What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest

by Denise Lee Yohn

Discover proven strategies for building powerful, world-class brands in this 800CEOREAD bestseller     It's tempting to believe that brands like Apple, Nike, and Zappos achieved their iconic statuses because of serendipity, an unattainable magic formula, or even the genius of a single visionary leader. However, these companies all adopted specific approaches and principles that transformed their ordinary brands into industry leaders. In other words, great brands can be built--and Denise Lee Yohn knows exactly how to do it. Delivering a fresh perspective, Yohn's What Great Brands Do teaches an innovative brand-as-business strategy that enhances brand identity while boosting profit margins, improving company culture, and creating stronger stakeholder relationships. Drawing from twenty-five years of consulting work with such top brands as Frito-Lay, Sony, Nautica, and Burger King, Yohn explains key principles of her brand-as-business strategy.
Filled with targeted guidance for CEOs, COOs, entrepreneurs, and other organization leaders, and named as one of Inc. Magazine 's Top Marketing Books of 2014,  What Great Brands Do is an essential blueprint for launching any brand to meteoric heights.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design, Buisness, Management

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Blending a fresh perspective, twenty-five years of experience working with world-class brands including Sony, Frito-Lay, and Burger King, and a talent for inspiring audiences, Denise Lee Yohn is a leading authority on building and positioning exceptional brands.

Denise initially cultivated her brand-building approaches through several high-level positions in advertising and client-side marketing. She served as lead strategist at advertising agencies for Burger King and Land Rover and as the marketing leader and analyst for Jack in the Box restaurants and Spiegel catalogs. Denise went on to head Sony Electronic Inc.’s first ever brand office, where she was the vice president/general manager of brand and strategy and garnered major corporate awards.

An influential writer, Denise penned the book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest (Jossey-Bass) and the new book Extraordinary Experiences: What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do. She enjoys challenging readers to think differently about brand-building. She contributes the monthly column Brand New Perspectives to QSR Magazine and has published work in numerous outlets, including Harvard Business Review, Advertising Age, and OPEN Forum. In 2008 she launched her blog, brand as business bites™, which the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) named as one of the top 20 marketing blogs.

With her expertise and personal approach, Denise delivers an array of inspirational workshops, presentations, and keynote addresses to business leaders in all industries. When she’s not writing or speaking, she serves as the brand director for TEDx San Diego and sits on the board of directors for a branch of the YMCA.

Outside of her professional roles, Denise counts hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, dancing with a professional ballet company, and flying a helicopter as some of her greatest life experiences.

Reviews

[Samaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me alot.
Things I learned:

•Branding is not merely a marketing tool but also a organizational and strategic tool. It is the personality of a business and it should guide a company’s every action.
•Brand-building is a matter of experimentation, good timing and sheer luck.
•Understand your brand & how it should influence the everyday running of the business.
•People don't buy products based on a rational analysis of price and quality, but instead consider the feelings and values they associate with a brand.
•Brand can be used like a strategic compass, guiding the company at large as to how it should build its corporate culture, design processes and craft marketing campaigns.
•Your brand is what your company does and how you do it.

•Your corporate culture is your brand’s foundation.

•Educate every stakeholder about what your brand is and why it’s important. Each person must understand how their actions impact the brand and how they can accurately represent the brand and enhance its value through their everyday work.
•Brand toolboxes.
•Brand engagement sessions.
•Great brands build an emotional connection with the customer.

•When your business is primarily based on knowledge, then people rather than products- it becomes your brand.
•Great brands don’t follow trends, they create them. Following trends can be a risky because trends change quickly.
•When you follow a trend set by a competitor, consumers will see you as a follower, not a leader. 

•Don’t try to please everyone.
•Besides being a slave to the latest trends and chasing after customers indiscriminately, there’s a third mistake that brands can make: focusing too intently on growth.
•Your brand can't just be a promise. It must be a promise delivered.
•Great companies ensure every detail of the customer experience is in line with its brand.
•A strong brand can also be good for the world: “doing good” is a key factor in branding. Support projects that are relevant to your industry & customers. It should mirror your brand’s ideology.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Great Brands Do was by far my favorite business book of 2014. I refer to it regularly as I build my brand consultancy. And I recommend it to clients, marketers and other professionals as the book to have if you want to understand brand-building at its core. I had the pleasure of meeting the author, Denise Lee Yohn, when she spoke at a New Orleans American Marketing Association luncheon. She was delightful, approachable and humble. Catch her in the heat of telling a brand-building story, and you'll be even more impressed. Whether on TV news shows, on her blog, during presentations or in her book, Ms. Yohn is tenacious, direct and a master at identifying what great brands do and what mediocre brands fail to do. It's refreshing! The principles in this book are both thought-provoking and practical. The book has more than inspired me. It has challenged me to think bigger about my work as a brand consultant. It has moved me into action.

[Rodrigo Herrera Itie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, the best branding - culture book I’ve read so far.

There is one phrase that highlights the essence of what I love - “Great brands put their brand - not customers - at the center of their customer strategy.

