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Comet Branding Radio [FAVORITES]: Passion Brands, how they're different and what it takes to make one.

On Wed., August 26th at 11am Central the Comet Branding Radio Show will revisit one of our favorite shows from this year. Our chat with Kate Newlin about her book, “Passion Brands” was very interesting and we learned a lot. So, we thought we’d revisit it. In her book Kate introduces some tremendous insights into what makes great brands, great brands. PLEASE LISTEN IN.

Passion Brands, how they’re different and what it takes to make one.
Kate Newlin — Author, Passion Brands; Principal, Kate Newlin Consulting

On the show we like to talk about some of the progressive things that are happening in branding, marketing, PR and social media. Sometimes, those things aren’t progressive in the sense of technology, technique or attitude.

Today’s topic is interesting to us for many reasons, but mainly because it digs into the deep, deep depths of brands. What makes some better than others? Why do some people get personally offended if you don’t love a brand as much as they do? Why do some brands become personal emblems that help us tell our own story? Why do some brands come alive and have a life of their own? Why do some brands become the brands of the people?

We are going to talk to Kate about all of these things. Like last week’s show with Brian Solis, we will let Kate describe for herself about her book:

What makes some brands stand out from the pack year after year? In a vast marketplace glutted with countless “pretty good brands,” how are some products able to command unquestionable customer loyalty and lasting enthusiasm?

Veteran business strategist Kate Newlin defines the key ingredients that go into passion brands—brands that we recommend to friends wholeheartedly, with a joyous, even evangelical zeal. Passion brands inspire an emotional attachment. Unlike consumer fads, we become personally invested in them, sometimes even more so than we do with our friends and loved ones.

Newlin identifies the social factors that have made passion brands the driving force in consumer marketing today. Based on proprietary research, which makes use of in-depth interviews with company executives as well as state-of-the-art analytics, she answers the following key questions:

•    Are there common characteristics that enable passion brands to become carriers of personal meaning?
•    What is the financial impact on a company that produces a passion brand?
•    Do passion brands create a halo over the stock prices?

She notes that in a world of almost unlimited consumer choices, the old rules of marketing just don’t work anymore (product, package, position, price, and promotion). Now marketers must react to consumers in real time, encouraging “brand democracy” in which users can help decide a product’s characteristics, from size and color to how it should be marketed. Passion Brands is must reading for entrepreneurs and denizens of corporate cubicles and boardrooms alike.

Here’s a little bit about our guest: Kate Newlin (New York, NY), the principal and founder of Kate Newlin Consulting, is the author of Shopportunity! How to Be a Retail Revolutionary, which was on the “Oprah Selects” list of O magazine in 2006 and was also a recommended selection of the 2006 Harvard Business Review. With over 25 years of experience in business strategy and marketing, Newlin has worked with a broad cross-section of Fortune 500 businesses, including McDonald’s, Pennzoil/Quaker State, Kraft, Hasbro, Cigna, GE Capital, Waldenbooks, LensCrafters, and others.

If you happen to be interested in checking out the book for yourself, you can from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com.

Tags: Brand Strategy, branding, Kate Newlin, milwaukee branding agency, Passion Brands, strategic branding