Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman

Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits Reviews

• 
  Roxane

  Wonderfully informative set of interviews about branding and design and the relationship consumers have to the products of their lives. Wanted more of the interviewer, who is brilliant.
• 
  Rozhan Sadeghi

  3.5
  "Brand Thinking and Other Noble Persuits" offers 22 insightful interviews with well-known and well-respected people in business, marketing and design industry.
  
  Debbie Millman asks challenging questions and doesn't back off until she gets the answer she wants.
  
  But the problem with this book is its format.
  No matter what questions Debbie asked, because so many of these people had the same opinions, the book got kind of repetitive. I skimmed some chapters because I already knew what their answers to questions like "What is a brand in your opinion?" would be: Brand is an identity, a story, an experience and so on.
  
  Definitely recommend to people who are curious about these subjects but are fairly new to them.
• 
  D

  Brand Thinking offers 22 short interviews with an astounding array of heavy hitters in branding, identity design, and related disciplines. It's a fascinating and invigorating read. Millman coaxes the likes of Tom Peters and Karim Rashid into moments of almost shocking candor; Dori Tunstall and Alex Bogusky unflinchingly address issues of social and environmental responsibility; Brian Collins' insights into Apple's brand left me literally open-mouthed. Millman's interviews are wide-ranging, but reveal surprising commonalities in addition to the expected differences; I was surprised, for instance, by how many interviewees, apparently without coaxing, associated branding with religion. (On the other hand a few 'fessed up to making some purchase decisions on the basis of price and features.)
  
  One very slight drawback: experiencing the work of any of the interview subjects is left as a homework exercise for the reader; Brand Thinking is strictly text-only. It's an interesting counterpart to more visually oriented books like Sean Adam's
  Masters of Design (Sean Adams is himself one of Millman's interview subjects.)
  
  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in branding and identity.
• 
  Anjali Ariscrisnã

  Reading this book as a part of a Strategic Marketing and Branding module I'm taking in my post-graduate course. I'm enjoying it quite a lot as it transcends business implications and dives into the very nature of human behavior. Brands are created in our minds, they're created and given a life solely by us - demanding, savvy, hungry consumers. Positioning is everything.
• 
  Victoria

  One of the best books I've read about branding. Even though the context is slightly dated, the insights are spot-on. Possibly the most underlined and notated book I have in my campaign collection.
• 
  Josiah Jost

  Some repetition and “skim-worthy” portions, but overall a very worthwhile read; definitely enough value and truth gems to recommend the read. 👍
• 
  Jacqueline Huang

  Insightful conversations that provoke and open questions of how brand and design should be approached.
• 
  Calsee

  Interesting anecdotes but not much more
• 
  Mindaugas Dudenas

  A brand is nothing, but an idea;
  
  Brands exist in the minds of people who interact with them;
  
  The word "brand" is derived from the Old Norse word brandr, which means "to burn by fire";
  
  Branding demonstrates the sense of belonging;
  
  Brands represent the visual manifestation of the capitalist system. They are symbols of entrepreneurship. When someone attacks a brand, they are attacking a symbol, whereas the reality of what they are attacking is the capitalist system;
  
  Most branding consultants wrap themselves up in analyses, in jargon, in pretend statistical data that is comforting and gets them well paid but is meaningless. A contemporary version of witchcraft;
  
  Market research is extremely valuable when it is used properly. But you must not use it to tell you what to do;
  
  I see designers as vehicles for the corporation to take culture seriously;
  
  We must be much more particular - about the meanings that we think matter;
  
  We are not looking for a return. We're not looking for circularity. We're looking for a crazy, relentless projecting of ourselves into an unknown future;
  
  Designers are able to help us craft a new notion of what time missed;
  
  "Innovation" as that which connects the familiar with the unknown;
  
  Brands are a reflection of one's personal compass;
  
  Enlightenment means, in most cases, that you no longer recognize the difference between you and anything else, because everything else is an illusion;
  
  We construct frameworks through which we may better understand the world;
  
