As brand builders and ambassadors we are bound to extract the most out of marketing budgets, we are tasked with helping to grow our businesses by developing strong brands from which we can do this. The challenge we face is how do we get the rest of the organisation to see this.
I meet many brand owners who express sincere frustration at the lack of support they get from their organisations when it comes to the task of brand building. They have to deal with people abandoning corporate identity, because the new colour is "whatever the shade of summer is" CEO's who decide they like Comic Sans for their typeface today and off course the age old budget debate.
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We see entire campaigns developed and then rubber stamped from the marketing department "because we have already spent the money." We are left holding our heads in our hands as we are viewed as the stumbling blocks on the way to the next Loerie award!
Almost universal in my discussions is the realisation that we, as brand owners, have failed to instill internal organisational pride. What is this? Well, simply put, we have not leveraged our organisations to become defenders of their brand realm. We have not created a brand, which our own team loves. This is no easy task but it needs to be done, in order to make our brands stronger.
Back to my opening line, we need to get our organisations thinking along the lines of "what can I do for my brand?" As brand owners we need to get our teams thinking in this way, perhaps some incentive is required, but it is our prerogative.
It starts with a commitment from the top, not an adhoc commitment, a genuine commitment. This may be the most difficult discussion that you need to have in 2016, but once you have achieved this commitment, you will be able to work down through the rest of the organisation.
Once you have started the work within the organisation it is important to continue it! This means putting aside a budget to grow your own brand loyalty within your organisation.
So as you step into 2016 asking: "what can I do for my brand?" Start at the top, get your exco team on board with your plans, get them committed to staying the course in terms of the marketing strategy and resultant activity. Importantly make sure the budget has been committed. Then review, review and once again review, making sure that you have set your goals and measures and that you are meeting these.
Have fun building your brand in 2016!
