Companies that use their brand as a central guiding principle perform far better than their peers.

What differentiates the companies that are most effective at leveraging their brands is not how much they spend on logos and design, nor advertising and other brand promotions, but whether they are brand-guided: placing brand (and thus consumer) at the centre of everything they say or do.

They recognise brand as the key platform to link the company strategy and operations with customers and employees, rather than merely a communications issue; instead brand-guided companies actively use the brand to drive business decisions and ultimately, to manage the company.

Senior management are accountable for the brand’s continued health – brand responsibility resides at senior level.

Marketing departments are able to talk in terms of expected return on their investments - marketers can leverage customer insights to make the most effective marketing decisions, they can also analyse what they know about customers to contribute effectively to strategy in the future, and their marketing activities are always closely aligned with the core brand values.

Employees all share a belief in the brand, its vision, purpose and values as well as a common understanding of it, the power of the brand acts as an incentive to employees, employees’ activities are aligned with the brand values and contribute to building and strengthening the brand, and employees are measured and rewarded by the success of these brand-guided activities.

This enables the brand to provide the cohesive force that guides key activities – such as pricing, product development, customer service, sales and operations – and ultimately support the strategic management process.

 FACT: 82% OF BRAND-LED BUSINESSES OUTPERFORM THE INDUSTRY AVERAGE.