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Writing
Brandscendence ™
Three Essential Elements of Enduring Brands
Kevin A. Clark
Dearborn Financial Press
Spring 2004
"Brandscendence"- the fusion of "brand" and "transcendence" - brands that go beyond ordinary limits.
World-class commercial brands such as BMW, Coke, Disney, General Electric, IBM, and even not-for-profit institutions such as the Red Cross are on the journey to Brandscendence. They have enduring reasons for being, yet adapt to changing circumstances and evolve over time.
Brandscendence is designed to simplify the branding conversation to make brand strategy accessible to anyone - and to any organization.
Clark uses success stories and examples to illustrate his theory on the three essential elements enduring brands must manage: relevance, context and mutual benefit. First is the organization's or product's enduring relevance to the customer. Next is the context in which the brand must adapt to cultural shifts or changing economic needs of customers over time. Relationships are then turbocharged when all stakeholders perceive mutual benefit, which creates a bank of goodwill to nurture future interactions - and is crucial in times of crisis.
Once you read Brandscendence you'll be able to see branding at work every day and the heavy lifting it does all around you.
Brandscendence studies the broader role of branding and, through what Clark dubs "BrandNext ™," it's strategic applications for the future. Chapters include industry sector analysis with exciting collaborative input from some the country's foremost experts in business and academia who study marketing and branding.
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The IBM Think Strategy: melding strategy and branding by Kevin Clark and Mark McNeilly, IBM Personal Systems Group, appearing in the spring issue of Strategy and Leadership magazine, volume 32, number 2, 2004.
Wireless Rules: Customer Relationship Marketing Anytime, Anywhere by
Frederick Newell and Katherine Newell Lemon, Ph.D. and published by McGraw-Hill in 2001 (contributing writer, chapter titled "The Future of Marketing in a Wireless World").
Listening and Leading in User-Focused Design by Kazuhiko Yamazaki, IBM Japan Ltd. and Kevin Clark, IBM Personal Computing Devices Worldwide, paper delivered at "Ooulin: Great Harmony in Design" conference of the International Association of Design Professionals held in Seoul, Korea, 2001.
The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications by Clark Caywood (with others) and published by McGraw-Hill in 1997 (contributing writer, chapter titled "Media Transformation and the Practice of Public Relations").
Multimedia Handbook, (interview, 1995).
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