ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands [Paperback]

In a previous book, The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier explains how companies can bridge the gap between business strategy and customer experience, noting that brand-building isn't a series of isolated activities; rather, it is a complete system in which five disciplines - differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation, and cultivation - "combine to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. " His intent in Zag "is to zoom in on differentiation to reveal the system within the system."

Initially, he observes that the human mind deals with clutter the best way it can: by blocking it out. As a result, "the newest barriers to competition are the mental walls that customers erect to keep out clutter. For the first time in history, the most powerful barriers to competition are not controlled by companies, but by customers. Those little boxes they build in their minds determine the boundaries of brands." (Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck also have much of value to say about these boundaries and barriers in The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business.) In his latest book, Neumeier explains how to overcome these barriers with radical innovation - "the engine for a high performance brand" - that requires mastery of four disciplines:

1. Finding your zag
2. Designing your zag
3. Building your zag
4. Renewing your zag

Everything begins with identifying the zag. That is, offering something that combines the qualities of both good and different. "When focus is paired with differentiation, supported by a trend, and surrounded by compelling communications, you have the basic ingredients of a zag."

OK, but how to do that? Neumeier provides a design process that consists of 17 checkpoints, each formulated as a question. He explains how to answer each of them correctly (i.e. an answer most appropriate to the given organization) by proceeding through a sequence of 17 checkpoints, each of which evokes a question to be answered correctly (i.e. appropriate to the given organization), with the first two previously posed as a trilogy in The Brand Gap: "Who are you?" and "What do you do?" Responding to them may prove far more difficult than it may first seem and a correct (i.e. appropriate) answer to each is essential to achieving radical innovation. The third question posed previously, "Why should I care?" creates an even greater challenge. Fortunately, a correct (i.e. appropriate) answer to that question will be revealed by carefully proceeding through the remaining 15 checkpoints.

It is truly remarkable how much substance and how many thought-provoking questions Neumeier provides within a narrative of less than 200 pages. With both rigor and eloquence, he explains how radical innovation can break through ever-increasing clutter in a competitive marketplace, whatever and wherever it may be. Special note should also be made of the book's production values. All of his core concepts, checklists, key points, observations, and recommendations are presented within a visually appealing context. The last time I checked, there are about 34,000 business books on the general subject of brands. Neumeier has written two of the most valuable among them. Bravo!

How do you know if you should read this book? Simple, finish this sentence:

Our brand is the only ____________that ______________.

If you completed that sentence with something only your brand can do then you don't need to bother. If not, stop reading and order now.

Although everyone says they are (probably) uniquely qualified to do whatever it is they do, few can actually plug the holes in the sentence. Zag will teach you how.

Zag teaches that the only way to differentiate yourself is to zag when everybody zigs. Go where no one else has gone before. Don't make it different - make it radically different! Don't worry, there is a 17-point checklist to walk you through it.

Like the Brand Gap, Neumeier has dropped the heft and delivered "easy-to-read, easy-to-use and easy-to-remember principles." No words or pages are wasted in Zag.

I give it my highest rating.

I guess if the author had stated clearly that this book was a pastitsio, or a mix of other marketing books, I could actually give it 4 stars. Indeed, it is a great short summary of marketing common sense, and one which I could easily refer students to. The core of the book is a check list from the company's mission to communication to the points of contact with the customer, much like a homework marketing managers should be doing already.

However, the book doesn't bring ONE new idea into the stage. They are all ideas from other authors, whom surprisingly recommend the book, when they should instead be suing Neumeier for plagiarism.

The very concept of ZAG, a catch word if there was ever one, is the same as Seth Godin's Purple Cow: a unique differentiation concept that would put you ahead of the competition. Then he spends a good time explaining how the consumer has a specific mind niche for each category, a concept that is present in the 1980 book "Positioning", by Ries and Trout. He uses Godin's "Tribes"concept a lot. Drop a little Aaker into the mix and you have ZAG.
I am mesmerized, because the author recommends these very books he got all the ideas from, in the end of his text.

So, is it ok now to almost cut & paste other works as long as you mention them in the appendix ? Is this an editorial marketing ploy ?
If you are not bothered by this, then go ahead and buy the book. It is an easy read and the ideas are useful.