Authentic Execution and the Business of Brand

An authentic brand strategy without thoughtful, purposeful execution is worthless. Without good execution, a plan is just a plan—a monument to what might have been. Brand execution is where you move the ball from the 20-yard line to the end zone. You can not score, after all, from the 20-yard line.

Doing it right means developing a detailed master execution plan that dovetails with your company’s core business objectives. Doing it right can shave years of frustration off the brand-building curve and save a company the millions of dollars it might have otherwise spent on “experiments” that missed the mark.

When organizations are not clear about who they are and what they stand for—from the inside out—they have a tendency to devise touchpoints that look good on paper, but do not work in reality. It is easy to get sucked into an expensive start-stop, start-stop cycle of experiments that dilute the brand. The brand begins to falter. More expensive experiments ensue. The brand still fails to achieve a return on those investments.

Brand authenticity is more than a strategy. Your execution must be authentic, too.

How will you make that happen?