"Brand First"

"In his insightful article, "Are You Brand-First?" Nick Shore argues that in business, a well-defined brand is everything: "...if you systematically dismantled the entire operation of Coca-Cola Co. and left them with only their brand name, management could rebuild the company within five years. Remove the brand name, and the enterprise would likewise die within five years... That's the mark of a brand-first enterprise. More than a framework for marketing and communications efforts, the brand is the emotional source of the organisation itself... In the brand-first enterprise, everything about the company is derived from an emotional blueprint, a central organising principle, a compelling essence... Disney calls it Magic." He later points out that if you were to ask 25 employees to articulate their company's brand in five words, and the total list is more than 10 words, then the brand's emotional blueprint is not established."

- The Advertising Concept Book, Pete Barry