I am indebted to Nigel Hollis, the global strategic planning director for Millward Brown. He has extensive experience in market research, and his particular expertise includes advertising pre-testing, brand equity research, online research, and how marketing communications can build and maintain brands. His career at Millward Brown has spanned the Atlantic; he has worked for major Fortune 500 clients, covering packaged goods, automotive, alcoholic beverages, financial services, IT, and travel categories.
It would be impossible to mention everyone who contributed to the ideas and knowledge I’ve drawn on for this book. Close to six hundred researchers have assimilated data, provided insight, and worked hard to make Brand Sense a truly global project.
First and foremost, Peter Smith and Lynne Segal. It’s the third book we’ve worked on together. In short, if they quit editing, I’d quit writing. Also a sincere thanks to my superb agent James Levine, and the impressive team at Free Press: Suzanne Donahue, Carisa Hays, and Michele Jacob.
Once again the Millward Brown organization has been a pleasure to work with. Without their support for this global project, it would have been almost impossible to execute. They have verified my assumptions, and taken the research where no other marketer has gone before—into a tactile world full of smells and tastes. Again, a sincere thanks to Nigel Hollis (U.S.). He managed the research project with skill, professionalism, and perpetual optimism. Thanks to Eileen Campbell (U.S.) and Andrea Bielli (Italy) who have given enormous support behind the scenes, Andreas Grotholt (Germany) for his ongoing feedback, and Andreas Gonzales (Australia) for his generosity from the very first day I knocked at his door.
Several people around the world have helped me capture the essense of sensory branding. These include Karen Elstein (UK), Andres Lopez, and Claudia Jauregui (Mexico), Mauricio Yuraszeck, Marco Zunino, and Maria Cristina Moya (Chile), Chaniya Nakalugshana and Tanes Chalermvongsavej (Thailand), Asif Noorani (Japan), Das Sharmila, Ghai Harjyoti, and Neerja Wable (India), Christine Malone and Kim South Hyde (South Africa), Pawel Ciacek (Poland), Andrei Ackles (Canada), Toni Parra (Spain), Inge Cootjans, Astrid DeJong, and Megumi Ishida (Netherlands), Lars Andersen and Julie Hoffmann Jeppesen (Denmark), and Ola Mobolade, Janette Ponticello, Bill Brannon, Dave Hluska, Doreen Harmon, Wes Covalt, Ariana Marra, Brian LoCicero, Brian Gilgren, Dusty Byrd, Mark Karambelas, Heather Fitzgerald, and Christina Swatton, all from the United States. I would also like to thank Lightspeed Online Research in the USA and have not forgotten Knots sample provider in Japan.
Since writing BRANDchild and Buyology, I’ve had the good fortune to meet inspiring people across the globe who have inspired me and helped to make this book more challenging and stimulating. Finally, I remain indebted to the many readers who sent me their amazing feedback, and the thousands of people all over the world who answered endless questionnaires and patiently discussed the five senses in the many focus groups. Branding is about feelings, and their feelings—and now, I hope yours—have been an essential contribution to this book.