Fred Rogers touched the hearts of millions of children through his work in creating and hosting one of the most beloved educational television programs — Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Throughout its run, the show built a strong brand that was recognized as a leader in educating millions of young children. When public funds for the program became scarce, Mister Rogers stood before the US Senate Subcommittee on Communications to passionately defend the educational mission of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The goose-bumps-producing testimony compelled one of the most impatient subcommittee chairmen to approve $20 million in funding for the show.

Mister Rogers was able to accomplish this inspiring feat by building a strong brand for his show and using that brand to accomplish a seemingly impossible task — creating a community of devoted fans that Congress was compelled to keep alive and growing.

As our friendly neighbor Mister Rogers showed us, it’s possible to build a strong lasting brand by charming a community of involved supporters.

CMOs, it’s time for you to take a lesson from Mister Rogers by rallying and engaging your entire organization to reach the full potential of your brand.

And that’s where our new report “Engage The Enterprise To Reach Brand Experience Maturity” can help you get started.

Building on our 2012 research on brand maturity, our latest research provides new insights across five key dimensions: 1) customer obsession; 2) brand-promise clarity; 3) brand-building strategy; 4) a consistent experience across messages, actions, and products; and 5) brand-performance monitoring. Despite all of the talk about the business value of a strong brand, our research shows that engaging the enterprise around brand building remains a persistent challenge for senior marketers.

How can you lead your enterprise to reach brand experience maturity? Take your brand to the next level by engaging the entire organization and nurturing your best assets — employees. Our latest research will help you:

  • Create a new hierarchy of brand and customer experience. Let’s face it: Modern marketing requires CMOs to take charge of the alignment between brand and customer experience to win, serve, and retain customers. Whether that means restructuring your organization, creating completely new roles, or collaborating with your peers, CMOs must take initiative to link the brand and customer experience together to meet empowered customers’ demands.
  • Employ a methodology when building the brand experience. Business processes, metrics, and results are your new best friends when it comes to rallying the organization. What better way to gain the support of senior leaders and all business functions than with brand performance key performance indicators that demonstrate and align to clear business results?
  • Build brand advocacy through clarity. Do your employees know what the company stands for? If your answer is no, clarify the brand North Star for your organization by showing how each employee can bring your brand to life in their everyday work.

In 2015, CMOs will face new and old challenges alike. But it’s time to hit the ground running and inspire your enterprise to think, breathe, and live your brand. Start today by optimizing and benchmarking your brand experience capabilities.

I’d love to hear your comments and perspectives about this topic. Please reach out to me via email or on my blog, or share your thoughts at my Twitter account. Or to learn more, you can schedule an inquiry with me.