I've been reading Kevin Roberts blog recently http://krconnect.blogspot.com (he's the CEO of of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide). He's a very smart man who has learned a lot about marketing/how people tick.
Today I picked up a copy of his book Lovemarks. Over the next week, I plan to blog a few thoughts about it as I read.

To start here a few quotes:
* "Women wear clothes to make them feel good and to feel sexy. Women turn themselves on. Men like to look at women be turned on-to feel sexy is too know you're alive."
* P&G is a company totally committed to doing the right thing. Why? Because the principles don't belong to P&G, they belong to the people who work there.
* Great ideas, like humor, come from the corners of the mind, out on the edge. That's why humor can break up log-jams in both personal relationships and in business.
* The power of the edge is one of today's most compelling ideas.
* The edge gives us a special attitude. Cutting edge, leading edge, bleeding edge, the edge of inspiration, on the edge of our seats. The edge is exciting and risky and extreme. Great ideas can come from anywhere, but most of them turn up on the edge.

What came before Lovemarks?
In the beginning, products look pretty much like, choice was easy. Then came trademarks. A trademark was not just a name tag, but a quality mark. Trademarks define teritory, however, history is full of trademarks that have become commoditised (eg cellotape). Trademarks don't necessarily guarantee successful differentiation. Brands were developed to create differences for products that were in danger of becoming hard to tell apart.

Thus ends chapters 1 & 2