While the brand audit is underway, a brand strategy team (BST) is constructed. The BST should:
- Be cross-functional, covering various functions that interact with customers
- Include decision-makers with veto power. It is important to address concerns during strategy development, not after.
- Should total no more than 20 participants
- Include some junior participants who will not be intimidated by senior leaders.
- Have diversity of markets represented.
- Include agency partners or other creative vendors as participants, not facilitators.
The brand strategy team has two critical functions.
- It works together in multi-day workshops. A commitment to attend all sessions is important. It is inefficient and disruptive for a participant to miss a significant part of a workshop and then try to catch up.
- It assigns a sub-group with responsibility for the communication of the brand strategy throughout the organization and the activation of the strategy. That activation has both external and internal components.