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In recent discussions with several experienced brand managers and senior marketing executives, nearly everyone expressed a persistent need for improving brand alignment in their organisations. Brand misalignment is a fast growing issue as companies move to quicker, more decentralised decision making with less marketing coordination across their divisions and business units. These professionals also commented on the continuing reductions in time, effort, and resources available for brand building, and the increasing pressures to broaden brand portfolios with ever more diverse products and services. Such trends pose especially difficult challenges for managing corporate and strategic brands that stretch across organisational boundaries.
The current business literature on strategic and operational alignment does not readily address many of their specific questions about brand management. After further study, Fax Strategy LLC developed a basic framework for exploring their issues and concerns. Building on earlier work by Interbrand, the framework identifies five principal areas for brand alignment: (1) leadership actions, (2) organisational structure, (3) people practices, (4) internal communications, and (5) performance measures and incentives. Our goal is to encourage further research on these specific topics for aligning brands.
LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
Several brand managers said their primary challenge was getting senior leadership in their companies to embrace the business implications of the brand and the brand positioning. Branding efforts were occasionally undermined by the remarks or actions of senior executives. When higher-level management was not completely aligned with the brand, internal momentum usually faded as people within the organisation pulled the brand in different directions.
Because organisational alignment is a top-down imperative for corporate and strategic brands, a brand champion at the executive level is needed to promote and protect the brand internally. While other leadership approaches (as explained later) can also help to achieve brand alignment, the key is to maintain centralised control of core brands and manage them as strategic assets of the company.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Corporate executives seek to establish a workable balance between centralisation and decentralisation in running their businesses and managing core brands. However, companies with traditions of autonomous business units, independent country managers, or decentralised marketing functions find it challenging to maintain brand consistency across the organisation.
Rationalisations for brand misalignment abound. Some companies take a very relaxed approach to brand alignment for new...