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.
Marketers often talk about being a brand leader as if it is one thing. But there are many different ways that a brand can distinguish itself in a marketplace. The critical decision for brand owners is deciding how you will lead and why that will work.
How come some brands are great, while others just manage to be good? Is there a trick up the sleeves of those great brands – a trick that good sustainable brands can adopt to become great household names?
