Landor has rewritten the book of brand management. Its new playbook is called The Brand Community Model and it responds to imperatives in today’s hyper-competitive, complex marketplace.

“The rigid and carefully controlled era of brand management is over,” stated Lois Jacobs, chief executive officer of Landor.

“Agility and adaptability are now top predictors of success, giving way to more audiences participating in how a brand is expressed and experienced. Of course in this environment it remains extremely important to preserve the integrity of the brand and ensure it remains true to its purpose. Our Brand Community Model provides the tools to do just that. It’s the next evolution of brand management and will generate more innovation and greater consumer connections with products and services.”

“In this new world, multiple communities, including employees, partners, third-party influencers, and superfans, are actively encouraged to become involved in a brand’s management,” Landor added.

To create its new model, Landor spent the last year interviewing more than 20 Fortune 500 companies, identifying best practices and speaking with industry insiders to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing brand governance today. The agency then assembled a panel of senior executives from six of the world’s top brands to co-create a resilient and flexible way to govern brands.

In the Brand Community Model, two sacrosanct practices are debunked: treating all audiences the same and considering all brand expressions equally.

Three levels of communities that play a major role in shaping a brand are identified: Experts, Practitioners, and Employees. And, brand expressions are prioritised into:

• The Sacred: elements that fundamentally define the brand and cannot be changed.
• The Interpretative: aspects that can be adapted based on context, market, or geography.
• The Exploratory: characteristics that can be freely adapted to allow more creativity.

Dominic Walsh, managing director Landor Australia added, “The old model of brand management is based on the brand police enforcing compliance. This simply does not work in this day and age. The Brand Community Model is a bespoke tool that allows brands to be managed in an agile way. It is about flexibility, adaptability and open dialogue with complex stakeholders. Australian brands need to take the handcuffs off to stay relevant on a global scale.”

Because change can be confronting and confusing, Landor has also developed three key principles to guide people along its new path.

• Democratise and empower: Everyone, including employees and external partners, should play a role in bringing the brand to life.
• Segment and prioritise: Understand that not all audiences or touchpoints are created equal.
• Be flexible and risk-tolerant: Intuition, rather than prescription, is key to success.