Author: Marty Neumeier
ZAG is the follow-up book to The Brand Gap (see my review of The Brand Gap here). Unlike the previous book, where Neumeier focuses on 5 disciplines of branding (differentiate, collaborate, innovate, validate, and cultivate), ZAG only focuses on the first discipline: differentiate.
ZAG uses the same types of layouts, illustrations and charts as the Brand Gap, so it makes for an easy transition from one book to the next. It is also quite short, a little shorter than the Brand Gap. That's a good thing. Neumeier was able to condense everything about differentiation into only 150 pages. That's pretty amazing. The wording is very clear and concise, making ZAG an easy to read book.
The illustrations and charts that the author has included are fun to look at and relate directly to what is written on the page. If you don't look at these illustrations or charts, you are missing a very important part of the book.
Instead of 5 parts to this book, like the Brand Gap, there are only 3: Finding your ZAG, Designing your ZAG, and Renewing your ZAG. Neumeier describes everything, from how to name your company or service, to the latest trends that you could jump on in order to drive your zag. According to Neumeier, a trend is something powerful, and it could make your brand even better and more powerful if you can ride more than one trend at a time.
The best part of this book for me, was when Neumeier was describing what a house of brands is, and the difference between that and a branded house. It directly relates to something that I'm working on right now, and actually made it quite clear. That section alone opened my eyes and is helping me quite a bit and giving me a different angle from which to view my problem.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a terrific follow-up to the Brand Gap, and I would recommend it to anyone that needs to either find a branding strategy, or look for a new approach to their brand. What a great read.
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