Global Brand, Local Soul

I was involved in a recent panel which the publisher asked me on my views on how to build challenger spirit with global brands. This sets me thinking on how global marketeers need to evolve themselves for global brand leadership, especially in the current climate of volatility when global brands are constantly being challenged by new start – up brands or local brands. What does the playbook look like for global marketeers especially in this age of turbulent environment?

These are by no means conclusive, but has been some of my global brand stewardship north star which has guided me all along my career…….

1. Start with a compelling vision and strategy rooted in customer insights

Always start with a compelling vision that is rooted in the company and brand’s purpose. Define a brand strategy that is rooted in customer insights. There are universal human truth which if a brand purpose can answer to and is broad enough to create a brand positioning against this universal human truth, then it enables the global brand to flourish with the right cultural insights , that the brand can activate itself. It is about applying this global brand positioning and strategy ruthlessly against it and discovering cultural tensions that the brand positioning and strategy can speak to. That will drive global brand consistency , yet cultural relevancy . A great brand positioning and strategy needs to be differentiated in the category, meaningful to the current and future customers and also enable marketeers to drive saliently at scale. It needs to be able to travel across culture.

2.          Simple KPIs

You need to have simple KPIs that measure against the brand objectives, strategies so as to create business impact. This means both short term, medium term and longer term impact. Then aligning against these KPIs and the organization against it so as to drive discipline execution and outcomes. This will be the what I call the science of marketing.

3.      A consistent visual identity

A global brand that resonates need to be rooted in and universal human truth yet needs to be binded with a consistent visual identity. A visual identity that touches all the human 5 senses and distinctive. Having a consistent identity then will enable one to drive local cultural nuance and meet local needs – yet be binded by a common global purpose and identity. This is the 'art' of marketing.

4.      Challenge your own leadership style and play different roles

Great global brand stewardship requires what I call as servant leadership. One needs to play different roles at different time. Imagine the leader of an All Blacks Rugby Team – you serve as a leader, a coach, a cheerleader, a goal keeper and even right down to executor. You need to know when to play what role especially whereby you are leading a team of multi- cultural and diverse brand managers. Being authentic with your own purpose and leading from the front to align the brand purpose to team’s purpose is a model that I often used to harness team work.

5.      Harness Internal Culture and Build a community

Most importantly is to create a culture that drives brand passion and collaboration. First , starting with your marketing team across every country. Build a culture of brand passion, a culture of humility and hunger, to learn, unlearn, learn. Then start infecting the culture of brand advocates across the organization . Partner with your peers, your leadership team , the CFO , the CEO, the Managing Directors. Make them speak your language. Even better, make your words and lingos theirs. Embrace best practices, practice ‘lift and shift’ and leverage scale. This is what I often meant by power of community. 

With the ever- changing world and marketeers job becoming tougher due to technology transformation, it is even more important that marketeers need to constantly adopt a challenger mindset and to be super curious and be able to constructively challenge their own ideas and reinvent constantly.

This is what I meant by building a global brand, local soul.