How new CMOs can implement robust brand governance

The job of an incoming CMO is a big one. Beyond the basics—acclimating to a new office, meeting staff, and integrating into the culture—they need to make an impact fast.

The first 90 days are make-or-break. With razor-sharp focus, new CMOs must uncover the underlying challenges and potential within their inherited marketing ecosystem. From underperforming ROI metrics to brands that have lost their competitive edge, these early weeks present a crucial window to reshape strategy and drive meaningful change.

Whatever the case, a robust brand governance strategy may be part of the solution. To help them implement that strategy, CMOs will typically need to create a high-level roadmap outlining what they plan to deliver and when they plan to deliver it.

But how does a CMO who’s just joined a new organization put together a comprehensive brand strategy? The answer is: by learning as much as they can about their new organization as quickly as possible. How? Through a brand governance assessment—a deep dive into the current state of the brand and how it’s managed.

The importance of a brand governance assessment

The importance of a brand governance assessment can’t be understated. At its core, it takes an overall view of the organization to find out what’s working, what could be working better, and what needs a redo. A brand governance assessment uncovers gaps, bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities to better align brand and marketing operations and people to meet strategic goals, optimize resources, reduce costs. With this alignment in place, CMOs can develop a solid plan to deliver on business goals.

If that sounds like a lot of work, it is. This is why many incoming CMOs choose to work with a partner like BrandActive to handle the back end of the equation. While the new CMO is busy overseeing day-to-day demands and wins, a brand operations partner works behind the scenes to assess current state, compile data, and make recommendations.

Engaging a brand operations partner for the heavy lifting

Typically, a partner will first interview stakeholders to collect organizational data. To do this, they’ll analyze three key pillars that drive the organization: people and resources, process, and tools and technology. Here’s how that might look in practice:

1. People & resources

A typical brand governance assessment starts by identifying key stakeholders in the brand and marketing teams. Interviews with various individuals and teams can provide a wealth of information about the state of the organization, where team members see room for improvement, and where they’d like to see the company headed.

For the clearest picture possible, interviews typically cover employees from various levels of the organization:

• Brand leadership and management— Those responsible for stewarding the brand through policy and oversight.
• Brand execution teams— Creative directors, designers, writers, developers, etc.—the ones producing communications, marketing materials, and other brand experiences.
• General employees— Often the most insightful data comes from the general staff; the people who live and work within the brand. What’s more, employees may feel more valued and connected to changes implemented as a result of their input.
• Agency partners and vendors— Everyone from advertising agencies to uniform suppliers. Are these relationships profitable? Are efforts duplicated? Could cost savings be found by moving work in-house? All aspects of these relationships are up for review.

2. Process

Understanding how things happen is an important piece of the puzzle. Armed with an understanding of current processes, a new CMO can identify bottlenecks and roadblocks. During an engagement, we often ask stakeholders questions like:

• How many layers of approvals are there before a piece of branded material makes it out the door?
• Are there duplicate tasks?
• Are revision cycles properly tracked?
• What workflows have been established to support the marketing and sales process?

3. Tools and technology

The third pillar looks at platforms and applications used to support brand stewardship and governance. With technology evolving as rapidly as it does, a thorough analysis can help CMOs find areas for easy improvement and identify opportunities for immediate cost savings. Questions here may include:

• Are teams using up-to-date software?
• Are SaaS subscriptions current?
• Are there duplicate subscriptions? Are outdated subscriptions maintained despite disuse of their associated applications?

Road-mapping the results into a workable strategy

Once a brand governance analysis is complete, it’s time for CMOs to craft a roadmap rooted in all they’ve learned to generate ROI moving forward.

There are many components to review and incorporate into a brand governance strategy, some easier to implement than others. The overall goal, of course, is to generate ROI and keep the brand moving forward.

Here are a few ideas for quick wins:

Develop a brand education program to foster brand champions

Building a comprehensive brand training program alongside dedicated brand champions ensures everyone works with current materials and maintains brand consistency. A well-structured approach that combines education and designated brand stewards can:

• Inspire teams by sharing best practices and success stories
• Serve as the “eyes and ears” throughout the organization
• Support marketing teams in evolving to meet business needs
• Prevent the proliferation of outdated branded material

Establish a roster of trusted agency partners and vendors

An established roster of vetted agencies and vendors can help cross-functional teams clarify processes around brand engagement.

The right brand operations partners can:

• Clarify brand power users
• Bring to light the strengths and weaknesses of all creative stakeholders to reduce duplicate efforts and identify where additional resources might be needed
• Leverage existing creative resources that might be in current use in one silo of a business, but not in others
• Ensure the quality of branded outputs and realize cost savings through efficiencies that can’t be found in-house

Develop a suite of self-serve assets and toolkits

Building a database of branded assets and toolkits makes it easy for everyone from designers to web developers to know they’re working from the right source.

Templated assets can also streamline time to market by cutting out duplicated efforts on pieces that have already been established.

Toolkits can help:

• Reduce “rogue” customization of materials or overuse of legacy assets
• Cut down on the number of requests for customized assets
• Empower teams throughout the organization to make content within established brand guidelines

Implementing a robust brand governance strategy is not a one-time event, but an ongoing journey of continuous improvement. For new CMOs, this process represents an opportunity to transform organizational potential into tangible business value. By taking a strategic, systematic approach to brand management—leveraging assessments, building internal capabilities, and creating scalable processes—CMOs can position their organizations for sustainable growth and market differentiation.

Ready to jumpstart your brand governance journey? Don’t navigate this critical transition alone—reach out to BrandActive today and discover how we can accelerate your success in the first 90 days and beyond.