'The Open Brand': How Brands Can Thrive in a Consumer-Driven World

When I was on a panel with Kelly Mooney at an AdAge breakfast bites conference in New York, she gave me a copy of the book she co-wrote with Dr. Nita Rollins, The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World, and I quickly fell in love with it.

The book is a power-packed framework and guide for how brands can thrive and participate in a world where the consumer is the creator.

Mooney and Rollins are on the senior-executive team of one of the largest and oldest digital-marketing shops in North America. I was able to follow up with Mooney to discuss some of the insights and frameworks presented in her book.

SH: I get to read a lot of books on marketing and branding, and I must say that yours really surprised me. Too many of the books I read seem to be nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the brand craze of the last few years.

KM: I think a lot of marketing books aren't written by marketers, quite frankly. A lot of them are written by journalists or academics who aren't necessarily working with brands to solve real problems on real projects. We live in a world where digital is changing the landscape. I wanted this book to present not only a framework but also real tools for marketers to help them begin thinking about opening their brand.

SH: Well, you succeeded. I love this book, and I've been using some of the models you share with my clients with very positive results. I did notice that many of your examples are B2C in nature, so I wanted to explore whether the ideas you present would apply to B2B initiatives.

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