Brand Hijack

Out of nowhere, a brand like Red Bull, The Blair Witch Project, or even the Howard Dean campaign takes off with little or no conventional marketing. How do these "accidents" really happen, and why do they ultimately succeed or fail?

Welcome to marketing without marketing: the emergence of the hijacked brand. Don't let the all-too-clever subtitle fool you. Far from representing the absence of marketing, this book describes the most complex sort of marketing possible, as well as the least understood.

Brand Hijack offers a practical how-to guide to marketing that finally engages the marketplace. It presents an alternative to conventional marketing wisdom, one that addresses such industry crises as media saturation, consumer evolution, and the erosion of image marketing.

Fair warning: this book is not for everyone. It proposes untraditional, even counterintuitive practices: Let the marketplace take over. Stop clamoring for control and learn to be spontaneous. Be bold enough to accept a certain degree of uncertainty in the definition of your brands.

Brand hijacking relies on a radical concept: letting go. What a frightening, yet oddly liberating thought.

Marketing without Marketing: A Brand Hijack Manifesto

- Let go of the fallacy that your brand belongs to you. It belongs to the market.

- Co-create your brand by collaborating with your consumers.

- Scrap the focus groups, fire the cool chasers, and hire your audience.

- Facilitate your most influential and passionate consumers in translating your brand's message to a broader audience.

- Be patient. Your brand initiative could take years to take off -or weeks.

- Be flexible. Carefully plan every step, but be totally open to having the story rewritten along the way.

- Lose control. Free yourself to seize sudden opportunities that only last for moments.

- Resist the paranoid urge for consistency. Embrace the value of being surprising and imperfect.

- Respect your community. Draw the line between promotion and the adbusting trinity of manipulation, intrusion and co-option.

Let the market hijack your brand.