Summary

As organisations scale, sticking to budget benchmarks feels prudent. Yet inconsistency creeps in. What was once clear blurs into slower sales and price pressure. A coherent brand strategy restores shared direction by aligning story, governance and proof. Then price latitude widens, cycles shorten, and each investment compounds across product, sales and service.

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Our Perspective

What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.

The Real Question

The productive question isn’t “are we at the benchmark?” It’s “what outcomes are we buying?” The returns come when brand drives pricing latitude, faster sales cycles, leaner delivery, and trust that compounds over time. Benchmarks are an average of other people’s constraints. Your shape of investment should follow your market’s price sensitivity, your maturity, and the gap you can credibly own.

Think of brand less as communications and more as decision-quality. It’s a shared value story that guides choices in product, sales, and service. When that alignment clicks, you pay less to win the same revenue and defend margin through economic swings.

Pricing Power, Not Spend

Pricing power is the quiet dividend of brand. It’s what lets you hold value in negotiations, avoid discount creep, and keep demand programmes efficient. Kantar notes that brands that strengthened pricing power increased brand value by 67% over four years, about double the 33% achieved by others. The point is simple: pricing outcomes are strategic, and brand is the lever that sets the terms of trade.

We often see leadership teams match the industry percentage while unknowingly funding inconsistency rather than advantage. Budget lines alone don’t create pricing power; clarity, credibility, and proof do. That requires focus, governance, and evidence that buyers can use.

Brand As System

Put brand to work as a unifying system, not a set of assets. Three practical moves make it commercial:

• One value narrative, taught and used in sales talk tracks, proposals, and product roadmaps.
• A quarterly brand council linking decisions to pipeline quality, win rate, and average selling price.
• Published proof at moments that matter: case stories, quantified outcomes, and service standards.

This reframes investment from “more media” to “less friction.” It reduces duplication, shortens brief-to-market time, and gives teams a common language to prioritise trade-offs under pressure.

Leadership Implications

Treat the brand budget as a portfolio and optimise for compounding effects:

• Allocate across meaning (positioning and story), market motion (campaigns and enablement), and experience (service delivery and product cues).
• Anchor metrics in outcomes: pricing latitude by segment, deal cycle time, referrals, and cost-to-serve.
• Define non-negotiables: where the brand will not be compromised for short-term volume.
• Sequence work: fix alignment before amplification, so every later pound works harder.

The organisations that outperform will treat brand as an operating system for decisions—quietly converting uncertainty into pricing strength, execution speed, and loyalty that endures.

Sources:

• The unseen armor: how pricing power shields brands in trade wars — Kantar

Further Resources

1. Startup Branding: Aligning Clarity with Market Expectations
2. Brand’s Role in Shortening Sales Cycles
3. From Perception to Pipeline: Brand Choices That Improve Lead Quality

If today’s topic resonates, we invite you to continue the dialogue — sometimes one conversation reframes the challenge. Start the conversation.

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