  Why do doctors wear white coats and why do soldiers wear uniforms? One reason is to allow that person to take on that identity, which includes their own sense of who they are, in a very fundamental way;
  
  Branding is an experience, and advertising is a temptation;
  
  User-centered design is about creating systems that are intuitive, inevitable, and quite natural. It has to be something intentional - something you do through an act of creativity yet that feels completely inevitable when it's finished;
  
  You go back to the essence of the brand. Why was it made? What need did it fill? GO back to the origins of a brand and identify how it connected to consumers and how it became a relevant;
  
  You develop a story, and then you start to identify who the consumers are. Who are you talking to? How are you going to talk to them? How are you going to tell your story to them? What are your opportunities or your channels through which you can tell that story? DO we need to design some new products, or do we need to redesign our existing products because they aren't true to our story? Or maybe you determine that your products are fine, but you haven't been talking to your consumers in the right way, so it's a communication issue;
  
  The brands are totems. They tell us stories about our place in culture - about where we are and where we've been. They also help us figure out where we're going;
  
  Uncover the story that you can believe in and steward forward;
  
  How would you define success as it relates to this design initiative? Who will be involved in the approval process, and what roles will they play in our collaborative effort? Will we have regular access to the final decision maker? Can you describe previous design projects and the experiences with outside design firms, both good and bad? Will your internal design team also be developing directions? Who do you consider your strongest competitor, and how would you rate their brand design? What attracted you to our firm? Will we have access to and be able to collaborate with your other marketing communications partners - your ad agency, pr firm, web developer? What is your position on research? how will qualitative and quantitative research be conducted on this design? What's the design fee?
  
  Brands must built on past associations but go beyond nostalgia to novelty;
  
  The reason we keep refreshing the way so many things look is because of our ceaseless race to leverage the feelings of safety and nostalgia this old thing imparts, while simultaneously injecting a sense of newness to seduce us into re-engaging in the experience;
  
  The primary reason for such exchanges is to generate joy or connection;
  
  But he's not a workaholic because he's not doing it defensively. He's doing it productively;
  
  The brand is the thing that allows you to recognize that particular kind of water that you had before, and that you probably don't mind having again;
  
  The fewer people in the club, the more unique you are. And if you encounter another exclusive member, you can mirror the mutuality back and forth. It's wonderfully narcissistic;
  
  Consumerism was the movement to protect consumers. Now it's become the definition of overconsumption;
  
  The only things we screwed up were decisions where we only used our head;
  
  Everything we do casts a vote for a certain kind of world;
• 
  Natasha Milsted

  In the last couple of months I have been listening to Debbie Milman’s, Brand thinking and other noble pursuits and I wanted to take a bit of time to review it. Firstly, I have to start by saying I love the conversational nature of how this book has been created and how it is an interview and I think this plays really well with it being an audible book. I am not sure I would have enjoyed the style quite so much, if I was reading it.
  
  The book is a series of interviews with a range of brand experts, working for a range of companies and coming at it from their own angle or experience. It shows that there are commonalities and themes when looking at branding, but also that there are nuances and individualism in the approach or execution. Due to the nature and consistency of the questions, I do agree with other views that say that it can become repetitive, which is partly why it took me so long to listen to, as I tended to do a chapter at a time. Almost like I was listening to a podcast and not a book.
  
  What I do love about this book is the style and the coaxing of Debbie Milman to get to the heart of branding and it was a good refresher on the importance of human connection, the trade-off between the sense of belonging and ethical behaviour, and some really interesting discussion on how our need as marketers to be loved is resulting in us over-egging the brand and setting too high expectations.
  
  It also clearly demonstrates the need for brands and how they can bring people together in an ever-divided world and how brand identity and our human instincts to belong are so closely related. It touches on tribe mentality and the cultural limitations and challenges of taking a brand international, while keeping it authentic.
  
