Andrés Cuneo of ESADE and Adolfo Ibañez School of Management: Many companies seek for that alignment between brand, strategy and innovation

Making the brand’s role go beyond marketing departments’ responsibility, in order to position it as central focus of the company’s strategy is the main goal of the brand strategic management program at Adolfo Ibañez School Management & ESADE, according to its Brand-Driven Strategy program Director and Professor in Partnership Programs, Andrés Cuneo. “At the end of the day, many companies have been competing based on products and services. But we are observing that in increasingly more competitive markets the differentiation is in intangibles, specifically in the brand which is a very important vehicle in order to differentiate the companies’ commercial offer” he told PRODU. “There are many companies seeking for that alignment between brand, strategy and innovation” he added. More and more the topic of brands is having more relevance and in the business management is taking a more active role of competitive differentiation. “The idea of putting the brand in the company’s heart is the search for making a distinction.” One of the program’s objectives -aimed at general, commercial, marketing, brand management, advertising directors, entrepreneurs and businessmen- is to incorporate the brand’s vision into all the company’s areas. “What we are seeing is that for a long time brands have been owned by the marketing teams, but nowadays consumers are asking you who is behind brands and they ceased to be a symbol of recognition becoming more relevant. That’s the reason why brands should be managed by general directorate, as the center of the company’s strategy and engine driving the corporative growth.”