What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best From the Rest

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Book Review Editing
Yohn, D. L. (2013). What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest. John Wiley & Sons.
Chapter 1 of “What Great Brands Do” talks about how the root of most companies issues lie within the companies values. Sam Palmsiano talks about how IBM became irrelevant for this reason in particular which resulted in 400,000 employees losing their jobs back in the 1990s. The beliefs that were once set by IBM’s founder turned the company’s culture into a place of entitlement and arrogance. Palmisano made a bold but much needed choice to change IBM’S company culture. Palmsiano states that “It’s always easier to change what you say about your company than it is to change your company.” In other words, any company can just say that they’re making changes within their company culture through advertising or any other form of promotion. Although this is the fastest way to gain an audience’s attention, its not effective if the company doesn’t put their money where their mouth is and actually act on making a change.
Change starts within the workplace aka the employees. If there is no positive workspace, the less likely companies will deliver the best experience to the consumers. “Your brand must be a promise delivered.” The book discusses an outline of a 3 step process for a company to deliver their promises and maintain a positive company culture.
After Palmisano modified IBM’s culture, IBM started producing more revenue and profits. He created a new business model and was able to create a set of new expectations for the company and set his people up for success. One of the most important lessons I learned from the book is the importance of emotional brand building in public relations management. For instance, the author uses the example of Nike to illustrate the importance of focusing on the customer rather than the product: the sportswear company built a globally-renowned brand by focusing on the brand ethos when marketing its products. Nike inspires its target customers to “Just Do It” and most of its advertisements focus on selling the emotional rewards of fitness. Great brands understand that purchase decisions are driven by feelings and therefore focus on creating emotional connections with customers that translate to higher sales. This principle translates to public relations management since developing meaningful relationships with customers is at the heart of creating a brand identity that resonates with the general public.
Another important thing I learned from the book is the importance of building an internal brand culture that understands and supports the values, practices, and principles that define the company’s brand identity. The author uses the example of IBM to illustrate how focusing on creating an effective internal culture translates to improved innovation, employee responsibility in all stakeholder relationships, and better public relations. This example underscores the value of reinforcing a strong workplace culture supported by inspiring business values to support employee actions and business decisions in public relations management. Another important thing that I learned as an overall key message throughout the book is that everyone in the company needs to feel included and heard in order to maintain a positive work environment. Palmisano’s goal was to keep a “globally consistent set of values.” In order to do this, he created a collaboration software called “ValuesJam” where employees at IBM were able to voice their ideas and talk about some of the key values that are important for them in the workplace which would ultimately improve IBM.
I honestly thought that this was a great idea and other companies should definitely look into doing something of this nature so that way they can listen to their employees and potentially improve their company values as well. IBM was able to use a classification software to analyze postings from each employee at IBM around the globe. IBM’s company values changed from “Respect for the individual” and “Pursuit of excellence” to “Dedication to every clients success,” “Innovation that matters-for our company and the world,” and “Trust and responsibility in all relationships.” One of the main themes throughout the book is Making Culture Matter. I always knew that having a positive outlook on an organization and its future were important, but up until reading this book I never really knew how much action needs to happen in order to prompt changes. It’s important for companies to educate employees to help them understand the company’s values and what is to be expected of them in order to deliver positive customer experiences. A strong business model means everything in order to have a successful business overall as it should deliver on brand values.
You want your employees positive behaviors to rub off on customers to keep them coming back. I know from personal experience that when I worked in retail, my manager made sure that we had a business model to follow. We had to know about all Disney, Marvel, and Nickelodeon products in our store as well as wear the merchandise in order to connect with consumers. The company is partnered with Feeding America so we had to let consumers know that every $10 they spent on pop culture apparel and goods wen towards providing a meal secured by Feeding America. They instilled the philosophy of giving back which relates back to the book.
Employees who are engaged with the brand connect to customers more effectively, connect to each other more fully, and connect to the brands higher purpose. I also learned about the deployment of a Brand Toolbox to investigate how departments support the brand as well as how to collaborate as a team to design more effective strategic unions, deliver more compelling business propositions, and develop new strategies of increasing revenue generation. For instance, at Sony’s electrical company, the company’s developmental groups and brand management collaborated to build a strong brand mindset throughout the company.
I agree with the book’s central premise and support the seven principles outlined by the authors as necessary to building a world-class brand. For instance, I agree that the first step in building a world-class brand is redefining the company’s culture to a brand-as-business approach that ensures all stakeholders including strategic partners, vendors, employees, and management understand and support the cultural values that define the company. I concur with the principle of cultivating an emotional link with the product the company is selling rather than banking on product superiority alone to drive the brand. I also agree that another brand principle is anticipating long-term cultural movements to sustain brand relevance instead of relying on short-term market trends which may put the brand’s identity at risk. I support the fourth step of focusing on the brand’s best target customers to generate long-term revenue rather than adopting a generic marketing approach that compromises the brand’s identity. Similarly, I agree with closing all gaps across customer touchpoints by developing a custom...