David Aaker has become the guru of brand strategy with his impact research, twelve books, hundred-plus articles, consulting, and speaking. From Fargo to the World of Brands details the intellectual journey that led to a focus on brands–with stops in marketing models, market research, advertising management, emotional advertising, and business strategy–and chronicles his attempts to influence management practices. It provides a profile of academic life, the story of a brand consulting company, and a description of the rich experience associated with his second professional home in Japan.

This warmhearted autobiography also describes Aaker’s personal life–growing up in the Midwest in the ‘40s and '50s, his roots, how a Fargo boy over his head survived at MIT and Stanford, his entrepreneurial failure, his passions and relationships, and how the Aaker family evolved over forty years.