Brands Mean Business

"But this isn't for me. This is for every CMO looking to secure their seat at the table and fighting to keep brand investment alive. This is for every CEO and CFO balancing the pull of GenAI and the flood of new tools that promise optimization, automation, personalization, and agentic transformation. And yes, dare I say it, this is for my competitors, who I know are on their own crusade to prove that brand still matters."

"Because brands are quietly under attack, through budget cuts, short-termism, and the belief that anything truly valuable can be automated. We're confusing lead generation with brand creation and, even more dangerously, forgetting how important a brand is to business growth. WHY BRANDS MATTER In the process, we're forgetting what brands actually do and why they still matter. Because when everything is automated, brand is what remains human."

"1. Performance marketing delivers sales. Brand is just a cost center. Performance marketing works. It gets clicks, drives conversions, and shows up beautifully on a dashboard. But, if performance is the engine, brand is the fuel that drives it, as the prior CEO of Nike found out a little too late, after a focus on performance and efficiency over brand led to stalled growth and declining sales."

Brands face budget cuts, short-term pressures, and the mistaken belief that automation can replace distinctiveness. Brand provides the human connection that automation cannot replicate. Brands create desire, build preference and loyalty, and deliver an unfair advantage when products and services are easily copied. Performance marketing drives clicks and conversions, but brand fuels long-term preference and sustainable growth. Underinvesting in brand risks stalled growth, declining sales, and weakened competitive position. Senior leaders must balance investment in brand alongside performance tactics and recognize brand as a strategic asset essential to enduring market leadership.

Read at Fast Company