Brands spend enormous amounts of time and money perfecting what the customer sees, but what happens behind the scenes can be just as important.
Dr. Marcus Collins has spent much of his career thinking about what makes people believe in brands. As a cultural strategist, University of Michigan marketing professor and former chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, he has worked with some of the world's most influential brands, including Apple and Beyoncé.
His bestselling book For The Culture explored the relationship between culture, identity and consumer behaviour. But after leaving the agency world and moving into consulting and advising brands, something else began to catch his attention. Companies had good ideas, talented people and excellent strategies. Yet, somehow, they still couldn't execute them.
“It's not because of talent, the people weren’t mediocre,” Marcus says. “It is that the organizational culture prevented them from being the best person themselves.”
