What do you think?
Rate this book
Spark: The Insight to Growing Brands
park addresses the important issue of growing bands in an increasingly competitive, crowded market place. Written by an expert in marketing, here is a book that demystifies the esoteric subject of brand-building.
Spark achieves this by providing a practical framework. It handholds the reader through the various stages of brand-building—how to generate an insight to address a specific business challenge; how to construct a full business plan around it; and how to leverage such a plan for revenue growth.
Rich in case-studies of successful global brands like Dove, McDonald’s and Vicks VapoRub, and replete with brainstorming tips and catchy acronyms for developing successful brand campaigns with ad agencies, Spark offers a lifeline to the professional committed to building and nurturing a powerful brand.
Spark achieves this by providing a practical framework. It handholds the reader through the various stages of brand-building—how to generate an insight to address a specific business challenge; how to construct a full business plan around it; and how to leverage such a plan for revenue growth.
Rich in case-studies of successful global brands like Dove, McDonald’s and Vicks VapoRub, and replete with brainstorming tips and catchy acronyms for developing successful brand campaigns with ad agencies, Spark offers a lifeline to the professional committed to building and nurturing a powerful brand.
- GenresBusiness
208 pages, Hardcover
First published May 17, 2017
3 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Paddy Rangappa
4 books2 followersAfter completing his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Paddy Rangappa worked for 13 years in Procter & Gamble, covering media, market research, brand management and category management. In 1999 he was posted to Indonesia and then to Singapore as head of Media for P&Gs Asean, Australasia and India region. In 2001, he joined the multinational fast-food company McDonalds where hes currently Senior Director Marketing, Asia-Pacific, Middle East Africa (APMEA). Paddys work involves travelling extensively; he works with the markets in the APMEA region and interacts frequently with the other regions and global headquarters in the US. This gives his wide exposure to the colourful characteristics, quirks and foibles of a variety of people from a variety of places. Growing up in an Indian Army family, he has lived in many places in India. Hes married with a 25 year-old boy and a 21 year-old girl.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 30, 2019
SPARK
I had picked up this book sometime in May 2018 at the Mumbai airport. I have been wanting to read it since then, but somehow it was always behind the bookshelf. So much, that I also wanted to give it to my summer intern and my team, but I myself never got to read it! I finally laid my hands on this gem of a book in early 2019.
Detailed Review.
This book is fundamentally about – how you can grow your brand by making an emotional connection with people through relevant consumer insights and using these insights in your brand strategy and advertising. There are only two fundamental ways for a brand to grow – Physical availability and Mental Availability.
The book is divided into three parts –
PART 1 - The insight to Growing Brands
The three characteristics of ads that have the highest impact on sales –
1. They are intrinsically likeable
2. They are visual, not verbal
3. They are communicated in a way that’s relevant to consumers
“Clients get the advertising they deserve”
“The insight needs to be brought to life with a creative brief”
PART 2 – The insight to connecting with Consumers
An insight is defined as – “An Emotional human revelation relevant to the category that is leveraged to build a brand”. Something that is retrospectively obvious.
Some common myths of insights are –
1. Insights play a role only in TV advertising
2. An insight is nice if you find it, but it’s no big deal if you don’t
3. It’s the agency’s job to find new insights
4. We need to constantly find new insights
5. An insight reflects a deep understanding of the consumer’s psyche
6. An insight needs to highlight a consumer problem
Insightful advertising quietly and imperceptibly enhances the brand’s mental availability, and the right insight can generate a brand-differentiating, long term competitive advantage.
An insight does not need to be a major revelation, it could be a simple observation of human behavior!
The process to develop insights as a team is –
Challenge -> data -> Knowledge -> Insight -> Action Plan
Building knowledge is the key to delivering a great insight in a disciplined manner. For this, the problem and the vision needs to be clearly spelt out, post which the best minds in the world need to be brought on board to craft the learnings. For Example, Dove engaged two experts – a psychologist and a psychotherapist who were subject matter experts and had authored - “survival of the prettiest”, “Fat is a feminist issue”.
Building knowledge and writing insights depends on good brainstorming techniques which first open the mind to possibilities (divergence) and then bring it back to focus on a powerful idea (Convergence). Nathan Proudlove expresses this elegantly in his technical treatise on brainstorming, Search Widely, Choose Wisely. The four brainstorming principles are –
1. Invite the right people to contribute
2. Include the group while defining the problem
3. Don’t allow good ideas to be discounted (Collaborative creativity indicates by not thinking about practicality)
4. Give Shyer participants anonymity
At the stage of convergence post brainstorming, consider –
1. Making logical summaries
2. Combining conflicting information
3. Pushing boundaries
4. Articulating the unsaid
The nuggets of knowledge are developed as –
1. Why is this true? – Ask this question on observations. Example, Why are people paying a premium for convenience of home delivery?
