Building a Brand in the AI Era

Key Takeaways

Brand Building vs. Branding: Marketers must distinguish between temporary branding (consistent visual identity and narrative) and strategic brand-building, which is defined by driving awareness, positive perception, and, ultimately, increased sales.

Prioritize Growth Outcomes: Given the industry shift toward Chief Growth Officers (CGOs) and Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), focus on a strategy that is accountable for driving revenue and delivering measurable business outcomes that satisfy the CEO and CFO.

Adopt a Full-Funnel Strategy: Utilize a full-funnel approach for brand-building and growth marketing to map the customer journey, identify points of friction, and ensure that investments cover everything from awareness to purchase.

Harness AI for Frictionless Journeys: Approach AI with an abundance mindset to determine what more can be done to move customers through the funnel. Success requires clean, structured data and properly connected martech to fully harness AI’s power and measure critical business results.

I frequently hear clients say things like “we can’t talk about branding in front of my CFO” or “we made an investment in brand last year, but we’ve been told we can’t invest in branding anymore.”

That’s fine. You shouldn’t reinvent the wheel every six months. You develop positioning, a visual identity, a brand voice and a narrative, and those things are not supposed to change every year. Your branding is most successful when it is used consistently.

Brand-building, however, is a different story. If no one is aware of your brand, your performance marketing won’t work. If people don’t perceive your brand in a distinct and positive light, you will have less sales.

That is not an opinion. It is a fact.

Read Ad Age or ADWEEK and you’ll see that many companies are eliminating the CMO role. Perhaps that’s because many fail to make this distinction. But someone is still leading marketing.

Many CMOs are being replaced by Chief Growth Officers or Chief Revenue Officers. Growth marketing differs from brand marketing or performance marketing / demand generation in that it is a "full-funnel approach" to marketing that includes accountability for driving revenue. That includes building awareness, driving consideration, engaging audiences and all the other things that build brand. Except it doesn’t include the word branding.

Once you approach brand-building through this full-funnel lens, you can map the customer journey, identify points of friction, and look at how AI can help resolve them. You can make the case that your data needs to be clean and well structured and that your martech is properly connected to enable you to harness the power of AI and measure the business outcomes your company needs you to deliver.

Many look at AI as something that will allow us to do less. We believe in approaching AI with an abundance mindset. What more can I do to move my customers through their journey from awareness to purchase?

That is how you drive growth in the AI era. And at the end of the day, your CEO and CFO are well aware you can’t drive growth by saving.

So, don’t worry about semantics. If you hear that branding is not something to invest in, don’t fight it.

Invest in growth.

Frequently Asked Questions About Building a Brand in the AI Era

Q1: How does strategic brand-building differ from branding?
A1: Branding refers to the development of consistent elements like positioning, a visual identity, a brand voice, and a narrative, which should not change frequently. Brand-building, in contrast, is strategic work focused on driving awareness, cultivating a distinct and positive perception of the brand, and ultimately increasing sales. If no one is aware of a brand, performance marketing efforts will not be successful.

Q2: Why are companies replacing CMOs with Chief Growth Officers (CGOs) or Chief Revenue Officers (CROs)?
A2: The elimination of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role in some companies may be due to the failure of many marketers to make the critical distinction between branding and brand-building. When CMOs are replaced, someone is still leading marketing, often a CGO or CRO. Growth marketing differs from brand marketing because it utilizes a "full-funnel approach" and includes explicit accountability for driving revenue, a key concern for the CEO and CFO.

Q3: What is the full-funnel approach to brand-building in the AI Era?
A3: The full-funnel approach views marketing as a comprehensive strategy that includes accountability for driving revenue, covering everything from building awareness and driving consideration to engaging audiences and generating sales. By adopting this lens, organizations can map the customer journey, identify friction points, and determine how AI can be leveraged to resolve those issues and deliver the necessary business outcomes.

Q4: What mindset should marketers adopt when implementing AI for brand growth?
A4: Marketers should adopt an abundance mindset when approaching AI, focusing on "what more" can be done to move customers through their journey from awareness to purchase, rather than viewing AI as solely a way to "do less" or cut costs. To successfully harness the power of AI and measure critical business results, it is essential that the organization’s data is clean and well-structured and that the martech ecosystem is properly connected.