A Fast Company Press Book
Move from Top-Down Brand Dictation to Bottom-Up Cultural Co-Creation
Marketing has never had more ways to reach people, and people have never felt farther apart. Scott Harkey, founder and CEO of The Harkey Group, argues that the hardest thing in marketing today isn't standing out. It's bringing people together.
After a personal reckoning and with the help of the community that carried him through it, Harkey rebuilt both his life and his company on one idea: Nobody transforms alone. Brand Uprising blends business strategy with memoir to show what happens when a brand stops broadcasting at customers and starts building with them. Drawing on two decades of firsthand brand work and case studies from Disney, Virgin, Marriott, and Wynn Resorts, Harkey lays out how the best companies turn audiences into collaborators and help people connect not only with the brand, but with one another.
This is not only a marketing book. It is an argument about how to build a business when people are starved for somewhere to belong. Founders, marketers, and anyone who wants to understand why some brands stick will arrive at the same conclusion: The strongest brands don't win customers. They gather them.