Brand management software company Frontify released their State of Brand Ownership Report, analyzing insights from over 750 leaders from brand, marketing, and design teams at major corporations across the U.S. The survey queried in-house branding experts to see how co-creative their brand development and management process is – uncovering critical opportunities for improvement and top challenges in the process.

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“The State of Brand Ownership Report gives us an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of the corporate brand process”

The report shows significant confusion among organizations regarding who owns the brand itself, with most answers split between the marketing department, C-Suite or executives, and the HR team. While many of those surveyed lack clarity around brand ownership, 80 percent of the respondents feel connected to those brands regardless. Sixty-nine percent desire more input in the development and management of their brand. In fact, a staggering 67 percent create their own set of guidelines separate from the official company format for personal use.

“The State of Brand Ownership Report gives us an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of the corporate brand process,” stated Michael Müller, Head of Marketing at Frontify. “As we see in this survey, most organizations struggle with recurring challenges around collaboration, ownership, and access. Without a clear, established process, we frequently see inconsistent branding across departments, confusion over who has the power to change or influence the brand, and issues with internal stakeholders and partners using up-to-date collateral. Our survey also found that most executives view the brand as a main driver of company equity, so getting this process right is critical.”

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While questions around buy-in and ownership were prominent in the survey results, there were other revealing data points as well, including:

– 98 percent of C-level executives believe their company would benefit from having one centralized set of brand guidelines, yet do not have one in place.

– 70 percent of employees said they need access to brand material weekly to complete their marketing, design, and development projects.

– 85 percent of those surveyed said the company‘s customer experience could be more positive if brand creation teams (brand, marketing, design, UX, devs) were better connected.

– Investment in brand is on the rise – 80 percent of businesses plan to spend the same or more on their brand.