Insights

Extraordinary Is a Scary Word

By Steve McKee
“You, as a leader, must explicitly decide, articulate and adopt your brand as the driver of every aspect of your business.”

I wish I’d said that.

In fact, there are many things in Denise Lee Yohn’s new book, Extraordinary Experiences  I wish I’d said. A follow up to her smart 2014 release, What Great Brands DoExtraordinary Experiences makes the what-shouldn’t-be-so-extraordinary point that brands are, at their core, experiences. Companies often get so tied up in thinking about the physical manifestations of branding–whether those be logos, advertisements, packaging or even decor–that they can easily forget that its the experiences consumers have with each and all of those elements that ultimately define their brands.

Denise is a smart marketer and longtime friend, and I admire and appreciate her relentless focus on the whole. She doesn’t discount the parts—far from it—but she always manages to bring readers back to what they all add up to. And her seven brand development principles are as insightful as they are unique (I’m particularly partial to “Great brands never have to ‘give back’.”)

It may seem odd for a company like MWC that specializes in revitalizing stalled, stuck and stale brands to offer such high praise for a practitioner of similar arts, but what Denise (and we) preach is so rare that it deserves to be shared. Besides, despite her encouragement that any brand can create extraordinary experiences, there are plenty who haven’t yet cracked the code to go around. Plus, it’s in our firm’s DNA to always offer the kind truth, even if it isn’t always we who turn the phrase. That’s part of the extraordinary experience we aim to provide at MWC.

Thanks to Denise for the gentle reminder.

author-steve-mckee-v2
Steve McKee

Co-founder and author, Steve specializes in addressing the most meaningful problems. Call Steve when you want to change the world. He’ll have a thought (and some research) on that.

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