Presenting a clear; step-by-step framework that will help you determine your companys precise position in the marketing landscape; this book will show you how to create a branding and marketing strategy that will build market momentum and crush the competition. --

From the marketing strategist who helped Steve Jobs launch the original Apple Macintosh comes a groundbreaking guide to positioning any company for industry dominance Andy Cunningham has been at the forefront of tech and innovation since day one, and she’s been helping companies create new product categories ever since. Now she reveals the winning framework she uses to transform markets and industries. Get to Aha! shows how to establish the kind of foundation world-class brands are built on. Too many business leaders fail to ask the most basic questions about their company—Who are we? And why do we matter?—before they leap right into branding. Big mistake. A company must first know itself (establish its position) before it can express its identity (execute its branding). There are three types of companies in the world, each with its own DNA: Mothers are customer-oriented, Mechanics are product-oriented, and Missionaries are concept-oriented―and it’s absolutely critical for business leaders to know which type their company is to create an authentic and ultimately “sticky” position in the market. A company’s DNA is the key to achieving this and with it, a competitive advantage. Why? Because if a Mechanic creates a marketing campaign based on its belief that it is a Missionary, the underlying positioning will not ring true and the company won’t gain a foothold in the market. But if a company positions itself in alignment with its DNA, it will resonate authentically and establish its role and relevance even in the face of a major competitor. Get to Aha! presents a clear step-by-step framework that will help you determine your company’s precise position in the marketing landscape, using Andy’s DNA-based methodology. It takes you through the process of performing “genetic testing” on your company, examining the market through the six Cs of positioning, and developing your positioning statement—a rational, factual statement about your company’s role and relevance. Then and only then can you create a branding and marketing strategy that will build market momentum and crush the competition. Trust Andy. Steve Jobs did.

Branding guru Aaker shows how to eliminate the competition and become the lead brand in your market This ground-breaking book defines the concept of brand relevance using dozens of case studies-Prius, Whole Foods, Westin, iPad and more-and explains how brand relevance drives market dynamics, which generates opportunities for your brand and threats for the competition. Aaker reveals how these companies have made other brands in their categories irrelevant. Key points: When managing a new category of product, treat it as if it were a brand; By failing to produce what customers want or losing momentum and visibility, your brand becomes irrelevant; and create barriers to competitors by supporting innovation at every level of the organization. Using dozens of case studies, shows how to create or dominate new categories or subcategories, making competitors irrelevant Shows how to manage the new category or subcategory as if it were a brand and how to create barriers to competitors Describes the threat of becoming irrelevant by failing to make what customer are buying or losing energy David Aaker, the author of four brand books, has been called the father of branding This book offers insight for creating and/or owning a new business arena. Instead of being the best, the goal is to be the only brand around-making competitors irrelevant.

"A work of enormous breadth, likely to pleasantly surprise both general readers and experts."—New York Times Book Review This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions. Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

Digital transformation is not about technology--it's about change. In the rapidly changing digital economy, you can't succeed by merely tweaking management practices that led to past success. And yet, while many leaders and managers recognize the threat from digital--and the potential opportunity--they lack a common language and compelling framework to help them assess it and guide them in responding. They don't know how to think about their digital business model. In this concise, practical book, MIT digital research leaders Peter Weill and Stephanie Woerner provide a powerful yet straightforward framework that has been field-tested globally with dozens of senior management teams. Based on years of study at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), the authors find that digitization is moving companies' business models on two dimensions: from value chains to digital ecosystems, and from a fuzzy understanding of the needs of end customers to a sharper one. Looking at these dimensions in combination results in four distinct business models, each with different capabilities. The book then sets out six driving questions, in separate chapters, that help managers and executives clarify where they are currently in an increasingly digital business landscape and highlight what's needed to move toward a higher-value digital business model. Filled with straightforward self-assessments, motivating examples, and sharp financial analyses of where profits are made, this smart book will help you tackle the threats, leverage the opportunities, and create winning digital strategies.

"At a time when courage seems in short supply, Austin McGhie's Find Your Difference provides inspiration to step outside of the conventional . . . It should be required reading for any business stakeholder." --Kevin Goetz, founder and CEO, Screen Engine/ASI This book is for marketers. If you are selling anything--a product, a service, a company, an idea, a place, or a brand--you are a marketer. Part exploration and part exhortation, Find Your Difference is a unique collection of observations, case studies, and hard-earned lessons from marketing expert and BRAND Is a Four Letter Word author Austin McGhie. With humor and wisdom, McGhie makes the case for identifying your difference, highlights the importance of being distinctive, points out the "difference dampeners" that hold you back, and offers advice for creating real-world difference in business and in life. Here, you'll learn: How to identify what makes your brand and products unique The top ten things to consider as you pursue difference A five-step plan for getting those around you prepared to "do different" No matter what you're selling, difference is key to building an audience. This practical guide provides thought-provoking tips and strategies designed to challenge you, inspire you, and, most importantly, help you find your difference.