Our June breakfast briefing was held in The Conrad in conjunction with Brand Finance, one of the world’s leading independent branded business valuation consultancies.
Our speakers included our own CEO Gillian Horan, David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance and Tommy Murray, Chair of General Paints/Colourtrend and former Senior Executive at Diageo. All the speakers shared their corporate insights, perspectives and expertise on the significance of brand as a driver of business growth and brand value. Business journalist and broadcaster Richard Curran moderated the event and held a lively discussion on increasing the financial value of your brand.
If you missed the event, here is a taste of what was discussed.
To build a strong brand there are four key steps:
1. Nail your brand strategy and brand identity.
Brand strategy includes fully signing off on your purpose, positioning, values, brand objectives, brand architecture, messaging, personality, vision and mission. These elements must then be reflected in your visual identity. Your senior leadership team needs to own this step.
2. Involve the organisation.
Once a strategy is put in place, do not leave it gather dust. It must be implemented. Engaging your people and aligning them to deliver on your strategy is crucial. Brand values are not just words to hang on walls. Employer brand is a really hot topic right now. 50% of candidates won’t consider a company that does not have a strong a brand.
3. Integrate your brand through marketing and operations.
Turn your strategy into action. Marketing have a budget but the senior team need to work together with your CMOs to be clear on budget spend and more importantly on ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment). Each marketing campaign needs to be founded on the core elements of the brand strategy. It needs to build a consistent brand identity and messaging to engage your customers and help drive growth.
4. Measurement.
What gets measured gets managed. Digital analytics has added an exciting new elements of proof to marketing and branding however the C-suite and Board need marketing to bring financial literacy to the Board room as standard. It is crucial that marketing are comfortable communicating and articulating their plans and successes in financial metrics. CEOs want to know what they are getting for every euro spent.
Make sure to keep an eye out more events like this in the future – sign up to mailing list below to receive ongoing brand-related updates. If you would have questions or would like to discuss your brand in more detail you can reach out to us on proof@thepuddingbrand.com