denise lee yohn: brand as business bites™ /

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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Last month I asked you to vote to get my manifesto, “Reset:  Re-Ignite Your Business with the Power of Your Brand,” published on ChangeThis.  I really appreciate all of your votes which ended getting my paper to one of the top spots on the list — but apparently others garnered more and so they took a pass.  So…I’m publishing it here instead.  And, I’m also posting some bonus content. (more…)

Five years ago this month, I became an independent!

Yep – back in September of 2004, I followed the advice of a book title I heard of (“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”) and resigned my VP/GM Brand and Strategy post at Sony Electronics, Inc. to hang out a shingle as an independent brand consulting partner.  I thought I’d take this occasion to recount some of the milestones on the journey I’ve been on since that crazy moment.

For those of you who don’t know me well, I hope this post will explain why I believe so strongly in “brand as business” – and for those of you who have been my support and guidance, partners and clients over the last 5 years, I hope you will be able to see how you’ve helped get me to where I am today.   

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The folks at ChangeThis* are considering publishing my manifesto, “Reset: Re-ignite Your Business with the Power of Your Brand“ — and I need your votes to make it happen.

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Congratulations to Jon Galloway, the winner of the “vote for the best blogpost” celebration I held to mark the 1-year anniversary of my blog!

Jon voted for “don’t go changin’ to try to please them,” a post I had written about why brands shouldn’t go chasing after customers.  Jon explains his choice:

This really resonated with me since I’ve seen this mistake made so many times from a product development point of view:  (more…)

My Patagonia catalog arrived in the mail today and I was reminded once again of all the things the Patagonia brand does that don’t seem to make sense — but they do.  The catalog’s inside cover spread,

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The series on brand value creation continues today with a look at how brands create value for companies in their Internal Business Processes.   Although a brand’s ability to create value from the Financial and Customer perspectives is probably the most important, its impact on Internal Business Processes is the most fundamental. (more…)

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!

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…)

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…)