Brand risk = business risk: how to spot it before it costs you

Spotting brand risk red flags and what marketing should really be doing for your business.

For senior executives outside of marketing, “brand” can often feel intangible. A logo, a tone of voice, a set of brand values framed in the corridor. Nice to have. Not core business.

But the reality is this: brand is embedded in every commercial outcome you care about, from revenue and recruitment to investor confidence and client retention, and when brand starts to break down, even subtly, it creates risk. Not cosmetic risk. Commercial risk.

Here’s how to spot it, why it matters, and how to think more strategically about what marketing should really be doing for your business.

Inconsistency isn’t just confusing, it’s expensive

If your website says one thing, your team pitches another, and your outbound comms say a third, this confusion can lead to:

·         Lost deals that never quite “got” what you do

·         Sales cycles that drag because positioning isn’t clear

·         Talent opting out because your values don’t feel consistent

·         Lower valuation because your proposition is muddy

Brand inconsistency compounds over time. It doesn’t usually show up as a dramatic failure. It shows up as friction across touchpoints, teams, and channels. And that friction slows growth.

Tactical marketing without direction is operational risk

It’s easy to think of marketing as execution. Launch the campaign. Update the website. Post the social content. But when marketing operates tactically without strategic leadership, messaging drifts, teams get misaligned and budget is spent solving the wrong problems.

You end up investing in activity without clarity, gambling time and money on unmeasured assumptions.

So, what should you spend on marketing?

There’s a common rule of thumb: 5-10% of revenue, but context matters more than category:

• Are you entering a new market against entrenched incumbents? You’ll need to spend more to gain share and establish positioning

• Are you defending an established brand in a saturated market? You can often spend less, but only if your brand equity is strong and consisten

• Are you relying on “free” channels like content, email, or partnerships? These may be low-cost in media terms, but they require high-cost people to execute well

Marketing is rarely too expensive but it’s often mismatched to your business stage, commercial objectives, or internal capabilities. If the investment feels random or too reliant on “what we’ve always done,” that’s a red flag.

Align marketing KPIs with business KPIs

Marketing teams are often measuring open rates, click-throughs, and impressions - useful metrics, but not the language of the boardroom.

When marketing and ops are measuring different things, strategy splinters If you want marketing to become a strategic function and not just a cost centre, you need to integrate its outputs with broader operational dashboards.

That might mean folding marketing insight into sales velocity tracking, customer acquisition cost, lead quality attribution and brand perception tracking against commercial pipeline.

How to spot brand risk inside your business

Here are five subtle but telling signs:

• Your leadership team describes the business in five different ways

• You’re relying on your founder or CEO to drive all new business

• Your team is struggling to attract the right candidates

• Your marketing is ‘busy’ but disconnected from sales goals

• Your internal strategy decks are clearer than your external messaging

These aren’t marketing issues. They’re business signals that something isn’t translating.

 

How to drive brand clarity from the top

If you’re a COO, CFO or CEO and you’ve relegated brand to “something marketing does,” it might be time to bring it back into the strategic conversation.

Brand clarity isn’t just a communications tool. It’s a growth lever, a risk reducer, and a source of commercial confidence when it’s built right.

Let’s talk: www.pinkmingo.co.uk/contact