Brand Harmony

We appreciated that the book was concise and focused on the customer experience as a whole rather than targeting only marketing applications. Yastrow clarifies that branding occurs through all customer touchpoints, identifying that internal marketing is as important, and in some cases more important, than external marketing. The examples that Yastrow draws upon range from executives down to frontline employees, and the advice given is practical, making it easy to digest.

The book has moments where the clichés take away from the overall impact of the book, weakening the argument and leaving readers to question the expertise of the author. Much of the book is grounded in the author’s personal theories and insights rather than deriving its backing from case studies, making this a theoretical application rather than an actual observation within the business space. At times, the book shares insights into how brand harmony can be achieved, yet many of the conclusions are common sense and not necessarily revolutionary in their own right. Overall, the book is lacking the practical application that is founded in thorough books such as The Experience Economy, The Ultimate Question 2.0, or The Customer Experience Strategy.

Brand Harmony presents a fresh and revealing approach to branding and explains how companies of all types and sizes can achieve dynamic results by orchestrating their customers’ total experience. Brand Harmony is a breakthrough concept that aligns everyone in a company to deliver a powerful, harmonious message to customers.Full of common-sense wisdom, Brand Harmony dispels the myths about branding and shows how companies can successfully create Brand Harmony in the minds of their customers by aligning the entire organization to tell one cumulative story. Brand Harmony takes marketing beyond the marketing department by showing how people throughout an organization need to “be the brand” in order to create comprehensive, company-wide messages that customers will understand and believe. Brand Harmony includes 10 how-to exercises based on Yastrow’s proven methods and real-life examples which walk the reader through each stage of the branding process.

Businesses small and large would benefit from understanding that their brand is affected by all of their business’s actions. Those who operate smaller businesses would have additional benefit because it enables them to create a brand impression without extensive advertising. As a whole, the book is a great way to understand how a brand is formed, nurtured, and perceived by the public.