October 15, 2003
Beyond Branding - The Meeting (Part 1)
Today I had the pleasure of meeting John Moore in the flesh!!! Its the first time I've met someone through blogging and I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting.
John was fascinating to listen to and it felt very refreshing to talk to someone who is on the same wavelength in terms of their thinking - stimulating conversation, dare I say intellectual and theoretical is a true pleasure. In discussion about Intellectual Property rights, John was talking about the creation of ideas being a social event, not an individual one, a kind of dialectic, which I certainly can say to have occured for me: my brain has been buzzing all evening.
I also got to meet John's fellow collaborator in Mutual Marketing and also Beyond Branding author Tim Kitchin and briefly Malcolm Allan another Beyond Branding author, and Luke (whose surname I've forgotten) who is part of the Medinge group (forgive me if I got that wrong). I was quite amused passing around my copy of Beyond Branding as they had yet to see it (as was remarked several times - "Publishing is a funny business!" ).
I have unofficially been offered the post of PR consultant on the book. My first thought in collaboration with John was to have a competition to see how many of the authors you can meet at the same time. A variation on this is how many can you get to sign the book itself, although this will probaly prove more difficult as I think I'm the only one (besides John) who has a copy :) BTW I did keep threatening to get John to sign it but never did so the competition is wide open!
The other good point about today was that I got to read two more chapters (although ironically not by anyone I met today) of the book. I particularly enjoyed Alan Mitchell's chapter on Brand Narcissim, here is some text taken from the website (also in the book):
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s reference bible DSM IV, the narcissistically wounded personality tends to display some or all of the following attributes:
1) a grandiose sense of self-importance;
2) fantasies of unlimited success, power and brilliance;
3) a belief that one is superior, special and unique;
4) a constant seeking for attention and admiration;
5) a preoccupation with how well I am doing and how favourably I am regarded by others.
A personality disorder? Or a brand manager’s job description? You take your pick, because the similarities are striking. After all, 'Look at me! Look at how wonderful and attractive I am!' is the fundamental agenda of advertising, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship, and so on: no brand ever got successful by being a shrinking violet.
It reminds me of a number of people I have known within senior management.
Oh and because I absolutely adore this book - please go and buy it, not because it will make the authors rich (ha ha), but becuase it has interesting and profound things to say. Tell them I sent you and then I can make the PR role official :)
UK readers can order it here from the publisher at the discounted price of £20.
Alternatively you can buy it at Amazon UK or US