2. What else is like this? – For Example, What else are people willing to pay a little extra for added convenience?
3. How does this effect what people think, say and do? – For Example, How does the demand for saving time affect what people think, say, do?
4. What if things were different? – For Example, what if there were no delivery services at all? What if food could be delivered in 5 instead of 30 minutes?
Each of these questions would lead to insights.
The ways to identify an insight are –
1. Identification – Is the insight a human revelation that would be retrospectively obvious?
2. Relevance – to the category?
3. Inspiration – would it inspire creativity?
A framework for developing the insight action plan is –
1. Challenge – business opportunity defined succinctly
2. Context – Challenges faced in category, including competition
3. Insight – Emotional human revelation relevant to category
4. Brand Benefit – functional and emotional benefit of brand
5. Big Idea – powerful idea based on insight, within category context, leveraging brand benefit and addressing business challenge
6. Tactics – Programs and tactics to bring it to life
PART 3 – Creativity that drives Brand Growth
Leo Burnett had said, “Creativity has the power to transform human behavior”, and Einstein had famously said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun”
CRAFT is the process of mastering creative.
C – Unwavering “Conviction”
R – Channelizing the right “Resources”
A – employing a robust, practical “approach” or process
F – building a strong “Foundation”
T – bringing it all together through “Teamwork” and collaboration.
Each creative task starts with consumer understanding, a clear articulation of the challenge, an a concise creative brief. A clearly defined brand strategy is the foundation of Marketing.
The five steps to creative development are –
1. Inception – understanding the task at hand
2. Incubation – Push the task out of your immediate attention
3. Illumination – Allow an intuitive notion to reveal an inspiration
4. Realization - give your inspiration context and structure
5. Verification – Analyze the result against original objectives
The overall approach to creative development and Execution is below. This is a continuous vicious cycle
1. Challenge – Identify the behavioral problem
2. Insight
3. Creative Brief – articulating the creative challenge
4. Evaluation
5. Execution
6. Measurement
A solid creative brief comes with certain characteristics –
1. Clarity – Explain the task without any ambiguity
2. Focus – tell a coherent story with clear choices
3. Credibility – true to the brand, leveraging strengths and acknowledging weakness
4. Inspiration
5. Brevity
A template for a creative brief should contain –
1. Goal and Business Challenge
a. What are the desired business Results
b. What consumer issue (or opportunity) are we facing?
2. Target Description
a. Describe the target that is the primary source of business
b. Describe what a particular person in the target is like
3. Target Evolution
a. How would you like to change what the target consumer thinks and does today with respect to the brand or the business challenge? From - > To
4. Insight (An Emotional human revelation relevant to the category leveraged to build the Brand)
5. Brand Proposition
a. Key Message (What is the key message or Brand Benefit?)
b. Support (What is the evidence to support this benefit?)
c. Tone (Describe the Brand Character and tone of voice). For Example, Provocative buy empathetic – a consultant you trust.
6. Mandatory elements (Are there any mandatory executional considerations (the fewer the better!)?)
One key thing to remember here is that we don’t need to feature the TG. We need to appeal to her.
Judging a creative –
1. Understand the creative idea and your gut reaction to it
2. 4E Framework to evaluate the idea
a. Effectiveness – is it on brief?
b. Engagement – Is it interesting?
c. Executability – How will it come to life?
d. Extension – Does it have legs?
3. Feedback principles
a. Put yourself in the receiver’s shoes
b. Avoid the agency “loathe list” – like avoid a laundry list of issues, clarify if issue is structural or executional; Focus on what to change, not how to change it.
c. Use the brief as a launch pad, not as a screen – means encouraging an inspired idea even if it is a bit off brief.
