Trying to get the great picture of the course 'Brand Governance'

The course has its point of departure in four basis "angles" of how to see a company's brand platform. It is customer and market orientation; Innovation and strategy; financial performance and measurement; and legal protection and leverage. All four areas can recommend how to strategically govern and develop the brand successfully.
The agenda is to make marketing a central strategic function in a company, and not just an isolated activity.

Customer and market orientation focus on creating customer value. The point being not to use a "good dominant logic" but instead a "service dominant logic". This means thinking of the brand and its products as a service to the customer, that is a part of the customers own value chain. The question being, how can I help the customer overcome his problem? By focusing on the customer, the company should create a holistic brand experience and aim to close gaps between the customer expectations and customer experience.
In order to make this successful and convince the top-management the eligibility, it is important to have a system that can measure the brand value.

Here most measurement systems fails as they either only focuses on either market performance or customer performance. A system for managing both is necessary. Moreover, it is important that brand managers speaks the language of top-management and the financial department and thus can explain in figures why the brand is that important. Saying that approx 80% of the company's revenue is due to the company's intangible assets (including the brand) is not a sufficient argument if it cannot be measured.

The measurement and valuation of brands is also a strategic way to look at brand in itself. It reflects a mindset of how to work with brands in the organization. Is the brand measured and valuated as an asset? or is it valuated as goodwill or not at all?

uh this is gonna be long...

In line with co-creation, customer value creation and service dominant logic we find innovation and strategy. The brand platform can be the guidance needed when managers need to make decisions of how to innovate. Is it the brand that drives the innovations or the innovations that drives the brand? Product innovations are costly, not just to develop but also to market. The brand is a valuable asset when it comes to creating attention and sales. The point of parity is already established and half of the work in creating the attention is done beforehand if the company understands how to use the existing brand as a jumping point. This of course depends on industries and the company's brand structure.

Lastly, the legal protection is important when we are talking about intangible assets. It is easy to copy a product tangible assets, but much harder to copy the brand feelings, performance and experience. However, if the company do not legally protect their brand and products with e.g. trademarks, it is thus easy for competitors to benefit from the established brand's reputation. This can be very damaging for the existing brand. Legal protection with Trademarks can in some countries be another way to think strategically of brands as trademarks in some countries can be registered before the product is in the market.

To sum up, companies need to align their brand in every touch point where they meet consumers externally but also internally to support the brand through management systems, organizational structure and culture. The brand does not exist in itself, it must constantly be governed and developed. A strong leadership and vision is crucial to this alignment and often the misalignment occurs when theory is formed into praxis and managers are affected by institutional norms and routines.