What every CMO dreams of...

Loyal Brands. We all have them. Brands we've integrated into our lives. Brands that become part of our identity. As a CMO, nothing could be more valuable.

Why are they there?

Because we find them useful, and we like them.

If a brand makes my life a little bit better, saving me time perhaps, it's useful to me... as long as it's worth the price and I can rely on it every time.

If I believe in what a brand stands for, I'll like it... provided I believe it's genuine.

And if it does both, I'll embrace it, and even extol its virtues...

Such is a Loyal Brand.

None of this, of course, is particularly new. It's been a compass for creating growth for all my years in Marketing and Retail. However in today's ever more connected, transparent world, the bar is set much higher. You need to be useful to my life, not just to some broad average. And I won't believe what you say, but what other people say...and what you actually do.

Achieving this is not in the province of a CMO alone. It requires the company and the brand to be one, living a core set of beliefs, rooted in improving people's lives.

In other words, it needs a company-wide effort.

Otherwise, dream on...