  I would truly recommend this book for anyone that works in marketing, but would suggest that you do this as I did one chapter at a time, to avoid the repetition of the commonalities that exist.
• 
  Shivangi

  A set of freeform interviews between an accomplished design enthusiast and various branding experts, design anthropologists, and cultural critics. All in all an interesting book with some fascinating nuggets of thought to be found in almost every interview. I like how everyone she interviewed seemed so passionate about what they do, which I admire and aspire for in life.
  
  It is not limited to branding but discusses consumerism, capitalistic guilt of people who work in branding, design vs art, accessibility vs exclusivity etc. I liked those segments, but I wish there was more about just branding because I knew about the other stuff already (except design).
  
  One annoying thing was that some themes became repetitive over the course of the book (specifically: a brand is an identity, humans are driven by tribal instincts). She could have perhaps edited the book in a way which bought out different perspectives from each interviewer, because I was not learning new stuff from reading the same definitions told by different people. The same examples of Coke, Apple and Nike became boring as well. I wish they had moved beyond these cult classics more to other brands and industries. Considering the book was written almost ten years ago, there was lesser discussion about branding in the age of social media than if she were to explore these topics now. Definitely something I want to read more about!
• 
  Alex

  When I first started this book I felt annoyed by the formatting style (kindle version) it took me some time to get used to reading it comfortably and being honest, the "interview" method of developing the book just didn't convince me. BUT once I got over those details I was able to uncover true gems of knowledge.
  
  The interviews are clear and very direct, the author puts some humor seeds here and there, which are a pleasure to find, other than that, the questions are just so in point and very well concatenated, as per interview and as a whole.
  
  The anecdotes and unique answers from the interviewees open a window that let's you understand and learn from the perspectives of big figures in the marketing and branding industry. It allows you to see the topic in new and interesting ways, sometimes so simple and obvious that can feel offensive for those of us who struggle to "get" the customer.
  
  Maybe the formatting and writing style are somewhat different and difficult to get used to, but the interviews are all but boring or uninterested, very well concatenated and positioned in such rhythm that lets you gradually explore the different sides of branding: from the basics of kinship and connection, through emotional response, to the future of branding and humanization. The interviews discuss psychology, sociology, marketing, emotion, merchandising, religion, technology... you just get to understand brands from pretty much all venues available.
  It feels neutral, allowing different opinions about points such as self-branding or saturation.
  The closing interviews make it all come together and offer such a great message and do a great job at concluding such a massive and subjective topic.
  
  The knowledge is delivered in such a way that feels so natural and digestible, this book is truly a gem. Truly one of my favorites.
• 
  Div Manickam

  I was introduced to Debbie middleman by a friend through her concept of a five-year vision storyline for your life.
  
  Thanks Debbie for this awesome book and for introducing me to the design thinkers of the world.
  
  I loved your interview style in this book. There are only three people that I really knew Seth Godin, Daniel Pink and Malcolm Gladwell.
  
  I love the ending saying that a person is not a brand with Malcolm.
  
  I always think brands are subjective depending on who you ask and when.
  A brand is more than a reputation and identity and a purpose of living one's full potential, whether it's a product, a service or a person.
  
  It's easy for us to try to find one word to describe an object, a place or a thing.
  
  I hope our world is much more than that that we can all have our unique identities and build our better selves not by comparing ourselves to someone else but to our own selves from the past.
• 
  Jon

  Based on some of the reviews I’d read on Goodreads, and how well-known Debbie Millman is in the design industry, my expectations for this book were pretty high.
  
  Millman is a good interviewer — her questions are thought-provoking and often lead her subjects to offer up nuggets of insight. Unfortunately, I felt many of the interviews were too similar to one another and too surface-level. The book is worth reading, but I can’t help but feel that it would have been far more interesting had it featured only half as many (but twice as long) interviews.
  
  One thing that kind of irked me about the interview subjects themselves was how pervasive basic-bitch neoliberalism seemed to be among them. Because, I suspect, of the format, most of their assumptions were left unquestioned. A shame.
• 
  Vlad

  A stack of hay, a few needles. Presented as a transcription of a bunch of interviews. The author/interviewer isn't skilled at drawing people out like Oprah or Terry Gross or Marc Maron ... so the vibe often feels stilted and interviewees are allowed to back out of tough questions. The end result is that this felt like a superficial podcast about branding rather than a more thoughtful treatment of the topic.
• 
  Zoran Zelenika

  I honestly enjoyed this book.
  The interviews are varied, insightful and rich in experience and opinion.
  Truly interesting to for a moment get into minds of people shaping the design world today.
  
