Branding revolution.(Book Review)

Jean-Noel Kapferer, Remarques

Editions d'Organisation, 2000

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Jean-Noel Kapferer has been acknowledged as a leading European expert on strategic brand management since the success a decade ago of Les marques, Capital de l'Entreprise (Editions d'Organisation, Paris, 1991 and 1998)*.

In his latest book, based on research into 500 world brands ranging from ABB to Zeneca, Kapferer explores the limits of current brand strategy principles and demonstrates the subtleties of implementation required for a rapidly changing business environment.

Take globalisation which has had some unexpected consequences. Last September, for example, it inspired Unilever to announce that the consumer products company was focusing on just 400 major brands out of a portfolio of 1000 equivalent to 80 per cent of its revenues. And while most multinationals now give the priority to global brands--signalling an end to the 'multidomestic' approach--there are important exceptions in big emerging economies such as Russia, where British American Tobacco …