The four tenets of a win-win agency-client relationship are –
1. Trust
2. Respect
3. Attitude
4. Friendship
Good clients –
1. Display courage and take responsibility
2. Trust their agencies
3. Don’t dictate creative output
Some memorable insights –
Pola Bear Beer in Brazil – “Immersed in their digital social connections, people forget about the real human interaction they long for”
McDonalds – “When confronted with something tasty, even honest people are tempted to steal”
McDonalds Australia – “There’s a playful child in every adult”
McDonalds UK – “In a world where they have to constantly live up to others’ expectations, people crave an unpretentious environment where they are welcome, no matter who they are or how they dress”
Volkswagen 2017 - “Under the influence of alcohol, people believe they’re superheroes”
Heads propaganda – “Many people consider driving an entertainment sport, much like hunting”
UNICEF – “Children grow into happy adults when they see that their parents are happy”
VapoRub – “A mother’s love gets heightened when her child is sick”
Snickers – “When very hungry, genuinely nice people can become disagreeable”
Snickers – “Snacking gives people some respite during a lousy day”
AXE – “Teenage boys feel awkward, shy and overwhelmed in front of girls”
Paddy Rangappa, with this book has inspired me to pen down my own thought and beliefs on marketing and leverage them further. A must read for anyone in the business of building brands. The above was a very short summary for my further reference. The book is a gem which I would keep referring to!
The author mentions multiple sources for this wonderful insightful book including,
1. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Sciences
2. Newspapers
a. FT
b. Campaignbrief.com
3. Journal
a. HBR
b. Journal of advertising research
c. Journal of customer behavior
d. Australasian Marketing Journal
e. Academy of Marketing Science Journal
4. Books
a. The righteous Mind – Jonathan Haidt
b. When Ads work – Philip John
c. Thinking fast and slow
d. How Brands Grow: What marketers don’t know – Byron Sharp
e. How Brands Grow: Part 2 – Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk
f. Metaphors and Analogies – Tick Wormeli
I had picked up this book sometime in May 2018 at the Mumbai airport. I have been wanting to read it since then, but somehow it was always behind the bookshelf. So much, that I also wanted to give it to my summer intern and my team, but I myself never got to read it! I finally laid my hands on this gem of a book in early 2019.
Detailed Review.
This book is fundamentally about – how you can grow your brand by making an emotional connection with people through relevant consumer insights and using these insights in your brand strategy and advertising. There are only two fundamental ways for a brand to grow – Physical availability and Mental Availability.
The book is divided into three parts –
PART 1 - The insight to Growing Brands
The three characteristics of ads that have the highest impact on sales –
1. They are intrinsically likeable
2. They are visual, not verbal
3. They are communicated in a way that’s relevant to consumers
“Clients get the advertising they deserve”
“The insight needs to be brought to life with a creative brief”
PART 2 – The insight to connecting with Consumers
An insight is defined as – “An Emotional human revelation relevant to the category that is leveraged to build a brand”. Something that is retrospectively obvious.
Some common myths of insights are –
1. Insights play a role only in TV advertising
2. An insight is nice if you find it, but it’s no big deal if you don’t
3. It’s the agency’s job to find new insights
4. We need to constantly find new insights
5. An insight reflects a deep understanding of the consumer’s psyche
6. An insight needs to highlight a consumer problem
Insightful advertising quietly and imperceptibly enhances the brand’s mental availability, and the right insight can generate a brand-differentiating, long term competitive advantage.
An insight does not need to be a major revelation, it could be a simple observation of human behavior!
The process to develop insights as a team is –
Challenge -> data -> Knowledge -> Insight -> Action Plan
Building knowledge is the key to delivering a great insight in a disciplined manner. For this, the problem and the vision needs to be clearly spelt out, post which the best minds in the world need to be brought on board to craft the learnings. For Example, Dove engaged two experts – a psychologist and a psychotherapist who were subject matter experts and had authored - “survival of the prettiest”, “Fat is a feminist issue”.
Building knowledge and writing insights depends on good brainstorming techniques which first open the mind to possibilities (divergence) and then bring it back to focus on a powerful idea (Convergence). Nathan Proudlove expresses this elegantly in his technical treatise on brainstorming, Search Widely, Choose Wisely. The four brainstorming principles are –
1. Invite the right people to contribute
2. Include the group while defining the problem
3. Don’t allow good ideas to be discounted (Collaborative creativity indicates by not thinking about practicality)
4. Give Shyer participants anonymity
At the stage of convergence post brainstorming, consider –
1. Making logical summaries
2. Combining conflicting information
3. Pushing boundaries
4. Articulating the unsaid
The nuggets of knowledge are developed as –
1. Why is this true? – Ask this question on observations. Example, Why are people paying a premium for convenience of home delivery?
2. What else is like this? – For Example, What else are people willing to pay a little extra for added convenience?
3. How does this effect what people think, say and do? – For Example, How does the demand for saving time affect what people think, say, do?
