By Fiona Chan

APPLE has done it. So has Nike and Coca-Cola and Starbucks.

But building a brand that blazes is no easy task - particularly for smaller companies with tighter advertising budgets.

The ground rules are probably common knowledge by now: Know your consumer, be distinctive, be consistent.

Still, putting all these principles into practice is easier said than done. Fortunately, businesses in need of help can borrow useful hints from the slew of books that have emerged on consumer behaviour and branding tricks and trends.

The Straits Times takes a look at three of the newer titles to hit the shelves.

1. I'm With The Brand: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy And Who We Are, by Rob Walker (2008, paperback, $31.90 from Borders)

CONSUMERS have been so inundated with advertising that many like to think they are immune to branding.

But the truth, according to this book, is that no one is unmoved.

Indeed, it tries to crack what it calls the 'desire code': the combination of factors - 'rational and otherwise' - that compel us to buy certain things.

One factor is simplicity - the type that allows consumers to impose their own identities on the product. Take Hello Kitty: That almost spartan drawing of a cat, which does not even sport a mouth, allows it to be construed in whatever way suits the consumer.

Thus, a 'meaningless' symbol comes to mean 'nostalgia to one person, fashionability to another, camp to a third, vague subversiveness to a fourth'.

The 'multiplicity' of simple items can also explain the success of the Livestrong wristband and the iPod, argues the author.

Ultimately, while consumers no longer see themselves as slaves to a brand, they still buy into certain products on which they can imprint their own identities and through which they can express their inner selves.

2. Sway: The Irresistible Pull Of Irrational Behaviour, by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman (2008, paperback, $28.95 from Borders)

FOR those who want to become successful marketers, perhaps the most important step is to understand why your customers act the way they do.

While much of modern economic theory is founded on assumptions of rational behaviour, the truth is that consumers often make seemingly irrational decisions.

This book is aimed at helping people understand why they make these apparently illogical decisions, such as refusing to sell a stock that keeps falling.

But Sway also contains valuable information for marketers. One of the central concepts is that of 'value attribution', which refers to how a consumer ascribes value to a product given its context and setting.

Take the story of New Yorker Elizabeth Gibson, who saw a painting in the trash that caught her eye. She almost left it there, thinking it was just rubbish, but in the end, she decided to take a closer look, removing it from its cheap frame.

The painting turned out to be a stolen work by a Mexican artist that eventually sold for more than US$1 million (S$1.45 million) at a Sotheby's auction.

Such examples are strewn across this highly readable book.

Some build on well-known tenets such as the principle that a consumer's expectations of a product are shaped by how much it costs. The authors take this one step further - arguing that pricing is important, yes, but so are the discounts that are given.

For example, a consumer who receives discounted season passes for the theatre is less likely to return for subsequent shows than another who pays the full price.

The patrons who received the discounts will regard the shows as inferior - even if they enjoyed the shows as much as those with full-price tickets.

Sway is not a marketing textbook, but it is a pleasant, and often enlightening, read for those curious about the ostensibly irrational forces that hold sway over consumers.

3. The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis In Brand Value And How To Avoid It, by John Gerzema and Ed Lebar (2008, hardcover, $52.90 from Borders)

THIS book is founded on a message that will strike fear into the hearts of every marketing executive: Brands are actually worth less to consumers than businesses think they are.

The authors, both from Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest ad agencies, have used a proprietary tool to measure how much various brands are worth.

The results have convinced them that a 'brand bubble' is building up because there is such a glut of brands, companies are lacking in creativity and consumers have lost faith in many products after bad experiences.

The solution? Energy, say the authors. Take your cue from companies such as Google, which have the dynamism and momentum needed to keep consumers interested and enthusiastic, they argue.

Ultimately, they stress, brands need to keep evolving, to refresh themselves and to move forward, along with progressive social media.

The Brand Bubble is structured more like a textbook than the others, offering frameworks, charts, graphs, grids and case studies. There are parts that are not easy to get through, but the analysis is often thought-provoking enough to make the book worth the investment.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.