Denise Lee Yohn

Through her expertise and personal approach, Denise has become an in-demand keynote speaker inspiring business leaders around the world to build great brands and exceptional organizations. Her keynote presentations have captivated international audiences at conferences including TEDx, the Consumer Electronics Show, The Art of Marketing, the National Restaurant Show, and Sustainable Brands, among others, and at corporate events for Facebook, Lexus, NFL, and more.

Denise enjoys challenging readers to think differently about brand leadership. With that goal in mind, she has written several books including the bestseller What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest and the new book FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies.

She is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes and has been a sought-after writer for publications including Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Knowledge@Wharton, ChangeThis, Seeking Alpha, QSR Magazine, among others. News media including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times call on Denise when they want an expert point-of-view on hot business issues.

Denise initially cultivated her brand-building approaches through several high-level positions in advertising and client-side marketing. She served as lead strategist at advertising agencies for Burger King, Land Rover, and Unilever and as the marketing leader and analyst for Jack in the Box restaurants and Spiegel catalogs. Denise went on to head Sony Electronic Inc.’s first ever brand office, where she garnered major corporate awards as the vice president/general manager of brand and strategy. She has served clients as an independent consulting partner since 2004.

For her work with some of the world’s greatest organizations, Denise has won awards from the American Marketing Association (EFFIE). HOW Magazine’s Interactive Design competition, the Financial Communications Society, Sony Corporation, and Sony Electronics Inc.

The Fusion Formula: Brand + Culture = Results

Forget everything you think you know about workplace culture!  You don’t need perks and parties.  You need engaged employees who produce the right results and help you build a great brand.  Denise shows you how to infuse your culture with your core brand values and align your people with your unique brand identity, so you produce a healthy organization and a valuable brand.  Based on her new book, FUSION, Denise shares the secrets behind the world’s greatest organizations and lays out the leadership playbook for achieving the brand-culture fusion you need to power your performance and future-proof your business.

Brand Leadership:  How to Build a Rock Star Brand

You know how great brands dominate their fields.  You experience it every time you pay a premium for a certain type of jeans, or see a line of people camping out to catch the newest smart phone release.  Denise shows you how to achieve rock star brand status.  Drawing from case studies, analyses, and interviews with brand leaders from the world’s leading brands, she shows you what great brands do and how to achieve the kind of brand leadership that everyone — from customers to employees to investors — wants a piece of.

Ignite Experience: Fuse Customer Experience and Employee Experience to Drive Your Growth

Customer experience is the new competitive battlefield where customer loyalty is won or lost.  And among employees, the war for talent is intensifying.  How do you win on both fronts?  Denise shows you how to align and integrate your employee and customer experiences—and unleash their combined power to fuel your growth.  Learn how to design and deliver employee experiences that fully engage your people and translate into customer experience excellence.  Denise lays out the complete game plan you need to win the hearts and minds of customers and employees.

Extraordinary Experiences: How to Win Customers’ Hearts and Dollars

How do some companies break through the clutter; compete with bigger, better-resourced competitors; and manage to grow and thrive when so many others fail?  They earn customer love and loyalty through extraordinary experiences.  Denise gives you the complete blueprint for creatively designing and consistently delivering customer experiences that win over customers for life.  Learn how to get the edge that everyone else wants and excel at customer experience.

Brand-Building Isn’t Just for the Big Guys

It’s true!  You don’t have to be big to be great.  Even if you’re an entrepreneur who’s short on time and money, you can build a brand that stands out and has a big impact.  Denise shows you what you need to beat the big guys at their own game.  She reveals the Minimum Viable Brand (MVB) framework and how to lay the foundation for getting traction in a crowded, cluttered marketplace. Learn the 6 “What’s” that every start-up and small business must answer — and how the most successful entrepreneurs have built powerful, profitable brands.

What Great Salespeople Do

If you’re worried about how the role of sales and selling is changing, you need to know what the best salespeople do to succeed in this new business environment.   Denise shows you that great salespeople do what great brands do.  She explains how to innovate — not imitate, how to create extraordinary experiences that embody your brand, and how to cultivate strong, emotional connections with customers.   You’ll be inspired to engage with clients in new ways that cut out competitors and create long-term business success. Learn why and how the most effective salespeople operate as brand evangelists — and how you can too to win the new sales game.