4. What if things were different? – For Example, what if there were no delivery services at all? What if food could be delivered in 5 instead of 30 minutes?
Each of these questions would lead to insights.
The ways to identify an insight are –
1. Identification – Is the insight a human revelation that would be retrospectively obvious?
2. Relevance – to the category?
3. Inspiration – would it inspire creativity?
A framework for developing the insight action plan is –
1. Challenge – business opportunity defined succinctly
2. Context – Challenges faced in category, including competition
3. Insight – Emotional human revelation relevant to category
4. Brand Benefit – functional and emotional benefit of brand
5. Big Idea – powerful idea based on insight, within category context, leveraging brand benefit and addressing business challenge
6. Tactics – Programs and tactics to bring it to life
PART 3 – Creativity that drives Brand Growth
Leo Burnett had said, “Creativity has the power to transform human behavior”, and Einstein had famously said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun”
CRAFT is the process of mastering creative.
C – Unwavering “Conviction”
R – Channelizing the right “Resources”
A – employing a robust, practical “approach” or process
F – building a strong “Foundation”
T – bringing it all together through “Teamwork” and collaboration.
Each creative task starts with consumer understanding, a clear articulation of the challenge, an a concise creative brief. A clearly defined brand strategy is the foundation of Marketing.
The five steps to creative development are –
1. Inception – understanding the task at hand
2. Incubation – Push the task out of your immediate attention
3. Illumination – Allow an intuitive notion to reveal an inspiration
4. Realization - give your inspiration context and structure
5. Verification – Analyze the result against original objectives
The overall approach to creative development and Execution is below. This is a continuous vicious cycle
1. Challenge – Identify the behavioral problem
2. Insight
3. Creative Brief – articulating the creative challenge
4. Evaluation
5. Execution
6. Measurement
A solid creative brief comes with certain characteristics –
1. Clarity – Explain the task without any ambiguity
2. Focus – tell a coherent story with clear choices
3. Credibility – true to the brand, leveraging strengths and acknowledging weakness
4. Inspiration
5. Brevity
A template for a creative brief should contain –
1. Goal and Business Challenge
a. What are the desired business Results
b. What consumer issue (or opportunity) are we facing?
2. Target Description
a. Describe the target that is the primary source of business
b. Describe what a particular person in the target is like
3. Target Evolution
a. How would you like to change what the target consumer thinks and does today with respect to the brand or the business challenge? From - > To
4. Insight (An Emotional human revelation relevant to the category leveraged to build the Brand)
5. Brand Proposition
a. Key Message (What is the key message or Brand Benefit?)
b. Support (What is the evidence to support this benefit?)
c. Tone (Describe the Brand Character and tone of voice). For Example, Provocative buy empathetic – a consultant you trust.
6. Mandatory elements (Are there any mandatory executional considerations (the fewer the better!)?)
One key thing to remember here is that we don’t need to feature the TG. We need to appeal to her.
Judging a creative –
1. Understand the creative idea and your gut reaction to it
2. 4E Framework to evaluate the idea
a. Effectiveness – is it on brief?
b. Engagement – Is it interesting?
c. Executability – How will it come to life?
d. Extension – Does it have legs?
3. Feedback principles
a. Put yourself in the receiver’s shoes
b. Avoid the agency “loathe list” – like avoid a laundry list of issues, clarify if issue is structural or executional; Focus on what to change, not how to change it.
c. Use the brief as a launch pad, not as a screen – means encouraging an inspired idea even if it is a bit off brief.
The four tenets of a win-win agency-client relationship are –
1. Trust
2. Respect
3. Attitude
4. Friendship
Good clients –
1. Display courage and take responsibility
2. Trust their agencies
3. Don’t dictate creative output
Some memorable insights –
Pola Bear Beer in Brazil – “Immersed in their digital social connections, people forget about the real human interaction they long for”
McDonalds – “When confronted with something tasty, even honest people are tempted to steal”
McDonalds Australia – “There’s a playful child in every adult”
McDonalds UK – “In a world where they have to constantly live up to others’ expectations, people crave an unpretentious environment where they are welcome, no matter who they are or how they dress”
Volkswagen 2017 - “Under the influence of alcohol, people believe they’re superheroes”
Heads propaganda – “Many people consider driving an entertainment sport, much like hunting”
UNICEF – “Children grow into happy adults when they see that their parents are happy”
VapoRub – “A mother’s love gets heightened when her child is sick”
Snickers – “When very hungry, genuinely nice people can become disagreeable”
Snickers – “Snacking gives people some respite during a lousy day”
AXE – “Teenage boys feel awkward, shy and overwhelmed in front of girls”
Paddy Rangappa, with this book has inspired me to pen down my own thought and beliefs on marketing and leverage them further. A must read for anyone in the business of building brands. The above was a very short summary for my further reference. The book is a gem which I would keep referring to!
