Rating: 1 star
Headline: It is sadly game over for this short business management guide to branding
Review:
To use its full title, Level Up! A game plan for entrepreneurs to take their brand to the next level and stand out in a sea of sameness (hereafter Level Up!), is a business management self-help guide by Dutch author Frank Suyker.
Level Up! is broken down into three parts: “Brand and Core”, “Assets” and “Experience”, with exercises introduced in each area to help stimulate creativity, such as brand comparison tasks and word association. Utilising his personal experiences in establishing a brand and of those gleaned through attending various conferences, Suker’s book could be best targeted toward new starters in business, those looking to develop a new brand identity from scratch. At c. 100 pages (with plenty of spacing), it is a quick read.
Despite Suyker’s attempts to make this guide easy and accessible, this is not something I would be in a position to readily recommend to others. The content feels very light on the ground, with factual assertions not backed up with any supporting evidence. For example, “estimates are that there are 30,000,000 businesses in the USA”. In this case, is Suyker referring to a business housing one employee or 1000? Readers placing their trust in self-help guides need to have confidence in the data, including the where, when and what behind the assertion.
This links me to another general comment on this book, grammar and presentation. For a book that devotes time to the importance of colour and imagery, the colours contrast is at points incredibly jarring. Capital letter statements absorbing whole pages in oversized fonts, a list of 50 words which the reader is asked to circle, a task made impossible because said words are set against a black background, a bright orange page with the caption “what does the colour orange trigger for you?” There is a strong reading disconnect with some of the design choices, as a reader you stop reading the content and focus only on the presentation. Level Up! would have benefitted so much more for having had the input of a professional editor and designer.
Deep within the pages of Level Up! there contains some small nuggets of insight. Would it make good content for a website or a magazine column? Yes. Does it make for an engaging book entry into the business management genre? On this occasion, sadly no.
AEB Reviews
Links
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “Level Up! A Game Plan for Entrepreneurs”
Purchase Link: “Level Up! A Game Plan for Entrepreneurs” (Amazon)
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