Every day, brand owners are pitched opportunities to take their brand in a ‘new’ direction or to stay the course—by colleagues, by their agencies, because of the actions of competitors or by delegations of customers or suppliers. It can be, as many a marketing manager has told me, bewildering.
A couple of conversations this week served as a reminder that not all senior leaders regard brands as something they should be involved with. If you’re struggling to get your senior team to put important brand matters on the executive agenda, here’s some reminders by way of making the case for greater consideration.
While the marketing department should have the skill sets necessary to create the brand’s identity, communicate its promise, increase its awareness and generally promote the brand, it takes the entire organization to consistently deliver on the brand’s promise.
What often passes for leadership wisdom in the corporate world today is a list of management techniques over leadership substance. However, brand leadership is linked to organizational leadership, which is linked to individual character that has substance. There are four qualities of individual leadership that are commonly absent from current discussions about corporate or brand leadership. These qualities are individual: self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism.
Years ago, I worked for Hills Bros coffee. We were the #3 brand having a tough time competing against the market leaders (Folgers and Maxwell House), struggling in many markets to keep our product in distribution.
