denise lee yohn: brand as business bites™ / Archive for April, 2009

Earlier this week, I spoke on “Gaining the Competitive Edge:   How Companies Drive Business Growth by Operationalizing Their Brands without Huge Marketing Budgets” at the Marketing Forum.   The workshop outlined the “brand as business” management approach — that is, the deliberate and systematic management of the business around the brand — thinking of the brand as the business.  (You can read more about the workshop here.)

I took the participants through the differences between using a brand as a marketing asset and using it as a management tool — I invited them to complete this assessment of their organizations to help them identify where the biggest gaps might be.  I invite you to take the assessment and let me know the results.

Based on the discussion in the session, it seems like a lot of companies are not realizing the full value of their brands.  One notable exception was IBM — their marketing director described how they have distilled their brand into clear values and attributes and are always working on driving them into their services, R&D, etc.  It was great to hear about their efforts and their success.  You go, Big Blue!

This post was inspired by a recent tweet from Gabriel Rossi, a “branding strategist” (as he calls himself) based in Sao Paulo — I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Gabriel through my blog and Twitter (more…)

Next week I’m speaking at The Marketing Forum, a national conference for Chief Marketing Officers and brand managers.  My talk is on “Gaining the Competitive Edge:  How Companies Drive Business Growth by Operationalizing Their Brands without Huge Marketing Budgets.” (more…)

I just ran a series on Twitter about the things I’ve learned about business (and life) from watching “The Biggest Loser.”  I started watching the show because a client of mine is a sponsor, but I got hooked by the valuable lessons it teaches (and the drama, of course!)

#1 lesson:  keep metrics simple; the show only tracks one measure  (pounds loss); other metrics are important but focusing on one number is easy and memorable.

Please follow me on Twitter @deniseleeyohn to read the other 8 lessons — thanks!

There’s a healthy debate going on over at AdAge.com this week — a POV by Michael Fassnacht, Chief Customer Intelligence Officer at DRAFTFCB entitled “The Death of Consumer Segmentation?” (more…)

U.S. News & World Report’s interview with Susan Docherty, North American Vice President for General Motors provided some valuable insight into the troubled car company.  Her comments made it clear that GM is operating from a reactive, backward looking stance. (more…)

One of Harvard Business Review‘s pieces on marketing in these tough economic times left me feeling ambivalent.  In “Five Rules for Retailing in a Recession,” the authors outline how retailers can discover that “a larger universe of growth and productivity opportunities is open to them than they might believe.” (more…)

My birthday was last week (I turned 21 again!  )  Included in the birthday greetings I received were messages from four brands.  Of all the brands (more…)

Why do brands that have a strong point of differentiation not position themselves on it??  Quizno’s serves a case in point. (more…)