Book excerpt: Building Better Brands is the essential guide to creating and evolving brands. Leveraging three decades of brand consulting for legendary companies like Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson, 3M, Owens-Illinois, National Australia Bank, and American Express, as well as middle-market and new-media startups, Scott Lerman shares the processes and frameworks needed to build great brands. This book is for you if you're a CEO seeking to enhance your knowledge of the branding process, a marketing/communications specialist who wants to take a leadership role in advancing an organizations brand, a brand consultant who is striving to sharpen and extend your skills, or a student who wants to jump-start a career in branding. Whatever its starting point--market leader or struggling competitor--any organization that follows this step-by-step guide will end up with a better brand.