Gartner Research

How to Flex Brand Governance for Different Scenarios

Published: 09 May 2023

Summary

Brand leaders struggle to define and enforce brand governance in practical ways that enable consistency and flexibility. Use this research to improve brand outcomes by learning when and how to flex the way you govern your brands and enable stakeholders to better adhere to brand guidelines.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • Brand leaders increasingly lack interest and/or capacity in being the “brand police.” Instead, they seek to empower and enable brand stakeholders through brand governance.

  • Creating clarity and transparency around brand governance structures and mechanisms, as well as how malleable they may be, enables stakeholders to make better brand-related decisions.

  • Effective brand governance flexes between central and distributed ownership based on the reach and altitude of different brand initiatives.

  • The alignment of rules, roles, structures and processes is key to establishing and enforcing a given governance approach. Brand councils and user-centric brand resource centers and guidelines help to promote this alignment.

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Analysts:

Communications Research Team

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