Brand isn’t what you say in a campaign. It’s what people experience when they work with you, buy from you, or watch how you behave when things get uncomfortable.

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

― Jeff Bezos

That’s why brand can’t sit only with marketing.

When leadership doesn’t own the brand, marketing ends up filling the gaps—trying to explain decisions it didn’t make, or smooth over inconsistencies it didn’t create. That’s when brands start to feel hollow.

The strongest brands are clear because the people at the top are clear. They know what they stand for, and just as importantly, what they’re willing to say no to. That clarity shows up in culture, in customer experience, and in long-term trust.

People don’t build relationships with logos. They build them with organisations that behave in a consistent, human way. Leadership sets that behavior. Marketing simply turns up the volume.

Brand starts in the boardroom, not the brief.