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The last 12 months have been eventful for brands and those who create, build and nurture them. Some hits and some misses, though the misses have been on unexpectedly large scales.
A few questions are on the table as we look toward next year: Is the CMO role obsolete? What about the CBO? Can they be replaced with digital experts, a direction some companies have taken? Is it all about creating experience? How can brands stand out in the year ahead?
CMOs and CBOs have been forced to take on a broader remit, with continual pressure to demonstrate ROI performance almost in real time, driving them to become more tactical and transactional. This has led to more short-term solutions (influencers, short shelf-life digital content or timely sponsorships) that are less strategic.
This approach has put brands and their leaders at considerable risk. One is the loss of clarity of their core customers, as reflected in the Bud Light debacle. Another is loss of brand control, as evidenced by the recent misstep of Apple’s Black History Month challenge. There are other examples not limited to U.S. shores.
How should brand leaders regroup in 2024, with strategies and executions that are distinctive and successful in competitive categories and a noisy world? The answer and the confidence to be bold can be found in unlocking the powerful guidance and control mechanism at the heart of every brand.
We’re not talking about a brand’s DNA. As helpful as that construct has been, it doesn’t go deep enough to unlock a brand’s true power. Leaders would be better served—and find themselves making a greater contribution to their company’s overall efforts—by thinking in terms of their brand’s genome.
Mine the brand genome
Here’s the difference: Brand DNA is a “gene pool” of brand truths. Its genome is the essence of that DNA, distilled to a point of disciplined single-minded clarity about the most valuable wins the brand can provide to the widest possible range of potential customers.
The benefits of having control of a brand’s genome are considerable. It becomes the central strategic tool brand leaders have at their command, a lens through which to not only shape and guide campaigns, programs and all creative, but also to help other functions express “brand” in the most impactful and effective possible ways.
