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ACA course instructor Richard Musson is an experienced marketer with a solid track record of building brands in developing markets while at Anheuser-Busch InBev. ACA spoke with Musson to better understand the factors marketers need to consider when building a brand.

ACA: How would you define the term “brand leadership” today? Has it changed with changes in media consumption?

Musson: No. Although the way we communicate with consumers has evolved enormously, the fundamentals of brand leadership remain unchanged: Strong brands with real consumer appeal can command premium prices.

The brand leadership course I teach covers the 3 foundations for strong brands:

1. Powerful and differentiated brand positioning
2. Portfolio Management & Brand Architecture
3. Brand building programs

ACA: Are there any mistakes you see repetitively being made that brand marketers would do best to avoid?

Musson: Too many marketers rush into programs and execution without having built a strong enough brand positioning, or establishing their portfolio management and brand architecture. This means that an enormous amount of work and activity results in nothing. The upshot is continually having to go back to the beginning because the foundations were not built properly. Building strong brands is about making choices and being less rather than more – being something very specific and motivating to an (important) group of consumers, rather than being everything to everyone. What you are not and what you don’t do is as important as what you are and what you do.

ACA: Making every employee a brand advocate is a goal many companies share in 2016, yet this is not easily achieved by every brand. Is there a secret to unlock to make this happen?

Musson: I think it’s often marketers themselves that make this difficult, by complicating everything and talking to themselves. The essence of marketing is very simple – understanding the consumer, offering them something that meets their needs, and doing it in an exciting way. Any employee can understand and buy into that, and it’s key they do, as often the retail experience, or customer service or packaging in store doesn’t fit with the brand message. Everything around a brand has to say the same thing to the consumer, so all employees are key.

ACA: What are the key lessons about brand leadership you try to impart to your students?

Musson: The course doesn’t supply any answers, because the answers are different depending on the brand and the market. It does however establish the ways of thinking and disciplines that make it much more likely that you will succeed in building and sustaining a strong brand: consumer empathy, consumer segmentation, clarity of vision and iron discipline in what is executed and how. And it’ll help you ask the right questions. What should you be spending your time on, and what not? What is mission critical and what is not? What must be done by the brand owner and what is better delegated to specialist agencies. It will provide a road map to building a brand.