In the final episode of the Brand Builder’s Playbook, David Aaker and Dr. Marcus Collins explore why leadership, not advertising, is the real test of brand strength. Both see the same problem playing out across industries. Marketers talk about purpose and innovation, but too many still chase short-term wins that drain long-term value. Their call to action is clear: treat brand as a company-wide belief system, not a marketing project.
Brand is more than awareness
Aaker’s updated framework brings brand back to its original purpose as a business asset. He outlined five forces that work together to create sustainable growth: relevance, image, loyalty, portfolio, and equity. Relevance ensures people notice the brand and find it credible. Image shapes what they associate with it and how they feel. Loyalty deepens those feelings through repeated trust. Portfolio builds scale by connecting parent brands, sub-brands, and partnerships. Equity measures the full financial and emotional value of those relationships over time.
For Aaker, the problem is not that marketers have forgotten these fundamentals. It is that many have reverted to short-term thinking. The push for immediate results has replaced brand building with demand capture, leaving leaders blind to the long-term value they are eroding. He sees brand equity as the discipline that reconnects marketing, finance, and strategy around a single objective: compounding value through meaning.
Culture gives brand its relevance
Collins approaches the same issue through a cultural lens. He believes brands are not built through transactions but through shared belief. A product can be copied, but meaning cannot. When a company stands for something that aligns with what people already believe about themselves, it becomes part of their identity. That connection builds loyalty faster than any discount or feature ever could.
He described culture as the multiplier that turns brand ideas into behavior. Every decision, from creative expression to community engagement, either strengthens or weakens that alignment. Brands that focus only on visibility miss the deeper opportunity to participate in culture. Collins sees this as the ultimate role of marketing: to translate a company’s beliefs into experiences that people use to express their own.
The system behind strong brands
Aaker and Collins share a practical mindset. They view brand as a system that integrates product design, purpose, and communication. In that system, meaning drives preference, and preference drives performance. The challenge is organizational. Many companies treat marketing as a function rather than a leadership discipline. The fix is structural. Brand needs a seat in every major business decision, from innovation to hiring to measurement.
Aaker also emphasized the importance of energy. Every brand needs something that keeps it alive in culture. That can come from social programs, partnerships, or creative ideas that capture imagination and credibility at the same time. When purpose connects to business results, it sustains energy instead of exhausting it.
The new skill set for leadership
Both leaders agree that brand-led leadership requires a different type of executive. Patience, conviction, and cultural fluency now matter as much as operational skill. Innovation must be treated as a brand act, not an isolated process. Risk-taking becomes essential because progress demands experimentation. The leaders who thrive are the ones who stay clear about what their brand stands for and consistent in how they show it to the world.
Aaker pointed to purpose-driven programs like Dove’s Real Beauty campaign as examples of how brands can grow by aligning conviction with commercial impact. Collins expanded that idea to leadership itself, arguing that the most successful executives today are those who act with belief even when it is inconvenient. Brand-led leadership means knowing who you are, what you value, and how you want the company to show up in the world.
Practical takeaways for brand leaders
Aaker and Collins left a set of lessons that translate belief into practice:
- Manage brand as a business system, not a campaign.
- Connect culture and commerce through shared values.
- Balance short-term contribution with long-term equity.
- Build energy around purpose, not promotions.
- Treat leadership behavior as the brand’s most visible message.
The line to remember
Strong brands do not follow culture, they define it. When leaders align belief with behavior, they turn purpose into performance and make brand everyone’s responsibility.
