Stories about companies are no longer told only by the companies themselves, but also by customers, communities and algorithms.
This means that brand leadership is evolving rapidly. Today, the story of a company is shaped not only by what the company says about itself, but also by the time in which it operates and by the people who engage with it.
A development observed by Tilde Heding, Teaching Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Marketing and co-author of ‘Brand Management: Mastering Research, Theory and Practice’, and Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, international brand advisor and guest researcher at CBS. They have both worked with brand leadership from different perspectives for decades and closely followed how the field has developed:
"One of the things that has really changed, is the pace and the control of the narrative of a company. In the past, companies could tell their brand story at a slower pace and with greater control over the media they used", Tilde Heding explains.
According to her, narratives must function in an environment characterised by enormous speed and many voices. With social media and other platforms, many others contribute to the story besides the company itself.
The Changing Landscape of Brand Leadership: Navigating Authenticity, AI, and Communities
In today’s fast-moving and highly competitive marketplace, brands are under more pressure than ever to stay relevant and impactful. Tilde Heding, Teaching Associate Professor at CBS, and Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, international brand advisor and guest researcher at CBS, speak on how companies navigate storytelling, technology, and authenticity.
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However, this does not mean there is no longer room for companies to tell the big identity stories. Quite the opposite:
"Many argue that the big stories can no longer be told with authenticity. I don’t agree. In a fragmented media landscape, it becomes even more important for companies to be clear about who they are and what they stand for. Stories can help express that clarity."
That clarity, Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard argues, in many ways brings companies back to the core:
"One of the things we see is that new technologies, and especially AI, are releasing new opportunities to work with many smaller stories and formats in communication."
But at the same time, she explains, this development also reinforces the importance of authenticity:
"These two movements happen at the same time. As AI becomes part of the equation, the question of authenticity becomes even more important. Companies must ask themselves: what is the origin of our brand? Who are we as a company? When that foundation is clear, storytelling becomes credible and meaningful. That honesty is something we see being cultivated increasingly."
"In that sense, authenticity is becoming the anchor. The technology changes fast, but the brands that succeed are the ones that stay true to their core."
According to Tilde Heding, the concept of authenticity itself has gained new dimensions in recent years:
"Authenticity was largely defined by the company’s identity, meaning something that resided inside the organisation. Today, authenticity increasingly emerges in the interaction with your audiences, customers, members and so on. This is especially evident among younger generations: If an engaging conversation with consumers and communities takes place, the brand is more likely to be perceived as authentic."
Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard also sees relationships between the company and the individual customer becoming much more important:
"Companies now have far more tools and data to build direct relationships with their customers. But that also raises a critical question: can those interactions still feel authentic?", she says.
"In many ways, the more technology enters communication, the more important authenticity becomes. Trust is not created by technology or personalisation alone – it comes from whether the interaction actually feels genuine to the person on the other side."
According to Tilde Heding, this creates an interesting paradox in the debate about whether AI will undermine authenticity:
"Some people believe it makes it harder to be authentic. Others say the opposite: when so much content is artificially generated, the human element may actually stand out more clearly."
“Authenticity is becoming the anchor. The technology changes fast, but the brands that succeed are the ones that stay true to their core.”
Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard
International brand advisor and guest researcher at CBS
For Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, that is what makes AI both a challenge and an opportunity within brand leadership:
"Many companies ask: what kind of tool is this, and how do we actually use it? But the more interesting question is what it enables. AI opens entirely new possibilities to understand customers, personalise communication and build more continuous relationships with them. At the same time, it also makes one thing very clear: technology cannot replace the core of a brand. The more advanced the tools become, the more important it is that companies are clear about who they are and what they stand for. The clarity is what makes relationships credible."
The technological developments, however, have not made brand leadership any less relevant, Tilde Heding says:
"Things are moving very quickly, and in some organisations, resources are being shifted from long-term brand work towards more direct sales activities. So, we are in the middle of a new phase of development. Previously, it was social media that changed the rules of the game. Now, AI is accelerating the development again. I see it more as a continued evolution than as a crisis for brand leadership."
In that context, Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard still believes branding retains its strategic place within organisations:
"If you reduce it to campaigns and communication, it simply becomes an advertising tool,and then it loses the depth that makes a brand credible in the first place. Successful branding is still essentially about long-term work to differentiate a company strategically."
For Tilde Heding, this basic understanding of brand strategy is also what ultimately creates brand value:
"If you have a brand strategy, you can apply it across all operational activities. The brand becomes a framework for everything the company does," Tilde says, pointing to a worldwide brand as an example:
"Red Bull is a brand that primarily competes through storytelling and media. They do not own their own production facilities, they produce a limited amount of the same drinks, yet they define themselves as a media company. In reality, branding and communication are their main business area. That is loud and clear brand strategy."
Part of building brand value today also involves operating in a rapidly changing world, not just in tech tools and market changes, but also geopolitically, with raised expectations to be ethical, inclusive and to take a stand on global issues:
"Large brands are almost expected to behave like small nations and take responsibility for their actions in the world. This also means companies are navigating a completely new set of pressures, where consumers can react very quickly and punish companies if they fail to live up to those expectations."
“If you have a brand strategy, you can apply it across all operational activities. The brand becomes a framework for everything the company does.”
Tilde Heding
Teaching Associate Professor at CBS
This, according to Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, also adds a new dimension to authenticity, which has followed a period where many companies very quickly adopted certain values for example around diversity:
"But when those values suddenly were moved down the political agenda and companies respond by also moving them down, the question becomes: how authentic were they in the first place?"
This evolvement in brand leadership also means that companies must expand their competencies with more knowledge of AI, digital media, audiences and storytelling, as well as people who can read societal developments, Tilde explains:
"I also believe more companies will build these competencies in-house. It’s no longer enough to simply buy campaigns from external agencies. You need to be much closer to your customers and your community."
The evolution in brand leadership alongside the changing conditions in which companies operate, led Tilde Heding and Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard to a new initiative at CBS: the Center of Excellence in Brand Leadership. Here they will bring together knowledge from researchers, practitioners, companies, fostering an active exchange of insights and expertise:
"It is more relevant than ever to bring companies and researchers together around these questions," Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard concludes: "There is still a great deal to explore and understand when it comes to the future of brand leadership."
Tilde Heding is Teaching Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Marketing and co-author of ‘Brand Management: Mastering Research, Theory and Practice’. Tilde Heding teaches strategic brand management at CBS and also has more than two decades of practise in branding consultancy. Tilde Heding is also the study director of HD2 Strategisk Salg og Marketing.
Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard is an entrepreneur, founder, and guest researcher at Copenhagen Business School, with extensive experience in launching and leading innovative companies in design, luxury fashion, beverages, and communication. Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard is the founder and CEO of Cosca Studios, and has previously founded Chamucha Kombucha in Switzerland.
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