Florian Haller

CEO and co-owner

Serviceplan Group for Innovative Communication

1. How significant is the brand for your company management?

Naturally it is very significant. Our agency brands are a vital priority. They are the prerequisite of ongoing new business and enable us to adopt premium pricing.

2. How does the brand specifically help you to manage your company and make decisions?

This is something we do ourselves. However, that doesn’t mean it happens automatically. First of all, we receive regular advice from our brand strategists at the Serviceplan Consulting Group. Secondly, the theme of the brand is positioned directly where we work at the Holding. This is how we ensure strategic detachment and yet at the same time sufficient interest in this key topic.

3. In your opinion, what are the misapprehensions of brand management that need to be avoided?

The biggest one is the increasingly erratic nature of brand decisions. After careful observation, I have noticed two sources of this:
- The increasing speed of rotation in marketing. A CMO who survives longer than three years in his job has become the exception.
- The many channels via which brands must nowadays communicate. Together, both of these lead to ever more fragmented brand images from a customer perspective. It causes brands to lose their function as a beacon or orientation.

4. What advice would you give to other companies with regard to brand management?

Have a careful think before you decide where you want to position your brand. And then stay with it. Maintain this image throughout all channels. Including and especially the digital ones.

5. What company do you admire for its brand management?

BMW. Sheer driving pleasure. What else?