Nevermind the sizzle...where's the sausage by David J Taylor

This really is a lovely little book. It can be read (as I did) on a medium haul flight and you don’t even feel  worthy and “improved” having finished it. It tells the story of Bob Jones, initially the hapless starter of a year’s assignment as Brand Director of Simpton’s Sausages. He starts off knowing nothing about brands and branding and we follow him as he learns to avoid the advice and direction of “experts”, trust his instincts and get down and dirty with all elements of production, distribution, NPD and the consumers. He realises – and effectively persuades us -  that creating a meaningful and sustainable brand idea means the old adage of selling the sizzle not the sausage should be recast to encompass the substance (the sausage) as well as the sizzle. Like all good stories it has baddies (brand “gurus”, horrendous researchers, flattering planners, two vain bosses, etc etc ), goodies (the original creators of the business and the sausages, the committed staff etc) and a narrative arc that sweeps the reader along through ups and downs, rookie mistakes and redeeming action.

If I have a quibble it’s a small one:  if you’re a seasoned brand person you’ll enjoy recognising the rightness of the conclusions and find the characterisation of some of the worst manifestations of gurudom entertaining but I’m not sure you’ll learn anything new. And if you’re as naive as the book’s hero about branding you might be misdirected here and there into dismissing some important branding tools like valuable developmental research.

But there are genuinely practical tips and an overarching philosophy that’s hard to disagree with as the argument is so well put. I’d even go so far as to say it wouldn’t be out of place among your beach reading this summer!

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