Oleksandr Osmichenko

expert panel

Customers don’t perceive marketing, sales, service and digital touchpoints as separate departments; they experience one company. A brand can look and sound polished in every interaction and individual channel and still feel fragmented as a whole. For some leaders, as long as everyone on a team is communicating “professionally,” this fragmentation may not seem important, but it is: A consistent, seamless experience across channels can help keep customers engaged while building trust in a brand.That makes branding much more than a creative or aesthetic concern. As more teams contribute to customer-facing messages and experiences, small differences in how a company’s representatives interpret the brand can accumulate into something customers notice—particularly when the lines between marketing and communications start to blur across an expanding range of platforms and touchpoints. For marketing leaders, the challenge is creating enough shared understanding across the organization that a brand remains recognizable without requiring every team, channel or interaction to look and sound exactly alike.Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank have extensive experience shaping brands, connecting with customers and guiding marketing across an increasingly complex mix of channels and technologies. Below, they highlight mistakes that can cause a brand to lose coherence and explain how marketing leaders can keep teams and touchpoints aligned.