  Some genuine pearls of wisdom and a good amount of humour as well.
  
  
• 
  Claudia Yahany

  Entrevistas llenas de ideas y nuevas perspectivas. Las marcas son reflejo de las organizaciones y su cultura. El buen diseño no está en el logo, sino en la construcción del mensaje (cosa she ya sabíamos). Le faltó conclusión.
• 
  Vicky

  Interesting set of stories, but nothing more than that.
• 
  Alex Garrett

  Very entertaining and thought provoking. Shows even the experts differ on what good marketing looks like.
• 
  Anita Burns

  Started off interesting but became dense, boring, and tedious. I didn't finish it.
• 
  Dave Irwin

  Probably one of the best books I have read on branding and design I have read in the last few years. I loved this book and cannot recommend it enough.
• 
  Nikki Milton

  Such great insights on branding, marketing and business from successful business owners. Took away so many good nuggets of wisdom. The interviews were insightful and well done.
• 
  mimesis

  3,5
• 
  Elif İnceismail

  It was a fluent and enjoyable book. also helpfull about advertising
• 
  Andria

  My one sentence review: At first I was skeptical, but the insight got better with each interview; highly recommend this for anyone interested in advertising, branding, and design.
• 
  Ashlie

  Lots of food for thought with regards to brands and design. The author's choice of subjects was very interesting, as were the experiences of the interviewees. Not being very familiar with design, I felt this was a good introduction as it exposed me to many schools of thought.
• 
  Ninakix

  Podcasts are sort of funny. The idea of the podcast interview is a sort of weird one, because the nature of the interview has changed. When you have frequently interacting parties maybe it can be interesting, but so much of the material in books like this is so contingent on the person being interviewed and the chemistry of the two people. Additionally, Debbie Millman seems like she's got her own brand and personality to push, and that focus feels like it cuts some of her interviewees short. Compared to what I am used to, there is not enough of the interviewer to be interesting but too much to let the conversation tumble into truly unknown territory. The lack of a longer segment of interview material that one can cut and paste from might be part of it. Still, many of her interview subjects are interesting with unique perspectives.
  
  Karim Rashid pg 260
  “An artist is somebody in a particular field who wants to make a change, and doesn't use a textbook to figure out what that's going to be. They actually write a new textbook, and they move the profession forward. They evolve the profession. The artist is someone who seeks to do something original. … It's true that the artist in me always tries to do something original. But design is not art. The minute you use the word “design,” it signifies that whatever you make has to be used by people.”
  
  Brian Collins, pg 78
  “The best brands employ mythic archetypes. They literally are stories. Nike is a great example. Nike calls on the goddess. She is not the goddess of sport, or sportsmanship, or of fair play, or achievement. Nike is the goddess of victory. The federal government put that name on the first nuclear missiles—they were called Nikes. If you were a Greek warrior, you went to the temple and made a sacrifice to Nike before you went into battle. You asked her for victory. She was a mean motherfucker! You did not mess with her. She was about winning and achievement.
  Now, Nike—the brand—has done a remarkable job if bringing that story to life. … The transformation means that the goddess Nike has been called on. She has declared that the players are now devoted to victory! So the emotional charge of that experience changed at the moment the giant orange banner went up…”
  
  Grant McCraken, pg 28
  “…solving is never easy. I think there should always be a follow-up to the moment of provocation. And that provocation depends upon a deeper knowledge of culture and of the social world than designers sometimes exhibit. … My feeling is that there is an architecture of structural meanings and social rules in place that governs whether our actions will be effective in any way. The more completely you understand those cultural meanings and social rules, the better you can craft a provocation, and the more likely that provocation is going to have a structural effect.”