Wild Thinking: 25 Unconventional Ideas to Grow Your Brand and Your Business

by Nick Liddell, Richard Buchanan

Overview

Who is McLaren's greatest nemesis?
What disappoints Ocado about their competitors?
What wakes Google up at 4am?
Why does Wimbledon sweat the small stuff?

Wild Thinking will provide readers with the confidence to run their business differently, through unique access to thinking from the most original organizations in business today.

The most successful businesses in the world are singular in their goals, yet they express them in many different and creative ways, allowing them to own a space that's distinctly theirs. This book provides access to previously untold stories of how brand leaders at some of the most interesting global businesses solve their biggest challenges.

Including interviews with Google, Ocado, McLaren, Comic Relief, V&A, National Trust, Dropbox and more, each chapter of Wild Thinking explores a different question about life and work, ending with a single-minded point of view to help you consider your business from a new perspective.

It's hard to keep up and stand out in constantly growing and changing markets. To succeed you need absolute clarity about what your brand and business offers; it's time to break the rules.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749484514
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	05/03/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nick Liddell is a brand strategist with over 20 years' experience. He works with organizations of all sizes to grow their brands through clear and compelling strategy. His clients include some of the world's brightest and best - from Prada and The V&A to McLaren, Wimbledon and Twinings. He's a member of the UK Superbrands Council, a frequent event speaker and a regular contributor to marketing, brand and business publications.

Richard Buchanan is Managing Director and a founding partner of The Clearing, voted the UK's best branding consultancy at The Drum's Network Awards 2016. Working with global brands such as McLaren, Fitness First, Wimbledon and Ocado. Together with The Clearing, he has won more than thirty industry awards.

Richard Buchanan is Managing Director and one of the founding partners behind the award-winning brand consultancy The Clearing. With over twenty years experience Buchanan has helped both start-up and iconic international brands discover their 'Clear Defendable Territory.' From McLaren and Fitness First to Wimbledon and Ocado - Richard specialises in connecting businesses and brands with their customer. And as a straight-talking Mancunian with a passion for design and innovation, he regularly comments, writes and speaks about marketing, branding and design. Over the past eight years, Buchanan and The Clearing have won more than thirty industry awards - including D&AD, DBA Design Effectiveness and The Drum's Brand Consultancy of the Year.

Table of Contents

• Section - ONE: Creativity;
• • Chapter - 01: You can choose between having a great culture or a brilliant strategy – Which do you opt for?;
  • Chapter - 02: Is your role to make people want things or to make things people want?;
  • Chapter - 03: Does your team operate like an orchestra or an improvisational jazz band?;
  • Chapter - 04: We often seek partners who meet a deficiency we feel in ourselves – What deficiency are you meeting for your customers?;
  • Chapter - 05: If your brand took a lie detector test, the most nerve wracking question would be…;
• Section - TWO: Habit;
• • Chapter - 06: Should parents give children what they need or what they want? Does the same logic apply in giving customers what they ask for?;
  • Chapter - 07: What disappoints you most about your competitors?;
  • Chapter - 08: You are called in to perform a ‘pre-mortem’ on your brand and predict the cause of death to be…;
  • Chapter - 09: Which of your brand’s flaws have you learned to ignore?;
  • Chapter - 10: What could you eliminate from your business today that you suspect no-one would miss?;
• Section - THREE: Emotion;
• • Chapter - 11: What wakes your brand up at 4am?;
  • Chapter - 12: If your brand were a person, would they be in a happy relationship?;
  • Chapter - 13: How often do your embark on projects where your feel real anxiety and uncertainty about the outcome?;
  • Chapter - 14: Does your brand appeal more to people’s hopes or their fears?;
  • Chapter - 15: What role does kindness play in your work?;
• Section - FOUR: Belief;
• • Chapter - 16: Budgets are cut and your business can only invest in innovation or marketing – Which do you choose?;
  • Chapter - 17: What’s the most offensive word in the world in relation to your brand?;
  • Chapter - 18: What does the word ‘quality’ mean in the context of your brand? Would your competitors define it differently?;
  • Chapter - 19: What do your customers mistakenly believe about your industry? What can you do to change this?;
  • Chapter - 20: How would you define a ‘meaningful’ business;
• Section - FIVE: Ego;
• • Chapter - 21: What other businesses are you secretly a little bit jealous of?;
  • Chapter - 22: What would be worse – Customers not taking your brand seriously or finding you boring?;
  • Chapter - 23: What does your business do that some say is completely unnecessary or inefficient, but you believe is a superpower?;
  • Chapter - 24: Would you prefer your brand to be seen as the most stylish of its peers or the most thoughtful?;
  • Chapter - 25: Who or what is your brand’s nemesis?