Analysis Of Holt's Cultural Strategy

1. Are you proud of this assignment? Why? Why not?

Yes, I am proud of this assignment. I personally really like some popular and successful brands like Coca Cola (tops my list of favorites) and have heard a lot about Volkswagen, Nike, Mountain Dew, Budweiser, ESPN. I know these brands and I know they are quite popular and I know that these are brands that everyone has heard of, these are brands that are almost everyone’s favorite but what I didn’t know was their success story and how these brands became big cultural icons. This book How Brands Become Icons made me familiar with the interesting roller coaster ride of these successful brands. I learnt that advertising plays a major role in building a brand. Moreover, I understood the concept

With his co-author Doug Cameron, Holt develops a systematic cultural approach for innovation to identify new market opportunities and build businesses to take advantage of these opportunities.

Douglas Holt left academia in the fall of 2010 to launch Cultural Strategy Group (CSG) and devote his full attention to cultural strategy and innovation consulting. He has developed cultural strategies for a wide range of brands, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft Windows, Ben & Jerry’s, Sprite, Jack Daniel’s, Mini, MasterCard, Mountain Dew, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Georgia Coffee (Japan). He has also crafted cultural strategies that have helped many smaller brands and start-ups to break through, including Clear Blue, Fat Tire, Cazadores, Qdoba, and Planet Green.

3. How would you comment on the originality of the concepts presented in this book as author’s contribution towards the subject area? Do you think author of this book is inspired by some other authors? Who? Why? [cite page

These case studies have been discussed throughout the book and some of them are very interesting. Holt devised a method he terms ‘brand genealogy’ to explain the stories of long-running brands. He discusses short genealogies of Corona Beer (page 16), Coke (page 22), Snapple (page 29). Moreover, I really like the concept Holt explains on page 39 that ‘identity brands compete in myth markets, not product markets’.

On page 111, the power of Cultural and Political authority has been discussed. As Mountain Dew was grabbing share points for its brand, Coca-Cola Company’s senior management felt jealous and launched Surge supporting it with a clever campaign by Leo Burnett. However, Surge was abandoned by the consumers in less than two years. Mountain Dew remained on the top because Mountain Dew performed myths that resolve the acute anxieties in consumer’s lives. The Coca-Cola Company failed to understand how brand equity worked for Mountain Dew.

How Brands Become Icons is intended to be a manual for brand managers and their agencies, a theoretical model and a set of tactical steps for fine-tuning marketing efforts to be more