Products Books

Still an industry reference after over 10 years. If you want to know the weighting of sisal and jute in the JOC index, this is where to go.

Well chosen men for the calendar title "Boy Next Door". Worth every $ if you like calendars with healthy, good-looking men, very well choreographed and equally excellently photographed.

...or did you buy this great calendar too? I am very happy with this calendar. It is tasteful, sexy, and just the sort of calendar that makes my parents blush when they come over to visit.

I suggest that you get this calendar for yourself as a gift. Cute guys never go out of style no matter the year.

It looks like 2008 is going to be a very hunky year. I highly recommend this calendar for anybody who likes the male form in tight things and well hung. I mean hung on the wall for those of you with a dirty mind.

Excellent but unfortunately the story ends in 2004.
And a lot of things has happened since that.
Wait for the next edition!

The BrandPromise book is Duane Knapp's continuum of his last work, The BrandMindset. In the latest release of his branding philosophy, Knapp concentrates on how your brand can deliver a distinctive experience to all stakeholders and customers by making a Brand Promise.

It's not enough to make a promise, Knapp says, you must truly live that promise; and he shows you how in ten easy to read chapters. Knapp asserts that its not just business as usual, full of marketing tricks. Instead he offers a definitive solution of how to make a brand genuine.

Those who have read The BrandMindset will find that The BrandPromise is narrows the scope of what genuine branding is. Knapp delights readers with inspirational prose and concise examples of real people and organizations experiencing real success in each chapter.

Throughout the book there is a reoccurring theme: provide unique experiences that enhance customers' lives. Knapp believes that in order to do this, an organization must connect with its stakeholders on both a functional and emotional level. Customers must not only discover a practical benefit to a brand that will meet their needs, they must also have an emotional connection with that brand.

Much of the content from chapter to chapter identifies brand strategies for different organizations (corporations, non-profit groups and personal brands) each with the underlying "promise" theme. After several chapters the information becomes repetitive; however, this is likely the author's intention. Knapp wants his audience to understand the importance of his idea for distinctive branding. By the end of the book, the reader gets it, and the message sticks.

Knapp's book also provides a blueprint for how an organization makes a promise. The chapter devoted to this process emphasizes that all associates from top to bottom must be involved in developing a brand's promise. Further, Knapp dictates that once an organization has made its promise, it must stick to it. Any organization seeking to "make a promise" will want to pay special attention to that chapter and take it to heart.

The writing is simple, but clear and Knapp seems to be putting his philosophy to work in his own writing. It's clear that Knapp himself wants his readers to have a distinctive experience and feel energized to employ their own brand promise. Moreover, many organizations could benefit from applying Knapp's promise principles.

Every executive, celebrity, bureaucrat and association interested in taking the steps to energize his or her organizational appeal ought to read The BrandPromise. Doing so will not only transform your outlook on your own brand, but on every other brand you come in contact with every day. The BrandPromise is a must read!

The name of a brand is something that carries a lot of power in society - when someone mentions something such as Sony, many images come to the people due to the association they have developed with that brand. "Brand Rejuvenation: How to Protect, Strengthen, & Add Value to Your Brand to Prevent it From Ageing" is a guide for those in charge of a brand to develop their brands to keep them in the game in the modern world. It gives advice to note when your brand is in need of rejuvenation, how to adjust it effectively, and to prevent the problems before they happen. "Brand Rejuvenation: How to Protect, Strengthen, & Add Value to Your Brand to Prevent it From Ageing" is essential for business collections and for anyone in charge of the future of a brand.

How many books do you know of that are critical of the way economic globalization is going but that also glow with optimism about the future? Rather than yet another treatise on how multinational corporations are hijacking the globalization process to the advantage of the few, this book shows how global corporate reach is exactly what is making multinationals more vulnerable and easier to change. As global firms spread the globe they increasingly compete on their "brand." Once they get big they come under the scrutiny of a growing global advocacy community that investigates the social and environmental practices of these firms from the retail shop to the sweatshop and then threatens (and often delivers) to slander the very brands that give these firms legs.
More and more global firms fear this and are slowly becoming pro-active in seeking third party certifications for their practices. Such alternative branding gives the firm a literal "stamp of approval" by global civil society, makes producer and consumer alike feel better about production and consumption decisions, and betters the bottom line for producers and their suppliers. Conroy demonstrates how this has happened in coffee, timber, and fisheries markets and is beginning to take hold in mining, flowers and elsewhere.

This is by far the most comprehensive work on the "fair trade movement" thus far. Its actually a few books in one. First, it documents how global social movements are evolving in the 21st century. Rather than being simply protest oriented in campaigns to stop corporations in their tracks the certification movement channels firms toward a more sustainable alternative. Second, the volume is a global economic analysis of the political economy of fair trade, showing that the principles of consumer information can be in sync with neo-classical economics and improve firms bottom lines. Finally, it is an insider memoir of a movement that few have the access to the archival and anecdotal evidence of its breadth and detail. Mike Conroy shows that another globalization is not only possible, it is happening.

Just as her Small Business Marketing (for Dummies) book is the only marketing book you will need, Branding for Dummies is the only branding book you will need. Detailed, yet succinct. Page after page of practical and tested information to help you create a truly remarkable brand.

Very much useful and interesting, because this is emphasizing the importance of emotional aspect of brand.Branding Your Business: Promoting Your Business, Attracting Customers and Standing Out in the Market Place (Business Enterprise)