Balanced Brand: How to Balance the Stakeholder Forces That Can Make or Break Your Business

by Julie Kendrick, John Foley, Julie Kendrick

Book Overview

Companies usually assume if their sales are good, then their brand and reputation must be strong. But all too often, they don't have a clear understanding of the values that drive brand and reputation... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787983098
• ISBN13: 9780787983093
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great review for great balance

John Foley's approach to combining brand identity with corporate values and culture is a worthwhile strategy to assimilate into one's company. Everyone is aware that a brand will get a customer 'in the door' but Foley's strategy for identifying key stakeholders and keeping them engaged, is a strategy every company should learn how to employ and practice. I would highly reconmend this book to all who are interested in advancing both the mission and bottom line of their companies. This book would have particular appeal to young people entering the work force as a tool for staying engaged with their comapany's customers.

A must-have business book

Even as we're feeling we've got all our bases covered, finally, Mr. Foley opens our eyes to a critical consideration too many executives--in both the private and public sectors--have failed to appreciate. He not only does an effective job of presenting and substantiating the problem, he then tells us how to deal with it. I really wish this book had been available a decade or more ago! It should be on every manager's "must read" list.

Led to higher ground...

Balanced Brand guided me to higher ground. For nearly two years, my head has been awash in the technology and behavorial shifts accelerating due to internet connectivity globally and what that entails. There is a river of change flowing and it's reaching flood stage. Blogs, podcasts, vlogs, online social networking sites, news aggregation tools (allowing people to scan and consume hundreds of blog posts and news headlines in a single sitting), and instant online conversations about brand-affecting events are facilitating shifts of consciousness and awareness that profoundly effects a brand. As a consequence of all of these enabling technologies and shifts, there is a new participatory culture emerging which is allowing stakeholders in record numbers to participate vs. just being passive recipients of some miscellaneous communications campaign or messaging thrust...and this emerging culture is out of anyone's control. Balanced Brand made me stop and reconsider the complexities of all these changes occurring and instead climb to the top of the hill, sit down and look down on the river. I thought about the deeper meanings and strategies required to guarantee the river down below will be navigable...regardless of what technologies or cultures reveal themselves. This book is not about technology or participatory paradigm shifts, however. It's about balance, the essence of a brand, and how to create and utilize balanced brand strategies. Within its pages is a framework that allows any organization to understand and assess their values, those of their customers, shareholders, employees and communities within which they're involved, and be able to then understand where and how to align them. Though it doesn't say this as overtly as I am, what I thought was obvious was that -- once this work was completed -- strategic direction would be crystal clear. Once balanced branding strategies are in place, every stakeholder knows what to do. They know what the brand stands for and what it means. Employees know how to perform and use the river-of-change-shifts to facilitate brand enhancement instead of being victims and drowning in it. What hit me squarely due to my involvement in technology, is that a participatory culture can be created that sparks innovation and creativity, grows top-line revenue and customer satisfaction, all of which is of vital importance to management and shareholders. That was the higher ground I was guided to by Balanced Brand. It helped me focus and see that first-and-foremost it is the essence of the brand and the brand in practice that really matters. Everything else then falls into place.

New Paragon

In this age of corporate greed, Foley offers a blueprint for companies to fuse what's inportant to the world with good business. He shows how companies can do well by doing good. Every middle manager--on up--should read this book. Dan Buettner

So timely, so true.

It's fitting that this book came out just as the Enron trial begins. Because it's all about how not to be an Enron... or a Wall Mart, for that matter. This is a must read for business people of every stripe. The premise is simple: that instead of just thinking about the quarterly bottom line, truly successful companies today must pay attention to their values and reputations. In other words, if your customers, employees and other stakeholders love and admire you, it will pay countless dividends. The author offers up simple steps companies can take to get that alignment, and the anecdotes bring everything to life. It made me realize that the brands I admire and buy all have that alignment. A very good read.