1. Copyright 2015 Bill Taysom
Structuring a Great Brand
Brand Architecture Starts In the C-Suites
Great brands never happen accidentally—they are painstakingly crafted with
vision, discipline and purpose.
Over the course of my career I have been amazed by the number of CEOs who
have confessed they really don’t understand branding, marketing or even know
what I do. If you’re one of these people, have no fear—you’re in good
company.
Once the realm of enterprise companies, today, branding is the lifeblood of
startups and mid-market companies. Brand mastery is the difference between
great companies and participation ribbons. And it starts in the C-Suites. Here
are the fundamental building blocks required to build a great brand.
Vision, Culture & Alignment | The Source of Brand Success
Every brand starts with the vision—an idea so big, so compelling the
entrepreneur risks it all for the chance to achieve it. From the beginning this
vision takes on a life of its own and starts to form a brand— a promise, a
reputation, and ultimately a relationship. It’s a relationship that starts with the
CEO’s vision and is fostered through the team, the organization and out to the
world. It’s a relationship that offers something different— a relationship people
are willing to pay for.
Maintaining the culture is key. Constant communication with your team will
help ensure alignment. Visions, brands, and relationships are so intertwined
that they become inseparable. To ensure that your vision is effectively
propagated, team alignment is an absolute requirement.
Beware of unaligned cultural elements that cause division within your
organization. Infighting is a cancer that will tear your brand apart.
Operational Alignment | The Reality Check
Marketing can only promise what operations can deliver. No amount of
ideation or slick advertising is going to turn Shaq into a Master’s Champion or
Tiger Woods into an NBA player. Overpromising may win the short game but it
is a recipe for scathing online reviews and certain death in the long game.

2. Copyright 2015 Bill Taysom
Successful brands must do something better, cheaper or faster. If your offering
is lack luster and undifferentiated, your first job is to discover something you
can do that is meaningful, credible and different than the competition. Be
relevant. Only then does the work of branding pay dividends.
Goals, Obstacles & Objectives | Milestones for Brand Success
A journey without a destination is pointless. With the vision and brand aligned,
key goals are defined. Between you and every goal is a series of obstacles,
which if properly identified, provide a roadmap that drives every strategy and
tactic. These strategies and tactics enable you to reach your goals and complete
your mission. Successful brands defeat obstacles, win the prize and then set
new goals.
Brand Evangelists | Keeping the Vision Alive
A brilliant vision will sputter and fade unless actively fed by a team of brand
evangelists, starting with the CEO and senior leadership. Steve Jobs is an
obvious example. His vision was driven down to the very deepest parts of the
company ensuring that everyone would “think different”.
The marketing team shepherds the brand’s strategic and tactical execution,
either supported by advertising agencies or an in-house creative team.
However, brand development should go far beyond the marketing group. The
brand should drive human resources, sales, training and events. In successful
brands, marketing and operations are in lock step. Every company asset is
pointed towards the company brand and vision.
Marketing Structure | Logic and Integration
Effectively marketing a brand requires consistency and structure. No initiative
can survive the entropy of the day-to-day work environment where conflicting
priorities threaten to derail every plan. For an initiative to be successful,
structure and consistency are a must.
Structure starts with brand standards and messaging. These are the heart and
soul of the company—a cadence to which everyone marches so that customers
will too.
Also crucial is the technology stack used to manage the CRM, website, content
distribution, SEO, SEM, and other digital assets. Integrating these processes is a
modern imperative to ensure the customer experience is seamless and
manageable.
All consumer-facing assets together create the customer experience and include
every point of contact from initial awareness, through the buying process and
onward through the loyalty lifecycle. These should be as seamless and
integrated as the technology stack.

3. Copyright 2015 Bill Taysom
Strategy and planning structures include annual marketing plans, campaigns,
implementation guides, toolkits, and training programs to ensure effective
execution and initiative adoption.
Finally, with all of this structure in place we can implement our campaigns with
awareness building, lead gen, reputation management and other activities.
Weak brands start here, shooting from the hip and never understanding the
structure required for success.
Underpinning this structure are the analytics and key performance indicators
(KPIs) providing feedback and context to effectively manage and fine-tune the
program.
Brand Commitment | An Absolute Requirement
The most carefully crafted plans are still at the mercy of two key forces: political
will and financial backing. Innumerable game-changing marketing plans sit idle
in C-suite email boxes for lack of will or financing. Perhaps these, more than any
other factor, have stunted brand growth—the courage to pull the trigger and
the will to stay the course are paramount.
Vision, alignment, structure and commitment are all imperatives for great
brands. And it all starts with the C-suite. Dysfunction in any of these key areas
has the capacity to derail the brand. Building systems and processes to ensure
effective management is the key to brand success.
Bill Taysom has executed brand strategies in companies that range from public enterprises to
start ups, B2B and B2C, in industries that range from technology, to restaurants and franchises.
He’s a natural collaborator, strategist and brand culture advocate.
Recommended Reading: Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin.