SAID Aghil Baaghil, Middle East leading brand marketing strategy consultant and thinker on marketing, is launching the second edition of his most popular book "The Power of Belonging". The second edition covers the steps that companies should take to avoid competition and why brands are the single reason to increase barriers. The latest edition also discusses how the Middle East is lost between the rightful meaning of marketing and communication and noted that advertising is not the only source of marketing result, but the fundamentals of marketing or the foundations are the core reason to keep a brand sustainable. The book uses examples of world brands such as Starbucks, Expedia, Thomas Cook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and showed how a few of them changed their corporate strategy to relate to market demands. Baaghil states in his book the reasons why Middle Eastern companies fail to create brand sustainability and achieve corporate expectations. “With the growing clutter of industries in increasingly competitive markets, strategies for differentiation are key factors of success. I always advise my clients concerning the importance of leading the categories they operate in. Today's brands must mean cash flow for the company; the old attitude of brands being merely a tool for advertising is a losing proposition,” Baaghil commented. — SG
