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Your brand promises something to consumers, and in my previous article, you learned how to align your brand with your brand strategy. How would consumers believe your brand promise if your own employees don’t even align with your brand strategy? You’ll need a brand champion to spearhead your brand building quest.
Does your company or startup have a person in a leadership position? Preferably at the executive level, who embodies the brand promise, champions the brand promise both internally and externally, and ensures that it is effectively protected against naysayers. Yes? No?
The brand champion has a huge list of critical responsibilities, but the most important of all is to help to increase brand equity.
Brand champions don’t always drive immediate results, making their position easy to write off or to consider as a secondary responsibility within another position. But if you have the means, do not let that happen in your organization.
Here, we’ve got some of the core features a brand champion should possess:
Motivate the brand
The brand champion should be the most powerful, most vocal promoter of the brand. He needs to be able to drive the employees, consumers, and other external audiences to trust and have faith in the brand, too.
The brand champion should also ensure that the brand is always in alignment with its brand strategy. He makes sure no stone is left unturned.
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Protect the brand
The brand champion should also be able to act like the brand’s guard. He should effectively protect it against negative publicity and avoid brand-related scandals.
The brand champion should be able to carry out fundamental PR duties; when a problem of any kind arises, the brand champion should be able to recognize and address them. In addition, he should always strive to be the first to bring the attention of the executive directors or head before the problem worsens.
Embody the brand
A utopian scenario is that which all employees are living embodiments of the brand promise, but at the very least you can expect is that the brand champion to live and breathe the brand. He should be a walking example.
Preach the brand
Preaching the brand should not be left for the marketers alone. A brand champion must also act as a brand evangelist.
He has to be able to put himself in the position of the consumers. He needs to be in a constant loop with them in order to ensure that business decisions are in alignment with the brand promise and don’t negatively impact consumers’ perceptions of the brand.
Contribute to the brand’s innovation
The brand champion must be innovative. He should lead strategic and tactical planning in order to maintain and sustain the brand’s relevance. He also leverages public feedback as a tool for adjustments and growth.
Act as the brand coach
In the absence of education, no one will fully understand and believe in a brand. That’s why the brand champion needs to make sure that both the staff, customers and potential customers understand the brand.
He also ensures that business goals and initiatives are in alignment with the brand promise.
He makes effort to ensures that all team members within the organization are on the same level as it relates to building brand equity.
Remember, the brand champion leads the charge, but without the required support from other stakeholders, the brand champion will not succeed.
To sum it up, stakeholders must ensure that adequately supporting the brand champion remains a top priority to stand any chance of real results.
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