Why CMOs Must Champion Brand as a Business Asset

Brand Strength Is Pricing Power

Kantar research underscores something marketers have long intuited: strong brands can command significantly higher prices, with consumers willing to pay up to 2x more for brands with high perceived value. That is pricing power. That is margin protection. That is a CFO’s dream. And it doesn’t come from cutting marketing: it comes from investing in it.

In fact, brand-building is one of the most effective financial levers a company has. Kantar’s BrandZ shows that companies with strong brand equity outperform the S&P 500 and MSCI World Index. That’s not "sentiment" - it's data.

Reframing Marketing as a Profit Center

Yet in challenging economic times, marketing budgets are often first on the chopping block. That reflex must be challenged. CMOs must make the business case - not just the brand case - that marketing is not a cost to be controlled, but a growth driver to be maximized. When brand health is strong, revenue resilience follows. The inverse is just as true.

What CMOs Need to Do Now

1. Connect Brand to Business Metrics
   Speak in the language of the C-suite. Use brand tracking and advanced analytics to draw clear, causal links between brand equity and financial performance. Show how brand strength drives pricing power, customer retention and profitability.
2. Honor the Brand Promise
   A brand is a social contract. Delivering consistently on that promise deepens trust, builds equity, and sustains pricing power. That’s not soft; it’s strategic.
3. Invest in Meaningful Differentiation
   Brands that are not just known but emotionally resonant and functionally relevant can achieve up to 5x higher market penetration. That’s the kind of competitive moat no short term set of tacits can match.

Now is not the time to retreat. It’s the moment for CMOs to lean in and help CEOs and CFOs understand that pulling back on brand investment is not prudent risk management: it's a slow erosion of future growth. The companies that will win tomorrow are the ones that refuse to undervalue their most powerful commercial engine today: the brand.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.