paul feldwick - he's the man

I picked a book up at Schipol yesterday – Brands and Branding (The Economist Series) Rita Clifton et al. (Interesting how it was multiple authors, where most of the other books in the series weren’t; does this remind us what a subjective business branding is?).

I motored through it on the plane, lots of good stuff fin there, lots of good reminders and suggestions, though nothing a good planner wouldn’t have come across elsewhere.

(And why do these books always have to be so dry? Yes, brands are important (lifeblood of the consumer economy, socio-cultural artefacts, blah blah blah) but they’re also frivolous and very human and working on them can be entertaining and exciting. You wouldn’t get that from this book.)

But the best chapter by far is Paul Feldwick’s on Brand Communications. Really good. What smart man. Though very few people would put us in the same branding camp (he’s really committed to his beard, I only flirt with mine) I found myself agreeing with everything he says. I’d particularly urge you to read his section on Watzlawick which is really clear and useful. I saw Feldwick speak about this once, a while ago, and have stolen everything he said and integrated it thoroughly into everything I say. (Mark Earls was at the same meeting, and I bet he’s done the same thing)

I thought I'd written about Watzlawick once on here, but now I can't find it. Though I bet it wasn't very clear, so buy the book and read the Feldwick chapter instead. (And simultaneously support my ecommerce experiments).

Comments

[Lizardo Vargas Bianchi]

I totally agree with the the comment on P. Feldwick's chapter on brand communications. Unluckily views like his and from other authors (i.e. Prof. Ehrenberg) haven't got much echo amongst American academics and practitiones.

[fred.simiyu]

I came across excerpts of Paul Feldwick works through a very enlighting article in the Singapore Nanyan Business review b David Haigh CEO BFP.
I am glad to note that his articles are indepth and very informative and sublect of dicourse.I now have to sample the Brand Communication book before I place my view.
Simiyu-Kenya-East Africa

[Riley]

Feldwick rocks. He was always the seriously smart guy in town who really cared about this stuff. He actually saw it as a profession. I just met a guy with a Masters Degree in Planning. Holy shit! He was born when I was at BBDO. I guess things have evolved since Feldwick professionalized this thing called planning.

[Zach Rose]

This blog post is the top Google result for 'Paul Feldwick.' Importance and widespread neglect at the same time?