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Ad-Free Brand, The: Secrets to Building Successful Brands in a Digital World

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Today you can build powerful, enduring brands at amazingly low cost — without expensive ad campaigns, huge marketing budgets, self-interested outside agencies, or deep specialized expertise. All you need are passion for your brand, low-cost digital tools, and The Ad-Free Brand.Drawing on his experience helping build Red Hat’s billion-dollar global brand, Chris Grams integrates classic brand positioning concepts with 21st century digital strategies, tools, and practices. Grams presents great new ways to collaboratively uncover, communicate, and evolve your ideal brand position, embed it in organizational culture, and work with your brand community to make it come to life. This step-by-step guide will lead you through the entire brand positioning process, while providing all you need to build a winning brand on a tight budget!

 

 

Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Resource for Building Great Organizations!, August 30, 2011
This review is from: The Ad-Free Brand: Secrets to Building Successful Brands in a Digital World (Que Biz-Tech) (Paperback)
I love this book by Chris Grams because it offers depth, details, and scores of ideas for how leaders and employees can build better brands - internal and external. I am partial to the sections on building and creating an internal brand because this is the world (OD) in which I work. Grams has slathered the book with case studies, examples, diagrams, and fresh ideas that come from his experiences and from those he has collected.

I would suggest this book for a manager "book club" discussion because I think that the information on external and internal branding will bring up many ideas and perhaps cause some healthy dissonance. It is important to think about, plan for, and then act on building great organizations and this book will walk you through the process. I love the emphasis Grams places on creating a pull culture (empowering and energizing members) versus push practices (selling, persuading). His suggestions about finding the "true" brand are worth the price of the... Read more
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Branding as authenticity, October 10, 2011
This review is from: The Ad-Free Brand: Secrets to Building Successful Brands in a Digital World (Que Biz-Tech) (Paperback)
Chris Grams makes branding into a common-sense task: figure out (precisely) what you are and want to become as an organization, then communicate it clearly. It's the opposite of an expensive "lipstick" or "spin" approach, where ads are used to hammer a marketing message that may or may not relate to reality.

The book is full of concrete, specific steps you can take to figure out what you are, put it into words, then tell the story over and over to employees and customers alike. Refreshingly practical!

Even if you don't really know what "branding" is, this book could be helpful. Maybe you can tell there's a gap between your understanding of your company and what you hear back from your employees or customers. The crisp definition and communication Grams advocates will help you clarify and communicate the vision, resulting in better execution and improved customer satisfaction.

Grams worked for many years leading branding at Red Hat, a company that... Read more
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Ad-Free Brand Approach for All of Us, September 21, 2011
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This review is from: The Ad-Free Brand: Secrets to Building Successful Brands in a Digital World (Que Biz-Tech) (Paperback)
Chris knows that people appreciate a step-by-step guide as a starting point and so clearly lays out the process. His background? 10 years helping Red Hat become a $1B brand.
Chris Grams gets it. From both my experience in a team he led and this book, he understands how to bring people together to work. You define what that work is. He is going to give you value about how to do that work in the modern world.... (for more see [...])

My summary is based on two things I'm going to do as a result of reading The Ad-Free Brand:
* I'm using the "Default to open" idea in my next meeting about collaboration in my own organization.
* I'm suggesting this book to a friend of mine who has built brands herself; brands you've heard of. I suspect there is something in The Ad-Free Brand for everyone, from product managers to people working on their personal brand.
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Online Sample Chapter

Ad-Free Brand Positioning Basics

Table of Contents

1. An Introduction: Branding in the Digital World
2. A Brand Positioning Primer
3. Brand Positioning Homework
4. The Brand Positioning Workshop
5. Embedding Brand Positioning Internally
6. Social Media and the New Methods of Communicating Brand Positioning Externally
7. Updating Your Brand Positioning
8. Brand Positioning Report Card
9. Additional Resources
10. Conclusion

Sample Pages

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