‘What is a Brand?’ by Stephen King was one of the most influential pieces of work ever and has had a lasting influence on the way in which I think about brands. A few years ago I had the extraordinary experience of re-visiting the video of it made by Stephen and Jeremy Bullmore and the stunning thing was how prescient they had been some thirty years previously. Indeed, the only thing they had not foreseen was the internet – everything else they got right. —
Hamish Pringle, Director General, IPA
Martin Mayer, the well-known investigative journalist, has described the present-day American advertising business more accurately than any other writer. He did this in his book Whatever Happened to Madison Avenue? Advertising in the ‘90s. I quote from page 191: “Thompson in London had become what Ogilvy was the first to call ‘a teaching hospital,’ where the researcher Stephen King developed philosophies of branding that were carried to America by John Philip Jones and Timothy Joyce.”
There is very little doubt today that branding is at the top of most marketing professionals’ minds in the United States. But “top of mind” is not quite the same as “in the bloodstream.” Packaged goods advertisers in the United States are currently forced to spend three timesas much money below the line on price cutting, as above the line on brand-building media advertising. It is to be hoped that the book of Stephen’s papers will inject a powerful serum into the bloodstream of American marketers, to help them develop a strategic response to the power of the retail trade which is at the moment debilitating and even emasculating many American brands. —John Philip Jones, Professor, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, New York, USA
King’s relentless thirst to understand, rigour of questioning and breadth of learning remain an inspiration. A profoundly rewarding, and rather humbling read. —Adam Morgan, author of Eat the Big Fish, and The Pirate Inside
In a world of greasers and drama queens, Stephen King was the still small voice of reason. Ever polite and ever intelligent, his analysis provided real insights. We all learned from him and this book should enable many more to do so. —Tim Ambler, MA (Oxford) SM (MIT), Senior Fellow, Marketing, LBS
Stephen was a great interpreter of research and a great judge of when to use specific methodologies whether they were qualitative or quantitative. He was comfortable with both. He was and remains a very great inspiration to market researchers in companies and in research and ad agencies. Dr Liz Nelson OBE
King writes of our industry, at its best, representing “Creative imagination subjected to critical control.” He could have been describing his own mind and approach, which have inspired generations of brand managers and planners and remain deeply relevant today. This book should be required reading for everyone entering the business, and serve as a reminder to the rest of us that however high we think we have set our standards, they are probably not high enough. —Jon Steel, Planning Director, WPP
