Who's fighting for your brand? In the case of too many banks, the answer is: nobody. Here's the argument in favor of delegating a "chief branding officer" to oversee this vital task.

• Author: Edwards, Haden
• Position: Branding

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Consider this a polite warning: If your bank does not have a chief branding officer (CBO) soon, you are in danger of losing your competitive edge.

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Here's why:

The clutter and noise in today's fragmented marketplace is so bad that your communications must stand out with memorable impact and consistency or you're wasting your bank's money. Someone must be in charge of these communications and that someone must also be in charge of the bank's most important asset: your brand.

Without a brand enforcer to safeguard all customer and stakeholder touch points, your brand will suffer the consequences of inconsistency, which almost always results in downturns in market share, revenue and profitability. Confusing your customers and prospects about your brand is the same as encouraging them to lose trust in your brand. You must prepare to invest in people who understand "trust factors" and the fundamental fact that consistency, a key trust factor, is one of the cornerstones of building a strong and sustainable brand.

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OK, quick, look around the franchise. Who's in charge of all the visual, cultural and emotional aspects of your bank (aka, your brand)? Your answer is probably, "No one." Over the past 20 years, my firm has rarely found a bank where the managers had a consensus on brand or employed someone whose duty and responsibility was to increase brand equity. Yet, we will argue that it could be the single most important position in the organization. The reason is that, regardless of what any of today's so-called "experts" have to say, and no matter how much jargon they can make up to say it, the first and most important function of every bank is sales. Case closed. Of course, there is great value in having current research, ahead-of-the-curve technology, organizational management skills, or any other function that can be six sigmatized into a set of spreadsheets. The fact remains that none of the people in these jobs would even have a desk on which to rest their PC if it were not for the fuel that runs the train--sales. If you do not agree with this premise, you need not read further. If, on the other hand, you can see the unmistakable logic in this thinking, your search for a CBO has already begun, and you have already taken a first step in building a power brand.

A power brand is a brand that, as Dr. David Shore of Harvard University says, "... Is a brand that people will travel...