The brand and reputation of a company (good or bad) defines a business. It will resonate with the staff it employs, the customers who choose to work with it, its values and vision. And looking after your brand requires senior strategic and creative insight at board level. Whether this is a Chief Brand Office (CBO), a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) a Marketing Director or Head of Brand – the title is personal to a company – it needs to be a savvy marketing professional who will work closely with the other board members; People, Finance, Operations, Commercial and Leadership to co-create and deliver a company’s strategy.

For aspiring, ambitious and talented creative, brand and marketing professionals; they need to see that becoming an executive board member/director is not only attainable and a role to aspire to but is normal and a function that is respected at the very top.

Every strategic decision a company makes involves its brand. At the offset if that creative role is on the board it will not only improve clarity of message (internally and externally), but it will speed up the communication roll out to all, ensuring it is delivered on point and with the correct tone, pace and style.

Brand (marketing, creative, campaign) project signs off’s can be clunky. This is because the marketing manager, co-ordinator / executive – in particular, within sme’s – has to go to a member of the board, who are busy managing operations, strategy and their own role, for the project go ahead and sign off. As a result, everything takes longer. This has an effect on the strategic campaign roll out, impacting many facets of the business including business development and recruitment. By having a board member whose role is brand / marketing this hijacked time can be reduced.