Multi-faceted
A Chief Brand Officer (CBO) is responsible for the entire brand and how it is experienced. They essentially set the brand strategy and vision, ensuring it delivers its promise through effective marketing, customer engagement, and entertainment.
“A Chief Brand Officer is expected to play a multi-faceted role in today’s highly complex and dynamic world of brands with ever-changing consumers and their beliefs. They need to be alert and sensitive to consumer feedback and trends in the market to translate them into insights, bring compelling brand stories to life, manage the brand's image, increase the value of the brand, and build a unified culture around the brand.”
—Pavan Padaki, Author of Brand Vincci
The CBO has four critical roles:
Philosopher – Constantly shaping the purpose and always asking ‘why,’ getting to the brand's true essence.
Coach – Ensuring all employees are brand custodians and advocate for the organization.
Scientist – Executing the brand strategy through digital channels and where the target audience lives, works, and plays. They are constantly experimenting to ensure the best outcomes are achieved.
Creative – Working with the marketing team and agencies to ensure the brand vision comes to life through engaging and creative messaging across all forms of media.
Combines Customer Emotion with Rational Thinking
CBOs act as the much-needed bridge between Customer Experience (CX) and Marketing, getting them to collaborate more and work on their strategies together – which ultimately leads to the creation of the brand strategy.
However, their role isn't merely to set the brand strategy and vision; it's to engage and entertain customers through creativity. Today, the brand-consumer doesn't want to be dictated to; they want to be entertained. The CBO forms a human bridge between logic and magic, strategy and design.
Makes A brand relatable and human
The CBO must understand consumer behavior and expectations and need to understand their emotions across the customer journey, especially at key moments, and anticipate their needs. They must walk in the customer's shoes. They must feel what the customer feels, see what they see, hear what they hear, literally everywhere.
This new ‘human-centric’ approach to engagement is driving a new breed of brands but in an age where digital reigns supreme, it’s important to act rationally and utilize analytics to make informed business decisions.
Ultimately, the CBO becomes the brand's conscience – they protect and amplify the brand's voice within the business enterprise. Hence, everyone knows what actions will contribute to building the brand and which actions will not.
Empowers brand ambassadors and advocates
However, they can't achieve everything on their own; there's too much to do. Instead, the CBO needs to create an army of internal and external fans to help them on their journey. When needed, fans who will defend the brand amplify positive word of mouth and co-create amazing content. The CBO reminds other organization leaders how critical it is to build purpose, confidence, conviction, and unity among employees.
The truth is that branding will always depend on creativity and innovation: constantly offering the next flavor and the latest technology that resonates with the target audience. Brands that don't change die – in other words, companies have to keep trying to update the ideas about them and their brand in people's minds.
Steve Jobs used to quote his favorite Bob Dylan line: 'he not busy being born is busy dying.' So many CBOs focus on stimulating the organization to constantly renew itself and push for rapid experimentation and renewal – to be the organization's creative director.
Today CBOs are a fascinating combination of philosopher, coach, scientist, and creative director.