The Impact of Cultural Divisions within Organizations in Implementing Brand Strategy

Whilst there has been enormous focus in the literature on developing strong brand positioning, identity and personality, there has been much less on utilising brands as strategic assets and achieving brand orientation across the organisation. Decision-making across function silos is widely explored in the management literature but is conspicuous in its absence in the brand management literature. With increased focus on auditing brand touchpoints to managing the total customer brand experience lack any attempt to understand the barriers to achieving orientation across the organisation represent a major opportunity for research. Through inductive analysis of a case study of a company implementing a major new brand revitalisation strategy, this paper demonstrates how, despite a strong brand vision and high level of management commitment, functional silos associated with different mindsets contributed to the failure of the new strategy. The paper suggests that managers should focus on the three areas of: silos mindsets, incentive systems and brand touchpoint processes to governing customer brand experience.