A Brand-Builder’s Guide to the Universe: 17 Ways to Build a Great Brand Today 

It’s a brand new world out there, isn’t it?!  Building a great brand – and sustaining greatness – has become more difficult than ever before.  And yet some brands continue to grow in size, profit margin, and customer fan base. How do they do it? 

My new ChangeThis manifesto highlights 17 developments that are influencing brand-building today and what great brands are doing about them.  Download the manifesto here and read on for the 18^th way to build a great brand today.

#18 – Embrace Eroding Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is becoming more difficult to sustain.  In most categories today, the barriers to entry have become so low and the availability of resources so widespread that competition arises quickly and from almost anywhere.  Great brands have learned to defend against potential competitive threats by looking beyond their categories to identify emerging companies and cultural movements that could exploit their vulnerabilities (why Twitter purchased Vine, for example). And they’ve begun to play offense in their rapidly changing competitive landscapes by seeking out opportunities to expand their own footprints in non-traditional ways (why Netflix and Amazon Prime have produced original content).  You can't evade the erosion of competitive advantage, so embrace it.

Read the first 17 points of the Brand-Builder’s Guide to the Universe. 

A Brand-Builders Guide to SXSW

What Great Brands Do -- Update

The launch of my new book, What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest (Jossey-Bass), has been a terrific success so far!  Over the past month, I’ve done 9 speaking engagements and over a dozen interviews (including one on TV), written several articles and posts, and been covered by a range of media and bloggers.  All this has produced tons of great resources and content for you – check these out:

Bylined articles, columns, and guest blog posts:

• Great Brands Never Have to “Give Back” (Harvard Business Review blog)
• Why Marketers Need To Stop Following Trends And Start Advancing Movements (Forbes CMO Network)
• Leadership Lessons from Great Brands (Ron Kitchens/Always Forward blog)
• Pick a Prime Positioning (QSR Magazine) 

• Building a Brand (33voices – audio interview & slideshow)
• Brand Power (First Business TV – video)
• Jay Ehret Interviews Denise Lee Yohn (Power to the Small Business podcast)

• How Some Brands Become Great (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Brand Experts to Reveal New Age Strategies at Banff Gathering (Globe & Mail)
• The Gathering Conference in Banff Looks at Developing Cult-Like Brands (Calgary Herald)
• Great Brands Put Culture First (Steve McKee/McKee Wallwork & Company blog)
• The Container Store — What We Stand For (The Container Store blog)
• Bob Morris review of What Great Brands Do (Employee Engagement Network)
• The Brand of a Great Brand (Jeff Johns/Leadership Strategy blog)
• IBM: How Employees Bring “Smarter Planet” Positioning to Real-World Engagement (BrandingBusiness.com)