Dan Schawbel Interviews Susan Gunelius about Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter

This week, I answered some questions posed to me by Dan Schawbel of Personal Branding Blog about my new book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, and my book about the Harry Potter brand, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon.

You can read the full interview on Dan’s blog and learn how Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter are connected in terms of branding strategy.

Bet you never thought you’d hear that Playboy and Harry Potter can be compared to each other!

Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:

Dan Schawbel: What branding lessons can we learn from Playboy and Harry Potter?

Susan Gunelius: I think the biggest similarity between the Playboy and Harry Potter brands is the importance of having a brand champion and brand guardian at the helm. Both Playboy and Harry Potter have two of the strongest brand champions and advocates leading the way — Hugh Hefner and J.K. Rowling. Both resolutely defend their brands just as much as they promote them.

Read the rest here.

Sneak Peak – Building Brand Value the Playboy Way

KeySplash Creative President and CEO Susan Gunelius’ newest book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, will be released this month in the United Kingdom and in October in the United States.

You can read an excerpt of Building Brand Value the Playboy Way from the book’s Introduction on Entrepreneur.com.

When I started writing this book, I already viewed Hugh Hefner as the ultimate brand champion and brand guardian, and when I finished, that opinion had only grown stronger. Building Brand Value the Playboy Way was written for an academic and professional audience, and describes how one man’s idea to create a lifestyle magazine for men in the 1950s turned into one of the most recognized brands in the world. It’s a fascinating story that all branding and marketing students and professionals can learn from.

Building Brand Value the Playboy Way is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other book stores (both online and offline).

Cover of ‘Building Brand Value the Playboy Way Released’

The cover of my new book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan this fall, was finalized today.  Here it is…

What do you think?

Read an Excerpt of “Harry Potter – The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon” by Susan Gunelius

The publisher of my book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon, gave me permission to provide an excerpt from the book here on the KeySplash Creative website. 

You can read the Introduction here and get an idea of what the book is about.  It’s a fascinating branding and marketing story that I truly enjoyed researching and writing!

Susan Gunelius Interviewed on ThirdWay Advertising

This week, David Vinjamuri, author of Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brandsand President of ThirdWay Brand Trainers, published an interview I did with him to discuss my book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon, marketing, blogging and branding. 

David asked some great questions and reminded me just how much fun it was to write this book.

You can read the complete interview here.

“Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps” Reviewed on About.com

Today my copywriting book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, was reviewed on About.com by Allena Tapia, the Guide to Freelance Writing. 

Allena gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.  You can follow the previous link to read the complete review.

I’ve started a blog on Amazon.com to support each of my books:

• Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps
• Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon
• Google Blogger For Dummies(coming in January 2009)

If you’ve read one of my books and would like to publish a review on your blog, please email the link to me at susan@keysplashcreative.com.  I’ll gladly publish an excerpt on Amazon.com with a link back to your site and the review.  That’s got to be an incoming link that should help page ranking!