Comments

Can we nominate other books too?

Re-Imagine (not brownnosing here) is in the top 5 along with Tipping Point, Ogilvy On Advertising, Truth, Lies and Advertising : The Art of Account Planning by Jon Steel and experience economy

Posted by SeanB at November 12, 2004 4:19 PM

Tom,

Firstly I love your site. Wonderful stuff.

I love the daring of Kevin's book. It's really challenging the basics of why we do anything. That's got to be good for advancement.

When will business/sport etc realise that excellence is about this champion mindset and a major part of this is these concepts of intimacy, mystery and sensuality.

Love it's a lifelong pursuit in everything we do.

Posted by Ian Frazer at November 12, 2004 9:16 PM

It’s a shame Kevin Roberts (and his book editor) allowed Lovemarks to read more like a Saatchi & Saatchi pitch deck than a good book on branding. (Come on ... Tide is not a Lovemark. But Procter & Gamble, makers of Tide, is a Saatchi and Saatchi client. Hmm ... see where I'm going?)

However, if you strip away Roberts’ thick advertising agency varnish, you uncover a killer branding concept: brands that connect emotionally with customers and forge loyalty beyond reason transcend from being just a brand.

I agree with Roberts that there is a place where few brands earn the right to evolve to by emotionally connecting with consumers to forge loyalty beyond reason. Do these brands become ‘Lovemarks’ as Roberts contends? Hmm … I dunno. But I do know ‘Lovemarks’ is a goofy name.

Posted by johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) at November 13, 2004 12:17 AM

SeanB ... Great idea! I'll Blog best book nominees, and we'll see what we get.

johnmoore ... Kevin doesn't hide his affection for P&G, which long predates his S&S stop. I'm quite taken by Lovemarks, partly because it's so awkward at first. Yesterday I got up the nerve to try it with 500 law partners--and after the titters we got some great discussion going around emotional connections, theraputic dependence, etc., in the professional services.

Posted by tom peters at November 13, 2004 4:29 AM

TP:I also like the idea of best book nominations!! Is it possible to do this as a poll ?? you could draw your baseline , lets say 1-10 top books and others can rank there own Baseline ?? I think this would be aswwwsome.. because, we are normally caught in our own small echo chambers that we tend (most often) to pulled into a specific area only.. I just read last nite 'the mind and i" by swami vivikanada.. a bookk which was authored in early '60's and this mirror near practically to the "power of impossible thinkin" - jerry crooks... and this was what I learnt yesterday.. there is so much out there..all we need to do is ask, seek and knock on doors to find it.. yeah yeah..tis like the gosple truth eh ?? !! :)-

Posted by /pd at November 13, 2004 7:38 AM

Ah yes, Lovemarks! A polarizing work if there ever was one.

As it so happens, Evelyn Rodriguez (see the TP blog roll), John Moore, and yours truly all reviewed the book for 800 CEO Blog. I liked it more than John:

"Lovemarks is chock-full of compelling ideas. And it’s highly relevant, too, because more than a few notable business brains are gnawing on the same basic question as Roberts: how do we move from the traditional, brand-centric, algorithm-driven marketing paradigm to a more user-centric approach built around empathy, passion, mystery, and emotion?"

But I also felt it spoke too much about Saatchi & Saatchi:

"Be warned that Lovemarks is not great literature. It’s not even a proper book, really; it’s much more a richly-upholstered PowerPoint presentation. Crank out some pithy phrases, a few quotes, throw in some expensive photos, shake, and pour (no batteries required). The ideas are there, but they’re not explored in any real depth, and the limited set of examples used to illustrate his points quickly becomes repetitive. Held up as a quintessential Lovemark, the Toyota Prius, for example, gets driven into the ground, and one wishes Roberts had fished for items outside of Saatchi & Saatchi’s immediate client pool."

At the end of the day, you have to say that Kevin Roberts is a visionary. For a subject as slippery as brand, emotion, and love, this book isn't the definitive answer, but it's more than a good start.

Posted by Diego at November 13, 2004 8:45 AM

I admire the buzz strategy of the book... in getting people to interact and participate. I nominated my honeymoon registry on Lovemarks (with a humble 26 votes or so) and voted on my childhood favorite "Hello Kitty" Lovemark. Any customers who nominated me, left a great testimonial about us and I was able to ride the tails of Lovemarks buzz.

Posted by maya sunpongco at November 13, 2004 2:58 PM

Love Marks is just an updated version of what Big Agencies have been peddling for the last 30 years. It's pretty cute but not very provocative. It doesn't really even touch the big issues in marketing at the moment such as the rise of a powerful digital consumer and the gradual demise of the broadcast model.

Posted by James Cherkoff at November 14, 2004 6:20 AM

I agree with James. Lovemarks is 20th century hype-led marketing philosophy reheated and served up with pretty graphics. Look at the specific examples Roberts gives and they boil down to a shameless plug for his own agency. And the book is a tribute to consumerism gone mad.

It says it's about consumer power, but really it's the same old manipulative nonsense we've seen many times before.

Posted by Johnnie Moore at November 14, 2004 2:26 PM

How many 'lovemarks' will it take for the 'leaders' to realise that THE CUSTOMER IS NOT A BUYER, BUT A PARTNER, in a relationship echosystem that starts with imagination, and ends the first loop with the SHARED EXPERIENCE?
That brands are simply impressions created by this RELATIONSHIP?

Posted by Jayakumar.T.H. at November 15, 2004 6:56 AM

A couple of the messages on this thread reveal the mind’s depressing default when confronted with a refreshingly positive point of view: CYNICISM. Maybe one day we’ll instinctively build on new foundations (or old ones recast) rather than trash them. Meantime, hats off to Kevin Roberts for sticking his head above the parapet and copping the inevitable flack. The guy’s message is as far removed from “a tribute to consumerism” as is possible: it is a critique of consumerism as it has been understood until very recently. Lovemarks challenges businesses to reinvent the relationship between consumer and consumed in a most radical way; it crackles with positive energy. I love that.

I love the book’s smell and feel too ;-)

Posted by Steve Pearce at November 17, 2004 2:00 PM

Lovemarks-future beyond brands.
I did not buy the book.
I have got it from Kevin for my shortlisted lovemark nomination!-Gandhi.
I am really glad.
Book itself is a nice lovemark!

Posted by unnikrishna menon damodaran at November 24, 2004 8:47 AM

Can't leave Steve Pearce's sweeping comment totally unanswered, though I absolutely welcome the debate.

When Kevin Roberts presents spending $900 on Adidas gear, unthinkingly, as an example of love I think that is consumerism gone mad.

When he brags about machine-gunning a coke machine to celebrate selling more Pepsi, I simply fail to see what connection that has with Love. viagra uk cheap

Are these two specific observations 'cynical' of me? If so, could Steve explain how?

Posted by Johnnie Moore at December 1, 2004 6:42 PM

Cynicism is the market's natural and inevitable reaction to emotive consumer marketing.
Our capacity to 'love' can only be targetted and exploited for financial gain so many times before we harden up.
Fortunately - for aspiring 'lovemarks' at least - there's always a newer, younger generation of keen, naive and cashed-up buyers to replace us cynical old fools.

Posted by justin at December 9, 2004 7:50 PM