The epic of six brand leaders in magical, truth-full storytelling

“Brand New”
By Nancy F. Koehn
Harvard Business School Press, 2001


Read this book for a change. It’s titled “Brand New,” just the right phrase for a brand new year (if we have to make a connection somehow).

But, there’s something more about this book being a refreshing change from a surfeit of books speaking of brand equity, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand-what-have-you.

It’s an epic, not about “branding” as a concept (since that cannot qualify as a great story), but about brand leaders rising above their times and historical milieu — responding to epic movements but, much more so, creating institutions and movements themselves that have deeply changed — and continue to change — people’s lives, lifestyles and the way we all look at life, work and play — and the way we look, the way we are scented, and the way we dine.

Who says business promises only humdrum existence?

This book’s jacket says: “Until Josiah Wedgwood, Britons ate from wood and pewter plates. Until Henry Heinz, women toiled over pickled foods. Until Michael Dell, few people owned a personal computer, let alone dreamed of buying one ‘built to order’.” And, if I may add, until Estee Lauder, cosmetics were promoted the all-too-traditional way. And until Starbucks, coffee drinking had no romance.

What is Nancy F. Koehn, Ph.D. (corporate historian of Harvard Business School), talking about? She is talking about six companies with powerful brands: Starbucks, Estee Lauder, Dell Computers, Wedgwood china, Heinz ketchup, Marshall Field giant stores.

What’s so special about the six — since there are many more entrepreneurs that also built powerful brands — like Ford, IBM, Coke, Sony, BMW, etc.? Actually, I have no answer to this question, except to say, that herein lies the problem with inclusions: there are also exclusions. And, of course, I am just reviewing a book (a very good slow read throughout 469 pages) — and not arguing for the author.

But, the author somehow dishes out an explanation why she chose the six: “All of the brands I discuss were developed during periods when demand-side shifts were altering consumers’ priorities. This kind of thing happens in all historical epochs, of course, but in each of the six cases, social and economic changes were racing forward more rapidly than usual.”

Four of the entrepreneurs made things: Wedgwood’s earthenware, Heinz’s bottled pickles, Lauder’s cosmetics, and Dell’s personal computers. Ms. Koehn says the other two “created encounters” that proved appealing to customers — Fields’ department store environment and Schultz’s café experience.

How these entrepreneurs created a powerful brand goes beyond marketing. It was total involvement for the entrepreneur with the product he/she wholly believed in, investing money and time to perfect it, using a keen eye for any consumer shift, developing an “image” — not only at the marketing front, but more important, from the laboratory, plantation farm, production floor, distribution network, excellent showroom, and a workforce that perfectly reflect the image and vision of the entrepreneur.

The book’s sections are masterfully divided. First, there are two major divisions: “The Past” (for Wedgwood, Heinz and Field that spanned the 18th to early 20th century) and “The Present” (for Lauder, Schultz and Dell). The book says much about the author’s unflagging will to capture the dust, drift and direction of industries these entrepreneurs created.

She has woven together personages and has placed them on “the world’s stage” — providing local color, unfolding historic drama, increasingly interesting plots with every initial resistance and with every emergence of competition, and peppering her storytelling with revealing tales about royalty, the severely rich and the merely famous.

Josiah Wedgwood began the practice of sending gifts to royalty — and then quickly announced that the King or Queen had his china in their dining room. His message to members of the middle class who are palace watchers: “You can have the same china that the Queen has in her stately palace.” That brought prestige to Wedgwood products, drew non-royals to his stores — proving once again that the impulse of “keeping with the Joneses” has antedated us all. By the way, Wedgwood is the grandpa of Charles Darwin — one of the side stories that make this book really an interesting read.

H. J. Heinz, noting women’s shifting roles from the kitchen and into factories and offices, concluded that these women should be free from the cumbersome task of preparing pickles each time. Thus Heinz introduced preserved pickles. It meant more freedom for women — and to Heinz profits that last till now. Today, the Heinz empire has remained one of the world’s leading food processors. In 2000, the author notes, the flagship Heinz brand accounted for about one third of the company’s US$9 billion sales.

Marshall Field introduced a merchandizing strategy that made shopping elegant and enjoyable. As early as the 19th century, Field already decided that “female shoppers wanted an elegant atmosphere, the latest fashions and courteous service — preferably from other women.” That was way way back — before Rustans was born if we talk local.
And what about Estee Lauder, born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908? Her story is preceded by the sweet-scented story of cosmetics and perfumery dating back to the time when society frowned upon women painting their faces and sporting head-turning scents that make others crazy. This determined woman, as told by our master storyteller, tried new ways to promote her product — including “a gift for every purchase”.

As a sidelight, read about an interesting tale about Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden deliberately “obscuring their humble beginnings” to project an aristocratic heritage.

How Howard Schultz got inspiration about “specialty coffee” in Milan is an account to inspire entrepreneurs with the truth that you can actually re-invent an old product. Today Starbucks is everywhere. How Michael Dell defied tradition by going into direct marketing to sell his computers is another epic, especially that he took on IBM the giant.

Author Jack Beatty summarizes the book’s accomplishment thus: “Brand New felicitously blends biography, business history and conceptual analysis in a book that gives the vogue word branding a rich and surprising past.” At the beginning of the year, be enriched and be astonished. Begin then with this book.