Australian marketing managers can be split into three groups ranging from those embracing the value of brands throughout their organisations, those aspiring to and those with grave doubts about branding in general.
For our ‘Brand Leaders Report 2017: Does brand need a rebrand?’, we interviewed senior marketers from some of Australia’s largest organisations to get a picture of the challenges facing them.
“We spoke to 14 individuals from different companies.” Brandmatters’ managing director Paul Nelson told Mumbrella, “to really find out what the state of play is in the marketplace today, what’s the temperature of brand, marketing, digital experience, customer experience and what keeps them awake at night.”
Those interviewed included senior marketers from some of Australia’s most prominent brands including Perpetual, KPMG, Suncorp, NRMA, Wesfarmers, Macquarie Investment Management and Rubik.
Generally, we believe organisations can be split three ways: “It’s challenging to divide them specifically but it’s fair to say there are three groups. The Embracers are those who get brand right through the organisation, the CEO gets it and it’s often through a tough experience.
“The aspirers understand the criticality of brands but tend to still miss the disconnect between brand enabling the business strategy.”
“The doubters are the most challenged as they tend to live in the old world, they tend to be more focused around what used to be. In the retail context in particularly and this is where Amazon may have some advantage.”
Even the marketers most serious about their brands are finding the current environment challenging. Our advice to marketers is to have a deep understanding of their brand and organisation’s purpose.
“Understand what your true purpose is, we talk at Brand Matters about telling a really clear and compelling brand story – who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it and how you’re different.”
“If you have that central unifying thought then it enables you to stay on track and buffet these headwinds of disruption and digital change.”
This article first appeared in Mumbrella on 3 August 2017. To read the full article, “Australian CMOs struggle with branding in an uncertain world, says report” by Paul Wallbank, click here.