The author mentions multiple sources for this wonderful insightful book including,
1. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Sciences
2. Newspapers
a. FT
b. Campaignbrief.com
3. Journal
a. HBR
b. Journal of advertising research
c. Journal of customer behavior
d. Australasian Marketing Journal
e. Academy of Marketing Science Journal
4. Books
a. The righteous Mind – Jonathan Haidt
b. When Ads work – Philip John
c. Thinking fast and slow
d. How Brands Grow: What marketers don’t know – Byron Sharp
e. How Brands Grow: Part 2 – Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk
f. Metaphors and Analogies – Tick Wormeli
July 12, 2017
Simply beautiful!!
I just sat down to read the book he moment I received it. I really liked the way the author has written and explained the book.
Opening by myth-busters and containing CRAFT, which is 'a neat acronym which contains the traits you need' in the words of the author himself. The conclusive statements supported by practical life data globally and from over the ages really provides an eye-opener and gives a new direction to the way we see advertising and marketing as a whole.
Though there were a couple of instances where the data was a bit old,from 1995-96, and if updated, the data may have shown a different picture. But otherwise, the book doesn't fail to impress.
Overall a very good read!!
I just sat down to read the book he moment I received it. I really liked the way the author has written and explained the book.
Opening by myth-busters and containing CRAFT, which is 'a neat acronym which contains the traits you need' in the words of the author himself. The conclusive statements supported by practical life data globally and from over the ages really provides an eye-opener and gives a new direction to the way we see advertising and marketing as a whole.
Though there were a couple of instances where the data was a bit old,from 1995-96, and if updated, the data may have shown a different picture. But otherwise, the book doesn't fail to impress.
Overall a very good read!!
January 11, 2018
The Book gives a nice summary on the cover : Delightfully written, Spark decodes the art of Brand Building and provides a step by step guide to arriving at insights that survive the test of time. I refer to the book “Spark – The Insight To Growing Brands” written by Paddy Rangappa. In short – delightful, yes. Step by step guide – yes; but to what is the question. Is the content good – yes. Is it pertinent – again, unequivocally, yes. But does it decode the art of Brand Building – regrettably, no. In my opinion basis 17 years of Sales and Marketing Work Experience, there is a lot more to building Brands. That said, this is an excellent resource, as we shall see in this review.
There are many good points in the book; excellent, stunning insights, and a very practical framework that just about anyone in any leadership or quasi-leadership role will find very practical and adaptable to just about any real world situation. The framework suggested, one of them, is intuitively logical : CRAFT, standing for Conviction-Resources-Approach-Foundation-Teamwork. As anyone in with work experience will appreciate – this is not only logical, but a solid approach to any problem the modern corporation places in front of managers. At more than one place, your basic beliefs to sales, marketing and business are going to be challenged – with data, mind you! Then why am I so circumspect, and not going all-out in praise? The reason is the extensive and major miss in the book, that is an issue. It still is a must read – but in a review, I have to be, regrettably, honest.
What is the miss? Click https://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/20... to read...
There are many good points in the book; excellent, stunning insights, and a very practical framework that just about anyone in any leadership or quasi-leadership role will find very practical and adaptable to just about any real world situation. The framework suggested, one of them, is intuitively logical : CRAFT, standing for Conviction-Resources-Approach-Foundation-Teamwork. As anyone in with work experience will appreciate – this is not only logical, but a solid approach to any problem the modern corporation places in front of managers. At more than one place, your basic beliefs to sales, marketing and business are going to be challenged – with data, mind you! Then why am I so circumspect, and not going all-out in praise? The reason is the extensive and major miss in the book, that is an issue. It still is a must read – but in a review, I have to be, regrettably, honest.
What is the miss? Click https://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/20... to read...
August 30, 2020
An unusual book since it speaks to the company executive who works with agencies, and explicitly drives the case for giving a good brief/direction, while not micro managing the partners. Gives a non consensus view on not blindly jumping into digital, and also that promotions alone kill a brand. Good frameworks to apply
December 6, 2020
Must read book for any person working in marketing and communications. Academic in nature but very relevant.
Read
March 4, 2018Did not finish hence no review.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews