denise lee yohn: brand as business bites™ / trends

Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s publication of its “The Popularity Issue:  America’s most popular products and how they got that way” makes some fascinating statements about today’s business culture — but not because of the items it named (although those do make for an interesting read.)

The fact that a business publication would devote an issue to things which are “popular” and that it plans to do this every year (as this issue was named its “1st Annual”) suggests that popularity is a concept businesspeople care about – which is an interesting, and not necessarily  good, development.   Further, the methods by which BusinessWeek measures so-called popularity reveal the vagary in any undertaking to understand popularity – which leads to some important implications about business success. (more…)

Now that summer is officially here, I wanted to take a look back at the past 6 months and see what kinds of conversations had been sparked by brand as business bites. The following are the top posts from each month in terms of number of re-tweets, comments, or emails they generated – I’ve also included some of the commentary.  I’d definitely like to hear more, so please take a look and then add your voice to the conversation by clicking on the “comments” link below. (more…)

This month I’m honored to feature an interview with Michael Tchong.  Michael is a trend analyst who shares with his audiences insights into the present and future which can fuel breakthrough innovation.  Ever since I met Michael at a CMO Council summit a couple of years ago, I have enjoyed learning from him and really value his perspectives.

In our talk, Michael shares about the trends taking shape which are characterized by consumers’ TBD (too busy disorder) and DWT (driving while texting — the “new DWI”) and how marketers are rendering themselves control-less — but there are countless opportunities for marketers to reinvent themselves and their categories if they are willing to listen to consumers and put their minds to it.

On his site, Ubercool you can learn more about Michael and get a sneak peak at his new book, Social Engagement Marketing, which is due out this summer. Also be sure to check out his blog, Ubertrends .

Enjoy this inspirational and provocative interview!

Listen to this post as a podcast:

Right-click here to download the podcast

other interviews:

• jeanne bliss on beloved companies
• scott goodson on cultural movements
• ben mcconnell on employees as brand evangelists
• andy beal on the social web and brand-building

Right before the holidays, MarketingSherpa released its “2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.”  The report indicated that “improving brand or product reputation” and “increasing brand or product awareness” did not rank highly in the list of social media objectives targeted and measured by U.S. marketers.  This confirms my own findings that companies are overlooking the importance of using social media tools for strategic, proactive brand-building. (more…)

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday and you are as excited as I am about kicking off 2010!

After the long hard haul of 2009, I’m eager to see business get off to a fresh start this year. It’s impossible to know exactly what the New Year will bring, but I’m confident more attention will be paid to brands and brand-building.  That’s because there are at least three key areas that I see brands having an immediate and significant impact in: (more…)

As 2009 draws to a close, I thought I’d take a quick look back at significant developments of the past year.  And what a year it’s been, hasn’t it?!

Last January, I don’t think any of us could have predicted how bad things would get (the economic downtown, collapse of the automotive industry, Adam Lambert’s American Music Awards performance – to name a few of the year’s downers) – nor what the bright spots would end up being (Twitter adoption, explosion of iPhone Apps, and Glee – some of my picks for highlights!)

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This week’s BusinessWeek features two stories back-to-back that together make an important point for all businesses trying to navigate today’s recessionary times. First is a piece on Target’s apparent move down market, “Look Who’s Stalking Wal-Mart.”  It outlines several moves by Target that seem to be taken from Wal-Mart’s playbook. Then there’s the article, “Why Old Navy May Still Be at Sea,” relaying the cheap-chic retailer’s struggles and successes over the past few years. (more…)

This is a continuation of the debrief from the Brand Managecamp conference.  In my last post, I relayed insights about Innovation from the “elite conference on branding” that I attended in Las Vegas last week.   Today I’m covering the 2 remaining themes that arose – both fall under the category of “stuff that matters”:  Substance (meaning, mission, authenticity, integrity) and Results (ROI, accountability, behavior, reality).

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A few weeks ago, in response to some inquiries by colleagues and friends, I wrote about personal branding.

As a reminder, I suggested (more…)

I noticed an interesting juxtaposition of taglines the other day — actually it was during the Super Bowl, but don’t worry, this isn’t yet another piece about Super Bowl ads (I’ve already said my peace, as I hope everyone else has.) (more…)