Former Nike VP and MasterClass CMO David Schriber: “Here are 5 things you should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand”

Know who you are and what you stand for. It may sound like obvious advice, but you’d be astounded by how often leadership teams can’t immediately say who they are, who is the consumer, what they are doing for them, and why they are doing it. Even when you get a consensus on the ideas, word-smithing might take weeks. But it’s worth the effort to be clear and articulate at every level of a small company, a big company, or especially, a new division. When I worked on the Nike FuelBand fitness tracker, a product no one had seen or knew to want, we really sweated this thinking. When we got to “we make the invisible, visible” and “life is a sport, make it count,” only then could we lead the company, and consumers, to get behind it.