Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the digital age, the old rules of marketing and branding are in desperate need of overhaul. Word of mouth has evolved to word of type as customers promote or deride products and services to a massive Internet audience at a moments notice. Any misstep away from the brand message becomes a catastrophe as companies are no longer afforded the luxury of tweaking their message as a commercial, ad, or story develops, resulting in damage control that not only costs the brand money, but also costs customer support, hurting a brand's image and integrity.

In The Edge , Allen Adamson examines how the leading brands of today maintain their dominance in the market utilizing the strategies put forth in his previous books BrandSimple and BrandDigital . Adamson succinctly accounts specific challenges facing the biggest brands of today, from major companies like Apple and General Mills to celebrity brands like Lady Gaga and Jay Z. He reveals the guiding principles employed to ensure the message stays focused, remains clear, and continues to drive a brand to the top of the market.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. vii)
• Foreword (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 To Have an Edge, a Brand Has to Be Different, Relevant-and Have Energy (p. 17)
• 2 To Have an Edge, a Brand Must Start with a Simple Idea Based on "Who" and "Why," Not Just "What" and "How" (p. 49)
• 3 To Have an Edge, a Brand's Actions Must Tell Its Story (p. 101)
• 4 To Have an Edge, a Brand's Customers Should Want to Tell Its Story (p. 149)
• 5 To Have an Edge, Gear Up for a Marathon, Not a Sprint (p. 181)
• 6 To Have an Edge, a Brand Must Know Where It Can Play and Win (p. 221)
• Index (p. 265)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Brand strategy expert Adamson (BrandDigital) provides a glossy, timely introduction to brand management as told through the big brands in the U.S. marketplace today. The case studies are pleasantly concise, but at the expense of any depth. While no discussion of branding can leave out Steve Jobs, this book mentions him almost as often as it does the fictional Don Draper of Mad Men. Adamson also describes Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as a "social revolutionary" who is "very grounded," but ignores much of the controversy that surrounds him. Adamson utilizes interviews with top marketing managers, but stays mainly on the surface of their success. These conversations are "fascinating" (an adjective that describes no less than five of his exchanges) or "interesting" (another five), but lack complexity. For example, Sara Bird at Annie's Homegrown remarks on the hiring of a sustainability director to "ensure that we continue to walk the talk," but doesn't have time to reveal how the hire keeps their brand "honest." The telegraphic nature of Adamson's advice makes it difficult to put into practice, but the book does provide a succinct, if superficial, sense of the current brand landscape. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

A leading marketing expert summarizes the ABCs of building brands. Adamson (BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed in the Digital World, 2008, etc.) smoothly preempts anticipated laugh lines by confessing at the outset that, "like many people in the marketing business," he enjoys watching Mad Men. The author makes use of the series as a productive foil to develop his own case that there is as much difference between building brands and advertising them as there is between the business of advertising and its televised image. Adamson makes no bones about his own interest. He has worked for some of the companies he discusses, like Proctor and Gamble, Verizon and PepsiCo. The author shows that advertising a product or company is the end result of a different kind of process, branding, which involves many different aspects. He discusses the importance of recognizing what's missing in the market place--e.g., Proctor and Gamble's 2008 jump into dry cleaning with Tide Dry Cleaners--and the involvement of consumers in the development of the brand--e.g., General Mills' popular Box Top University, where consumers mail in coupons and the company donates to education. As a veteran in the business, Adamson's discussion with Faith Popcorn (CEO of marketing company BrainReserve) on the way young women "are influencing society, the economy and our culture" is particularly illuminating, as are the author's views on social networking for self-activating consumers and branding. Aimed at readers in search of specialist expertise, but ordinary consumers will also find the book informative and entertaining.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.