The Visionary Brand

The Success Formula Behind the World's Most Visionary Brands

Non-Fiction - Business/Finance
235 Pages
Reviewed on 10/25/2021
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Author Biography

Bryan Smeltzer is a successful consumer products business executive and entrepreneur. He has held executive-level roles in business development, product, and marketing with some of the world's most prestigious brands, including; Oakley, TaylorMade, Adidas, K-Swiss, Schutt Sports, among other international brands.
In addition, Mr. Smeltzer founded an apparel brand, successfully running a profitable business for ten years, eventually selling to a VC firm.
He currently oversees LiquidMind Inc., a global brand strategy firm that partners with both start-ups and established brands to empower their businesses to think different, be different, drive a passionate culture, and execute relentlessly.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite

The Visionary Brand: The Success Formula Behind the World’s Most Visionary Brands opens with an interesting case study about Oakley and how it almost lost its cultural direction as a brand and regained its footing by re-aligning its brand identity. Author Bryan Smeltzer shares his three decades in the business from founding his own company and to being involved in executive-level roles with some of the world’s most iconic brands. His book points out that many in the business believe that product, marketing, culture, and innovation are good starting points in creating a visionary brand, but they need to be an integral part of your brand’s foundation to make it work and must be upheld throughout your brand’s entry into the world. It incorporates elements of a successful formula that includes not only positioning but also what is called the Power Triad, culture matrix, and how to navigate the ecosystem that will be your brand’s habitat. It is your chance to take a glimpse into how competitive brands sustain their huge hold on their target market.

Visionary branding is a powerful tool for aligning a product’s identity in the development of strategic competitive advantage. The Visionary Brand could not have come at a more opportune time. It is an idea that is timeless and will prove indispensable for as long as companies and their brands are jousting for the competitive edge in the market. If there is anything that Bryan Smeltzer’s case studies and easy-to-digest style of writing have taught me, it is that paying attention to the literature on visionary branding will help companies not only to focus on their core values and identity, but it will also increase their responsiveness to change. While reading this book, I can’t help but remember the tragedy of Blackberry, HTC, and Nokia. The Visionary Brand is highly recommended to anyone who wants to learn how a brand retains a strong recall and avoids the pitfalls of obscurity.

Renee Guill

The Visionary Brand: The Success Formula Behind the World's Most Visionary Brands by Bryan Smeltzer is a non-fiction business book. He talks about how to use branding and innovative products to help your business grow. He also explains how marketing, culture, and lifestyle helps. Bryan Smeltzer uses companies like Apple and Nike to explain how they stayed ahead of the game. He also uses quotes and graphics to explain his points and discusses how to have a life outside of the business and how that will help you stay on top.

I thought that The Visionary Brand by Bryan Smeltzer was very informative. I loved how he used an orchestra for an analogy to explain. I liked how he talked about branding first, then products, and even about your life outside of business. Most people do not talk about the latter. I thought that was refreshing. I really liked how Bryan uses well-known companies like Apple and Nike to show how they stayed on top of their game. I thought the graphics were a nice touch, and I really loved the quotes, especially from Vincent Van Gogh. That one was surprising. I liked how Bryan gave definitions to certain words and mentioned other books to read if you need more information. My favorite part was how he motivates you at the end with each summary. I think this book would be great for any entrepreneur as well as large companies. If you need some insight and motivation to start a company or to help your company, then I highly recommend reading The Visionary Brand.

K.C. Finn

The Visionary Brand: The Success Formula Behind the World’s Most Visionary Brands is a work of non-fiction in the business genre. It is suitable for the general reading audience and was penned by Bryan Smeltzer. Exploring the concept of a ‘visionary’ brand, the book explores the building blocks that successful brands have used to create a vision for their products, a consistent presentation of that vision across the years, and a culture of loyal and engaged followers. With a focus on authenticity, creativity, and building a brand based on ethics and principles, the book aims to provide a practical framework for studying successful real-world cases to see what lessons smaller brands can learn.

This book on business concepts encourages the reader to aim big with their ambitions and follows through on this with the tools to achieve those ambitions. Bryan Smeltzer’s approach to understanding what makes successful brands work is both comprehensive and accessible. I’m confident that readers of his work will be able to take the insight they gain from this book and apply it to their own brands. Encompassing both the macro and micro styles of thinking about brand management, The Visionary Brand is an essential tool for setting the short and long-term goals that will lead your organization to great success in the future. Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to those in a position of leadership in business who wish to understand how to take their organization to a new level of customer engagement.