Branding Governance: A Participatory Approach to the Brand Building Process

Branding Governance challenges traditional thinking on brands. Bestselling author Nicholas Ind and cross-cultural communications expert Rune Bjerke expose the flaws in a marketing-led approach to brand-building, and offer in its place a highly-participative, organization-wide process that delivers fulfillment to employees and value to customers.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, they show that the key to a participatory approach is that customers and other external audiences must join managers and employees as active participants in defining and developing the brand. This requires the relationship between organization and customer to be one of trust, respect and authenticity.

NICHOLAS IND is a writer and a partner in Equilibrium Consulting. Previously he ran IconMedialab's brand consultancy arm in Sweden, had his own branding consultancy in the UK, was a Director of a design group and was an Account Director in an advertising agency. He is the author of a string of successful books including The Corporate Image, Living the Brand and the authorised biography of Terence Conran.

www.nicholasind.com

RUNE BJERKE is an Associate Professor at the Oslo School of Management. Previously he was a researcher and lecturer at BI Norwegian School of Management. Rune's PhD, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, focused on cross-cultural communications. He has published extensively in communication and marketing journals.