Brand Leadership: The New Brand Management

Derrick DayeFebruary 26, 20154 min

Top tier marketers today have made one career-changing decision that has extended the reach of their success. They’ve elected to lead rather than manage. Those seven words represent the new requirement for high performance in an age where the customer drives the conversation about brands and where the proactive thrive.

Don’t Manage. Lead.

To manage means to bring about, to accomplish a task, to be responsible for a deliverable. Brand management mattered when the rules were set and when repetition formed the crux for success. But today’s marketplace is so much more dynamic and today’s consumers too social and demanding for managing alone to be enough anymore.

Marketers today must be leaders – because if your brand is not driving the conversation and changing the rules, you’re always going to be beholden to someone else’s playbook. Leadership is about influence, guidance, innovation and following a unique path.

The differences between management and leadership are most apparent in the contrasting behaviors of decision makers:

•  The manager administers; the leader innovates.
•  The manager replicates; the leader is an original.
•  The manager is focused on structure and systems; the leader is focused on people.
•  The manager relies on command and control; the leader inspires trust.
•  The manager thinks near-term; the leader has long-term vision and perspective.
•  The manager has their eye on the bottom line; the leader has their eye on the horizon and sustained wealth.
•  The manager invests in the status quo; the leader challenges it.

For marketers and brands to achieve their highest potential in the marketplace, stewardship, integrity, authenticity and trust must be infused in every action. These are qualities that brand leaders possess and bake into their strategic brand building efforts.

Join The Evolution From Brand Manager To Brand Leader

At The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World, we are working with senior marketers through the lens of brand leadership. The Blake Project’s annual, fun, ‘Competitive-Learning’ event is about taking a deep dive into the best practices that result in strong brands. It is designed to help you develop strategies that will propel your brand to a leadership position or to assist you to maintain the leadership position you have worked so hard to achieve.

No Attendees. Only Participants.
The best pathway for learning is through participation, not observation. The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World will challenge your thinking about brands and brand management. To do that, we’ll put you on a team of 10 and offer you opportunities to compete, lead and learn alongside other marketers in a unique environment. The challenges you’ll tackle are based on and influenced by the actual issues that you and other participants are facing.

In May of 2018, our 6th annual event, we are focused on Keeping Brands Human, taking a close look at the shaping forces occupying the intersection of brand strategy and technology. Some of the topics we’ll cover include: Disruptive Marketing Trends, Building Emotional Connections, Encoding Brands In The Mind, Brand Storytelling, Brand Leadership, Digital Strategy, Customer Experience, B2B Brand Strategy and more.

The Un-Conference is highly interactive and designed to question assumptions, taking participants on searching journeys to arrive at new and optimistic decisions about their competitive future.

2018-Brand-Strategy-Conference

It all takes place at The Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego, California May 14-16, 2018.

Our schedule…

Monday, May 14th – Kickoff Mixer: 7- 9pm at The Hard Rock Hotel Rooftop Pool

Tuesday, May 15th – Day 1: 8am – 5pm, at The Hard Rock Hotel / 6:30pm – ? Team building event and dinner

Wednesday, May 16th – Day 2: 8am – 5pm, at The Hard Rock Hotel

Brand Strategy Conference Participants

Who Should Participate?

We have reserved these two days (and a kickoff mixer on the evening of the 2nd) for 50 senior B2C and B2B marketers who see professional growth and value creation as a mandate for success and who seek a learning experience superior to last century’s format of marketing conferences:

-Marketing oriented leaders
-Marketing professionals (brand managers, product managers, directors, vice presidents, CMO’s, brand strategists etc.)
-Advertising agency professionals (account executives, planners, creatives, agency heads)
-Marketers facing brand strategy issues
-Marketers seeking a competitive advantage
-Professionals in charge of brand building, brand management, human resources
-Professional brand consultants, digital consultants and researchers
-Entrepreneurs launching new brands
-Marketers who prefer participation over observation
-Marketers who don’t believe that last century’s format of marketing conferences advances them as leaders.

Every year a wide range of marketing oriented leaders and professionals from around the world join us representing startups, emerging, regional, national and global brands. Past participants include AAA, Air France/KLM, Bayer, Bloomberg, Humana, Land O’ Lakes, Liberty Mutual, Pilot/Flying J, RJ Reynolds, TD Ameritrade, GlaxoSmithKlein, Wounded Warrior Project, Monsanto, Ogilvy, Kawasaki, GE and many more.

Your $2,200 registration ($2,500 after September 25th) includes:

-Private kickoff mixer at The Hard Rock Hotel Rooftop Pool

-Private Team building event and dinner

-Lunch and refreshments for both Un-Conference days

-Conference Materials

-Special room rates at The Hard Rock Hotel

Only 50 marketers can participate. To secure a spot for you or your group at The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World call me directly in Los Angeles at 813-842-2260. Or simply email me.

REGISTER BEFORE SEPTEMBER 25th and SAVE $300!

Brought to you by experiential agency Moosylvania and the Los Angeles American Marketing Association

I do hope you can join us.

Sincerely,

Derrick Daye for The Un-Conference, Branding Strategy Insider and The Blake Project

2 comments

  • Chris Wren

    March 1, 2015 at 4:28 pm

    I see this model changing across many agencies I work with. There is a need to define what I like to call “architects” (leaders) and “general contractors” (managers). As usual, a very important and timely article.

  • Rubie Garcia

    March 10, 2015 at 2:17 am

    I like how you distinguished a leader from a manager. It can definitely serve as a guide to those who are aspiring to be leaders. I wish you can also write about young aspiring leaders and how they can lead people who are mostly older than they are. Thanks for sharing this, Derrick!

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