One of the biggest challenges and problems that I see today with brands and businesses is that they have a growth / profit mentality at their center, instead of value creation and principles. The big issue with “listening to the consumer and fix his/her pain points” is that your brand / business becomes a nobody with no values and principles, selling whatever (products that damage the health), creating problems that didn’t exist in their minds (marketing concepts so the consumer feels the need to buying your product).

I also think that we need to stop admiring brands like Coca Cola and McDonald’s because of their business greatness, and see the essence of who they are, (really Coca Cola sells happiness ? - or diabetes ?).

Instead, we need to admire purpose - driven brands like Tesla, space x, beyond burger, to mention just a few, that have a higher purpose as a core, and always focusing on leaving a better world.

[Kent White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished listening to this book and now I'm planning on buying a hard copy. This is such an excellent book on so many levels. I think it is a little more advanced than most may like, leaving many business owners unsure on how to really implement much. That is likely by design, since what Yohn recommends is completely redesigning your business to deliver amazing customer experiences and enlisting all employees to doing it. She says there should be no difference between what you say, who you are, and what you do. Aligning those three areas is hard work. She does have a lot of practical advice and lots of great examples, but you must be a relatively intuitive person to know how to prioritize your next steps. Definitely a guidebook for the rest of my business life!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've taken a marketing class this will probably bore you at first. It's a rehashing of companies we have heard and read about and discussed in those courses. However, it does go beyond the marketing to the actual branding, but if you've taken any courses on trademark law and licensing you've probably discussed it. Skim if you have to and when something seems interesting read it. It has a lot of real world examples but unless you're new to this world you may find it repetitive to what you already know.

[Archit Sureka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brands are like people. They need to be understood. Some brands are good, some brands are great. This book is all about making great brands. Love the way Densie has given examples from her consultancy experience. The book is full of real life business and marketing insights and strategies. Pleasure to read. Thinking BIG starts here!

[Dean Millson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best branding books I have read (and I have read a few!) Breaking down most of the key branding principals into a great format. If you're a brand strategist likes I am, or someone in charge of building a brand this will be a book you can keep coming back to.

[Vin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ideological nonsense using successful companies marketing methods and trying to arrange them into a scientific method.

[Evan MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

read it before the case studies become even more dated

The content of this book is laid out very well. The structure is very clear. Yohn has gathered a whole lot of great case studies, articles, interviews, and the like, from a whole of really smart people. I just wish I'd read it immediately after it was published. The case studies feel very focused around the time when her book was written, so even though it's <5 years old, it feels a tad dated. I'm glad I read it and I'd recommend it to anyone working in or around branding.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great insight! Author delves into success stories through enlightening and engaging ways that connect back effectively to her observations and conclusions. Not deeply analytical but enough to get me thinking in new ways about the way organizations define, perceive, and communicate about their brands.

[lnynhi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central point: branding is not just marketing but a determining factor in everything that a business does or intends to do.
Marketing is all about creating an emotional connection with the audience.

[Ivorana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the points are already common to be discussed, but the selling point for me from this book is the use case presented from the big companies. It's very interesting to explore their decision that make their company very successful (or fail) today.

[Kawania Wooten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very helpful book; however, I wish I read the book in print instead of the audiobook because I kept getting sidetracked. When I was engaged, I was able to get good marketing nuggets. Unfortunately, I struggled to stay engaged with the content (or perhaps the narrator).

[Sonia StoyHuyendo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has aged so badly. Irrelevant. Evaluate and judge brands after and from the distance to fit in a system the author has created for the book. Full of BS and theoretical ideas and blabla. I couldn't pass chapter 1.

[Goktug Oguz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to turn back to…

This is not a branding book but rather business development book. It demonstrates how great brands got into people's lives. I read it wondering what's coming next. Loved it.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep coming back to this book. Learn every time and it always has something to tell me about what we are going through at any given time. Priceless.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Common sense for account managers

[Kommi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book to find out how a brand is worth. Not only selling products but also building relationships with consumers. A successful brand is a brand that has a soul like a human.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable. Good concepts. Not comprehensive enough

[Eliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid / basic / primer on branding.

[Vy Nguyen]

I'm a newbie to branding, but I'm always curious why in market, some brands are good but the others are great. I read a few books about branding, but none of them can satisfy me. And then, I find this book "What great brands do". Thanks to the author's wide and long experience as a branding consultant, this book can clear my query ever. I will read this book again as I think one time is definitely not enough for me to get full understanding what is mentioned in this book.

[Abhi Yerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is basically an anthology of anecdotes of what great brands do. Although it does have some good things to remember such as branding starts from within, inform all decisions, etc. those could also just be construed as something a company does anyways. So I was a bit disappointed in that there was no deep dive into branding from a human psychology perspective. Otherwise, you can just read the table of contents and extrapolate what the message of the author is.

[Jessica Bashara · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on branding I’ve ever read (and I read a lot of them ). Would highly recommend to any entrepreneur or business leader.