Book Review: Brand Simple by Allen Adamson

Contributed by J.Eggers

Oh, no, please don’t mention Starbucks. Please. OK, we’ll let that go. Just don’t say, “Kleenex.” Don’t go there. Ouch. The only thing that would really kill me would be coming across the root definition of the word “brand.” And there. It. Is.

I wanted BrandSimple to have more guts. Allen Adamson certainly has the credentials and rare spitting distance to give some real juiciness to the subject of branding. But it felt flat and obvious. A few updated references weren’t so ubiquitous and over-quoted — such as Baby Einstein and the NFL — but in each case study a key “a-ha!” almost always seemed to be missing.

There is the world we live in and know, with the Starbucks and the Kleenex, and the world behind it — the process and thinking behind Starbucks and the Kleenex — and I wanted more of that side of the mirror. Adamson did get in the boardroom and interviewed key clients and brand decision-makers, but the resulting insights and explanations felt careful, as if someone were watching.

The book’s main theme is simplicity, understood. I wasn’t looking for fine threads in complicated webs, simply good stories I hadn’t heard before. At a cocktail party, I would expect Adamson to be able to blast through some pretty great ones.

Adamson’s enthusiasm for branding is sincere and charming — he does make you want to take the brands you love out to dinner again and rekindle the passion. But, overall, BrandSimple is a little too simple. It’s the seminar in college you could skip and still get an “A” on the final.

Brand Simple On Amazon