketing that we often forget that a buyer's decision is not necessarily made logically. Emotional triggers created by perceived relationships with the brand are often the deciding factor, especially in an era where the differences among products in a class are seen as minimal. I heartily recommend this book to any business wanting to better understand its customers and create low-cost strategies to give its marketing an edge on the competition, and to university Marketing departments. The insights here are invaluable, and not found in this detail in any college textbook I've seen.
Gary Witt, Ph.D.
Chair, Marketing
Western International University
Phoenix, AZ
[...]

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Deliver
Comment: As a graduate student taking an Advertising, Imaging and Branding course, I was immediately intrigued by the title of this book. I purchased it and read it with much anticipation. Unfortunately, the book's title does not deliver within its covers. It fails in the area of research based analysis....no serious research was provided. It suffered from vague research references that the author claimed were done by the Gallup Organization but were not presented in a thorough manner. Overall, I felt as though the author, who happened to be a consultant for Gallup, was trying to get brand managers and organizations to hire and use Gallup.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Chapters survey pride levels, common brand dilemmas, and more.
Comment: Why do some consumers bond to brand names for life? Sixty years of Gallup research into consumer habits and their psychology lend to MARRIED TO THE BRAND: WHY CONSUMERS BOND WITH SOME BRANDS FOR LIFE. Many marketers work on first impressions without considering the reasons why consumers will stick with a brand. MARRIED TO THE BRAND tells how the most successful marketer not only creates the bond, but strengthens it over the years so that consumers come to equate the brand with quality and value. Chapters survey pride levels, common brand dilemmas, and more.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great understanding of a Brand
Comment: This book gives you a good insight about a brand and the marriage it has with its customers. Its very easy to read and enjoyable.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Based on Sixty Years of Research
Comment: Dr. McEwen is a consultant with the Gallup polling people. For over sixty years they have researched brands and branding. In this book he analyzes and explains what he has discovered.

His comparison is that branding is a lot like marrying. It is a merger of company and customer and both have obligations to the other. The company has most of the responsibilities because they are the ones that have the power to change things that attract or drive away the customer. But like any marriage, the customer also has the obligation to buy the brand so long as it meets their needs.

And if brands are a marriage, he also talks about divorce. My family has always used Crest toothpaste. I go to the store, I want the same old Crest I used as a kid. Now there's Gel Crest, Mint Crest, Crest with special this, and special that. New is a magic word in marketing, but I don't want NEW, I want the same old stuff I had before. I honestly couldn't tell which was the same old stuff. I bought Colgate.

Sears was a great brand, then they went all goofy. But the Craftsman brand of Sears tool has held it's place. I bought some tools for Christmas presents. They were Craftsman -- but it was the only thing I bought in the Sears store.

This is the best book on understanding brands and branding I've ever seen.

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