Brand Stewardship: To navigate present and build value for future

As brand custodians, most of us are evaluated on our annual business performances (Refer short term). As a result, we often succumb to business pressure and adopt to short term tactics to deliver results. While short term business objectives are also important to give confidence to shareholders/investors, it is extremely important to ensure that the brand values (Key equity) are protected and strengthened for a long term & sustainable growth. Therefore, successful companies have migrated from a concept of brand management to philosophy of Brand stewardship.

While, many experts suggest that Brand Stewardship is important to ensure long term Brand value, it is actually a guiding principle to protect and strengthen relationship of a brand and its consumers irrespective of present or future. It helps to smoothly steer the present and ensures the revenue potential of future. Brand stewardship is a strategic framework which consistently advocates for the brand, defends it and upholds its core values & essence/purpose.

As I said – brand stewardship is a guiding principle and therefore cannot be driven by the marketing function alone. It must be driven by the top management of organization. it needs to be aligned with all the stakeholders (employees, investors, CFAs, Distributors, dealers). Almost everyone in the value chain needs to be educated on the consumers need and role of the of the brand in the life the consumer. It must be the part of organization culture. We have enough examples of big/small but, remarkable brands to learn from:

Southwest Airlines: You must have seen It’s rapping flight attendants engaging with passengers during the safety speech. Here, employees are empowered to live the brand and reflect the brand cultural authentically every day. Other than being an affordable airline it wants to ensure that you had a good time together with them.

Walt Disney: Promises to create magic and provide entertainment with heart. Every store, theme park, toy, show, movie, and employee embody these ideas. A visit to their theme parks is enough to soak into all brand culture all at once. The best part is - The brand closes the loop efficiently when the consumer also breaths in brand philosophy along with the brand.

Apple: Inspiring creativity and innovation. It believes in thinking differently & challenging the status quo to create new things. Every piece of communication or product seamlessly is infused with spirit of moving forward.

Dove: Believes that beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety. Therefore, all their efforts - either communication or community work was to help women develop a positive relationship with the way they look helping them raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential.

Harley-Davidson: Fulfill dreams of personal freedom. Throughout the globe, Harley-Davidson unites people deeply, passionately and authentically. They thrive on the community of riders who are known for expression of freedom, adventure and authenticity, irrespective of their age, gender and ethnicity.

Bajaj Auto: Continuously tried to touch consumers heart by instilling the pride of being an Indian brand. While it progressed gracefully from “Hamara Bajaj” to the world’s favorite Indian. The spirit of the brand has remained the same.

Real Juice & Beverage: The brand successfully capitalized the consumer belief of “Fruits are healthy & Nutritious” and continued to build the Fruit equity of the brand (Real = Fruit). While doing so, it adopted two-pronged strategy – (1.) Building the fruit equivalent and (2.) kept on launching all the possible fruit Juices. It has the largest portfolio of fruit Juices in India & has got more than 17 variants - from Mangoes & guavas to apricot & exotic berries.

TATA Tea: Focus on Brand Belief of Collective good. The Brand beautifully crafted its brand purpose and became a unique and differentiated brand in a highly commoditized category. It decided to Bring about social change and spark positive conversation in society. While all the brands were pitching on its tangible values such as freshness, taste, price, etc, Tata tea decided to awaken every Indian to be the change they want to see in the society through its remarkable “Jago Re Campaign”. They moved from “Jago Re” to “Alarm Bajane se Pahale Jago”and picked up socially relevant issues to gain consumer loyalty.

Now that we understand the importance of brand stewardship, making the framework and its integration in organization is an uphill task. It requires serious efforts and drive to push this agenda in many organizations unless you are in a marketing driven and consumer centric organization.

I was fortunate enough to work with such company. I thank, few of my bosses who were kind enough to push me into such difficult and serious dialogues.

Here I go with few simple things that can help middle management marketing professionals to start the process:

Always try to present Brand plans to senior management with articulating the followings:

• Key consumer facts | Consumer Belief | Consumers tensions/anxiety
• Based on above develop a universal & Fundamental consumer Insight
• Define why your brand exist (Brand Purpose based on the fundamental insight)
• Define Vision, Mission and Values to align with the brand purpose

Present cases of successful brands who were always disciplined and consistent in building the key Brand elements such as Logo, color, packaging, tonality and other tangible intangible attributes. 

Instill brand building discipline and clarity among your team member in all the marketing processes, be it NPD or communication development process.

Simplify the things with help of Models such as Brand strategy tree & Brand Vision tree. The format might differ, but it should essentially capture:

• Who is my consumer?
• Whom am I competing with? 
• What is Consumer Insight?
• What is the brand benefit?
• Reason to believe
• Brand Personality
• Brand Values: Both Functional & Emotional
• Key Differentiatiors

In our quest to spearhead brand stewardship, it is important to understand & decode brand perception to take corrective actions. Therefore, measure, monitor and understand where your brand stand with respect to competition and last Brand track/dipstick.

Start communicating the Brand purpose and values to all the stakeholders such as Sales, Trade marketing, Supply chain, Dealers and distributors. Understand that the Brand purpose and Values must be clear to all the internal and external stakeholders.

At the end, I would like to say that It doesn’t take much time, even for big and strong brand to lose its grip. Therefore, brand stewardship is not a luxury but a necessity to mange present and building value for future.

Bibliography:

1. Brands & branding by Rita Clifton and John Simmons
2. https://www.hallandpartners.com/brands-with-heart
3. https://www.karlspeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/101011brandstewardship.pdf
4. https://elementthree.com/blog/brand-stewardship-whos-protecting-brands-future/
5. https://talkbusiness.net/2015/11/the-ceo-and-brand-stewardship/
6. https://hbr.org/2009/04/getting-brand-communities-right