Emotional Brand Building and Strategic Brand Management: Analysis of Yohn's Seven Brand-Building Principles
Overview
This book review analyzes Denise Lee Yohn's 'What Great Brands Do,' examining seven brand-building principles that separate successful global brands from competitors. The review synthesizes Yohn's prescriptive framework—including internal culture alignment, emotional connections, trend resistance, customer focus, touchpoint optimization, competitive commitment, and stakeholder value creation—and reflects on applications to public relations management.
What this essay covers
- Publication details and author credentials overview
- Summary of seven brand-building principles with case study examples from Apple, Nike, and Zappos
- Critical analysis distinguishing the work as practical marketing guide rather than academic text
- Personal reflection on emotional brand building lessons applicable to public relations
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Yohn, D. L. (2013). What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest. John Wiley & Sons.
“What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best
from the Rest” by Denise Lee Yohn discusses seven proven strategies for creating powerful and globally renowned brands. The author, a business consultant and speaker with over 25 years of experience as a brand specialist, lays out the essentials to building a world-class brand using case studies of some of the biggest companies in the world like Apple, Nike, and Zappos. The central premise of the book is that companies can fashion a great brand by starting inside, making emotional connections, ignoring trends, focusing on target customers, closing the gaps in the customer touchpoints, staying committed to the brand, and creating value.
According to the author, 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. The second step is cultivating an emotional link with the product the company is selling rather than banking on product superiority alone to drive the brand. The third step 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.