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Products Need Books, Too! |
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 Products are the real stars of your business. Showcase them with a powerful brand-building book.
Entrepreneurs have long understood the power of autobiographical books to establish their personal brands. But have you ever thought of using a book to establish the fame and credentials of a product
There’s no better way to permanently showcase the importance and value of a product than a book. Sure, advertising, even those zillion dollar Super Bowl ads, play an essential role in creating awareness for a product. With a half-life of 30 seconds, those ads simply cannot tell the whole story of your product.
All of this was brought to mind by the smell of my neighbor’s grilling hamburgers and red peppers on his Weber grill. Weber usually isn’t thought of as a shining star in the pantheon of top brands—which is a mistake. Weber’s is consistently at the top of the outdoor grill rankings, for both charcoal and gas grills. For example, MSN Shopping says Consumer Reports rates the Weber Genesis E320 as the top medium size gas barbecue grill.
Certainly Weber spends its share of marketing dollars on seasonal advertising, merchandising allowances for retailers, and point of purchase displays.
Did you know Weber also publishes a series of books about its grills, and how to use them most deliciously? There’s even a section on the Weber.com website devoted to its specially commissioned grilling books. Enter “Weber grill” into the book search field at Amazon and you’ll get 507 responses. Note every item on Amazon was commissioned or licensed by Weber, but most of the top titles were.
There’s simply no collateral material more powerful and longer lasting than a book. That’s why the Thenaturalshopper.com offers a free e-book download of its Power Of The Beehive book to support sales of royal jelly, bee pollen and honey products. As far back at 1935 those savvy marketers at Sherwin Williams were offering the Sherwin Williams Decorator Book to cement their brand equity. Cisco, whose routers are the backbone of the Internet, has an entire web site dedicated to books about its products .
Stretch your marketing imagination, and you’ll find that the biggest star of your company may not be the CEO or its founder. Publishing a book about your products may be the ultimate expression of book-driven branding. Certainly Weber has discovered its a great way to cook up sales!
Let me know if you have any great examples of books that turn products into stars.
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