Branding
con Criterio
A novel-essay about change, strategic tensions and the judgement required to lead businesses and brands through uncertain times.
For the time being,
the book is only available in Spanish
About the Book
Where story-building meets strategic thinking.
Some books tell stories. Others explore ideas. Branding con Criterio brings the two together, inviting readers to see business, brands, and leadership through a different lens.
Written by Cristián Saracco, this hybrid of novel and essay explores a question that matters as much in business as in life: how do we embrace change without losing what makes us who we are?
Across fifteen interconnected chapters, three distinctive characters -Mira Bellacappa, Lucien Thornevale, and Enzo Fulmine- navigate conversations, cities, and unexpected realities. Their journey unfolds alongside reflections on company purpose, business and brand strategy, ambidextrous thinking, and brands with a conscience.
Rather than offering a conventional branding manual, the book connects human experience with strategic thinking, exploring the tensions between identity and transformation, ambition and responsibility, and ideas and action.
At its heart lies the metaphor of a sand compass: a reminder that direction matters, even when the ground beneath us keeps moving.
A book to read, to question and to return to time and again; because better judgement begins with a different way of looking at things.
Why This Book? Why Now?
When everything changes, knowing what matters becomes essential.
We live in a world that rewards speed, novelty, and constant reinvention. Businesses are expected to adapt, innovate and grow -often simultaneously, and preferably yesterday.
Yet change is not necessarily progress. Moving faster means little if we are uncertain where we are heading.
For business leaders, this raises a fundamental question: how do we preserve what makes an organisation strong today while developing what will keep it relevant tomorrow?
The challenge extends beyond branding. It involves purpose and performance, identity and transformation, commercial ambition and responsibility. Above all, it demands the judgement to distinguish what should endure from what needs to evolve.
Combining fiction with strategic reflection, the book challenges easy answers and recognises that meaningful decisions involve people, competing priorities and consequences that rarely fit neatly into a spreadsheet.
In an age of abundant information and accelerating technology, clarity, responsibility and sound judgement matter more than ever.
The future will always ask us to change. The real challenge is knowing what deserves to endure.
Read Before You Decide
Before deciding whether a book deserves a place on your shelf, you should be able to spend a little time with its ideas.
Read the opening pages of Branding con Criterio. Discover its narrative voice, the questions that shape its argument and the unusual territory between literature and business thinking.
An invitation to read
About the Author
A life spent questioning how businesses and brands work.
Cristián is a business and branding strategist, author and founding partner of Allegro 234.
His professional journey spans more than 30 years of working with organisations, leaders and brands across different markets and cultures.
His thinking connects business strategy, brand building, organisational transformation and the development of brands with a conscience.
As member of the Medinge Group, he has contributed to the international conversation on responsible business, ambidextrous strategy and the role of branding in creating lasting value.
Branding con Criterio brings together those professional experiences and a more personal exploration of the ideas, contradictions and human encounters that shape strategic judgement.
Because experience does not necessarily make us certain; sometimes, it simply teaches us to ask more interesting questions.
A Few Questions Before Turning the First Page
Branding con Criterio is a novel-essay by Cristián Saracco exploring how organisations navigate change, manage strategic tensions, and make coherent decisions across company, business, and brand.
Not in the conventional sense. It combines narrative, conceptual frameworks, and strategic reflection, offering an exploration of business and branding rather than a step-by-step manual.
Business leaders, entrepreneurs, brand strategists, marketing professionals, consultants, academics and readers interested in the relationship between business decisions, human values and organisational change.
Yes!
The manuscript includes models and illustrations addressing purpose, brand positioning, brand architecture, ambidextrous strategy, conscious branding and strategic implementation.
For the time being, the book is only available in Spanish.
Unfortunately, we will have to wait a while for editions in other languages.
The final page
is rarely the end
of the conversation.
We explore how organisations can preserve what matters, develop what comes next and build brands that create value, deliver results and contribute positively to the world around them.
English
Spanish