DK - but not Donkey Kong!

My next interview really gets me thinking. I started this journey expecting people to refer to luxury brands and am being pleasantly surprised as I go on.

Bev's WOW!-brand is Dorling Kindersley. Yes I had to ask too!! And swiftly realise that almost all of us will have been touched by it's products at some point in our lives almost without thinking about it.

The logo gives it away of course....so why DK?

Dorling Kindersely - A Full Range of Books

'Well no matter what the subject, from children's books, to cookery to natural history their books are always lovely to look through', Bev remarks.

I have to agree as I recall a lovely 'sweet treats' cook book perched in my kitchen at this very moment.

   

'All their books have quality content', Bev continues, 'and the best thing is that they never seem to date'.

As I soon discover, Dorling Kindersley was founded as a book-packaging company by Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley in London in 1974, and in 1982 moved into publishing. The first book published under the DK name was a First Aid Manual for the British voluntary medical services; this book established the company's distinctive visual style of copiously illustrated text on a glossy white background. DK Inc. began publishing in the United States in 1991.

In 1999 DK printed 18 million Star Wars books but sold less than half of them, leaving the company with crippling debt. As a direct result, DK was taken over the following year by the Pearson PLC media company, and made part of Penguin Group, which also owns the Penguin Books label.

Nevertheless the brand clearly has a great deal of equity such that Penguin continue to use it copiously. DK also publish books in 60 different languages, from Arabic to Russian and I start to realise that this is a truly global brand.

And of course DK is moving with the times as information is bought to life with DK's brand new illustrated eBooks which are now available from Apple's iBookstore.



DK's New eBooks Bring Things To Life

The new eBooks are built using Apple's brand new iBooks, created by a team of DK award-wining editors and designers, covering a range of subjects which is undoubtedly going to grow.

So let me think....

History - 1974 (38 years)

Global - Yes

Quality - that never dates

Traditional - but keeping up with modern life 

   

...am I starting to discover the key attributes of a WOW!-brand?