Most business leaders know that relying solely on advertising is not an effective brand-building strategy -- but there is little consensus on the best way to build brands that can sustain the test of time.

To examine what drives brand success, my colleagues and I surveyed senior brand executives at over 70 major firms across a range of industries. The survey revealed most companies only engage in measuring external brand activities, such as fielding brand health tracking studies with consumers and quantifying the impact of advertising and promotion campaigns on brand equity.  

Given the business adage “you manage what you measure,” these findings about brand measurement support the conclusion that most companies are only managing external brand-building activities.

But to realize a brand’s full and sustainable potential, businesses must also emphasize internal brand integration and activation.  Meaning that, in addition to communicating the brand’s image to consumers, the brand should be used (actually first and foremost) as a tool to guide decision-making and drive action throughout the organization. In other words, the brand should be operationalized.

 “Operationalize” (the dictionary definition) means “to put into operation, start working.”  To “operationalize” a brand is to integrate it into your core operations, culture, and customer experience.  And it looks slightly different, depending on the type of business.

Read the three scenarios and examples of each – manufacturers, retailers, and service providers.

The title of a post by consultant Guy Champniss,“Progressive Brands Should Turn Their Backs on Sustainability,” certainly was an attention-getter. 

Essentially Guy believes, “Brands have taken a wrong turn: rather than remaining slavishly devoted to reporting sustainability, brands have a far more important – a far more exciting – role to play in helping us all move towards becoming more sustainable in our lifestyles.”

He goes onto explain that brands are made to build social capital (defined as “the stocks of dialogue, shared thinking and trust that swirls around us, whether it’s in our families, at work, in the community, or across the country.”) And as such, “Brands have the opportunity to both nudge their corporate guardians closer to a long-term and durable competitive advantage, and us all towards more sustainable and fulfilling lifestyles.”

Read my take on Guy’s POV and the pushback he got from commenters