Hello! Long time no see! This blog is celebrating over one year of silence because I’ve been focussing all my writing energy, and all my spare time on a book. The book is aptly called ‘Brand Driven Innovation’, is published by AVA Academia under their Advanced Design Management Series, and will be available by the beginning of October 2010, also through Amazon. I am anxiously waiting for it to come back from the printer in Singapore, giving me time –actual free time- to give my poor blog the attention it has been missing for so long.

My book writing adventure started with Kathryn Best being very successful with her 2007 ‘Design Management’ title for the same publisher. She was asked to scout for more authors in the domain of design management, and Kathryn asked me if I would be willing to write a book on ‘Brand Driven Innovation’. I was quick to say yes and the rest is history.

In April 2009 I submerged, starting out with tables of contents in various states of disrepair, many iterations of image lists, plans for interviews, visits to the publisher in London, and endless endless evenings and weekends of writing. I was naïve enough to think that I would take one day per week off to write. That was before I knew that my company Zilver would lift off halfway through 2009, allowing me no room to write in the daytime and only very little at night. But, miraculously, and thanks to tremendous loving patience from my family and huge efforts from my editor in London, Colette Meacher, I emerged in May 2010 with a finished book.

This is to give you a very quick preview of the result, and to give you a quick tour of the topics it covers.

The book consists of two parts: the first part discusses how branding, innovation and design are intertwined, while the second part gives a practical framework to apply Brand Driven Innovation in organisations. Each part is introduced with an essay.

Part one consists of two chapters. The first discusses how branding and innovation are connected, and in fact need each other to prosper. The second discusses the role of design and design thinking in forging this synergy between branding and design. The first part contains vivid case studies on Innocent Smoothies, Icebreaker, Fatboy and Baltic, and conversations with specialists like Fred Coloppy,  Ralf Beuker, Igor Kluin, Jan Buijs, Arne van Oosterom and Oliver King.

Part two consists of four chapters, each discussing one stage in the Brand Driven Innovation method. The chapters discuss human centred branding (how to build a brand that resonates with people, both internally and externally, and offers fertile ground for growth), building a brand driven innovation strategy, (how to build an innovation strategy that sets out to fulfil the brand’s promise), building a brand driven design strategy (how to employ design in all its disciplines and layers, to bring the brand to life), and orchestrating touch points (how to create meaning in the complete customer journey, using all touch points). The chapters are enriched with case studies on Océ, Priva, Etna, Priva, Dapper, Trespa, Virgin Atlantic and NLISIS, and conversations with specialists like Liz Sanders, Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, Philippe Picaud, Pierre Yves Panis, Pim Jonkman, Aldo de Jong, Harry Rich and Gert Kootstra.

About the relaunch of this Blog:

To combine the pleasure of offline reading (you know how that smell of a new, well printed book is irreplaceable) with the benefits of online sharing and learning, the publisher and I have created a link between the book and this blog.

The book contains many exercises and ‘pause for thought’ sections, that give readers the opportunity to reflect on what they’ve read and to practise their newly gained insights. The ‘book’ section of this blog offers the opportunity for readers to upload the results of these exercises and discussions, so they can be viewed and commented by other readers. Each sub page under the ‘book’ heading refers to one of these sections, and from now on they are yours.

I sincerely hope to have triggered some nice discussions, and I also hope readers will be enthusiastic to share their creations and thoughts. I would be honoured, and it would benefit this new and exciting field of study immensely.

Meanwhile, please connect to the book community on facebook.