Primal Branding

Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future

By: Patrick Hanlon

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

What is it that made Starbucks an overnight sensation and separated it from other coffee house companies? Why do many products with great product innovation, perfect locations, terrific customer experiences, even breakthrough advertising, fail to get the same visceral traction in the marketplace as brands like Apple and Nike? Patrick Hanlon, senior advertising executive and founder of Thinktopia, decided to find the answers. His search revealed seven definable assets that together construct the belief system that lies behind every successful brand, whether it's a product, service, city, personality, social cause, or movement.

In Primal Branding, Hanlon explores those seven components, known as the primal code, and shows how to use and combine them to create a community of believers in which the consumer develops a powerful emotional attachment to the brand. These techniques work for anyone involved in creating and selling an image, from marketing managers to social advocates to business leaders seeking to increase customer preference for new or existing products. Primal Branding presents a world of new possibility for marketers of every stripe, and the opportunity to move from being just another product on the shelf to becoming a desired and necessary part of the culture.

Patrick Hanlon has served as a senior executive at the world's most creative advertising agencies, working on famous brands including Absolut, UPS, Sears, and IBM. In August 2003, he founded Thinktopia and began sharing the primal branding concept with marketers from Target, LEGO, Starbucks, and elsewhere. He lives in Minneapolis.

©2006 Patrick Hanlon (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Hanlon's energetic case for thinking differently about common practices makes for a rousing read." (Publishers Weekly)

I’ll never look at branding the same

The middle drags a bit but this book should be required reading for anyone who interested in working in branding/marketing!

This book is a great eye opener!

I am seeing the world of branding in a clearer light now. can't wait to implement all I have learnt

Fantastic Insight

This book is well structured, organized and skillfully communicated. The Primal Code provides the structure and building blocks for building a “religion”not just a “place of worship”.

Great info, lackluster narration

The information in this book is insightful if a bit dated, buts held back by a less than compelling narration. I found that finishing the book felt like a chore.

Ok but not great

I think it was the narrator that hurt the impact on me the most. The content of the book - the 7 primal codes and the examples were helpful - but read like a drone and it was difficult for me to finish. I’d get the hard copy book to get a better experience.