Brands would be a matter for the boss
Brands are positioned more clearly and differentiate themselves more strongly from the competition when the boss is responsible for them. But in many companies, responsibility for this is still delegated to specialist departments such as marketing or sales.
This is the result of a recent study by the Institute of Brand Logic. The consulting boutique for brand-oriented corporate management surveyed more than 130 corporate leaders in German-speaking countries.
More than 40 percent of CEOs said that brand management is not their responsibility. "This means that companies are missing out on the opportunity to fully leverage the strengths of their brand," says Markus Webhofer, Managing Partner of the Institute of Brand Logic.
"As the head of a company, taking responsibility for the brand pays off. Because what is important to the boss, the departments also take seriously." This is reflected in the question about brand positioning: only just under 27 percent of CEOs feel that their brand is very clearly positioned outside the company. Of the CEOs who are themselves responsible for their company's brand, the figure is still 35 percent - but even that is a shockingly low figure.
In their study, Webhofer and his team therefore took a close look at the influence of brand on decisions in different areas of the company. Even in companies where the CEO is responsible for the brand, the results are sobering: When it comes to decisions on strategy, more than 35 percent of these CEOs do not include the brand in their considerations, and when it comes to topics such as customer communications and sales, as many as one in two do. Around 85 percent make personnel decisions without a thought for the brand, and when it comes to budget decisions, all kinds of criteria play a role, but the brand only in around five percent of cases.
Brand as a common decision-making framework for all departments
"Our survey clearly shows that the brand still plays a subordinate role in many areas of the company - even when the boss is in charge," says Webhofer. "Yet this is a clear contradiction to what CEOs themselves would like to see." Indeed, a significant finding of the study is that CEOs would like to see more brand influence across all areas of the company: depending on the area, 20 to 35 percent more than they say is the case today. The clarity of this result surprised even the experts at the Institute of Brand Logic, but also confirmed their experience. "Especially in disruptive times, companies need to be able to be managed from a single source," says Webhofer. "For this, brand offers enormous potential, you just have to use it."
For the study, the Institute of Brand Logic 138 entrepreneurs, managing directors and owners in German-speaking countries were surveyed. The complete study "CEO Opinion #02: Brand-Oriented Corporate Management" can be as PDF can be downloaded (direct link).
The consulting boutique Institute of Brand Logic was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the University of Innsbruck to build companies into leading brands in their industry through consulting and active participation. With offices in Innsbruck and Munich, the Institute of Brand Logic advises brand-oriented companies in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. The consulting approach is primarily aimed at integrating the entire corporate organization into a transformation process guided by the brand. Through its advisory board and a number of established dialog platforms, the Institute is in close dialog with a network of corporate leaders and academics.
