A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King

2

How Brands and the Skills of Branding have Flowered

By Rita Clifton, Chairman and Chief Executive, Interbrand

 

 

 

 

 

I freely admit that I was in total awe of Stephen King when I was at J. Walter Thompson in the mid-1980s and had very little primary contact with him. And yet, much later, I realized that what he thought, what he did and who he was had a profound influence on the way my career developed.

He was a prolific writer on the subject of brands and advertising, but the publication of most influence for me was the booklet What is a Brand? It was professionally printed and liberally available around the agency at the time, and it contained important elements of the Andrex case history, one of my key responsibilities. At the time, I remember being impressed by data showing how quality advertising investment had made Andrex more valued by its consumers and had helped to see off its significant rival at the time, Delsey. I remember the importance he attached to the consistent tone, style and message of Andrex advertising.

 

What has Changed and What has Not

So much, so familiar and so back to the future. What has been even more interesting for me is looking again at What is a Brand? after almost 20 years, and seeing what has changed and what has not.

Like most great thinkers, you get a spooky sense of familiarity from Stephen’s writing, even if some of the vocabulary we now take for granted had not yet been invented. For instance, in discussing the future pressure on retailers, ...