You're juggling feedback from multiple team members. How do you ensure your brand's narrative stays true?

To keep my brand's narrative consistent while managing feedback from multiple team members, it's important to prioritize the core values and messaging of the brand. By filtering suggestions through this lens, I ensure that any changes align with the overall brand identity.

In an ideal world, you’d have a small, dedicated team of decision-makers, but that’s not always possible. When there are many voices in the mix, it can be challenging to stay true to your brand’s narrative. In my experience, diplomacy is key. Ensure everyone feels heard and respected, which helps foster collaboration. As the brand ambassador, it’s your responsibility to integrate feedback where possible without compromising brand integrity. Stand firm on the decisions that matter most, as you are the brand’s subject matter expert, but do so with tact to maintain strong relationships.

It's important that you first identify who the critical stakeholders are - those who have a valid input. Listen carefully to what they have to say. Make it clear that you are listening, and that you will then have to recommend to the decision maker what changes need to be made. Not all feedback will be actioned. And there will be other stakeholders who merely need to be informed of the changes. The trouble is, everyone has an opinion and likes to share it. But you can't just action all of these competing points of view. You have to synthesise the feedback and combine it with your desired strategic outcomes.

Na minha visão, o primeiro passo ao receber feedback de várias fontes é reunir e organizar essas informações de forma sistemática. Criar um documento centralizado para registrar todos os comentários e sugestões é essencial para visualizar o quadro geral e identificar temas recorrentes. É importante lembrar que nem todo feedback será relevante, então cabe a você discernir quais contribuições podem refinar a narrativa da marca e quais devem ser descartadas. Uma organização eficaz garante que as melhores ideias sejam capturadas sem desviar da mensagem central da marca.

When juggling feedback from multiple team members, I focus on the core message of the brand. I carefully consider each piece of feedback but always check if it aligns with the brand’s story. By staying true to the brand’s narrative and making sure all changes support that, I can keep the message consistent and strong.

Remember that not all feedback is equal. When it comes to prioritisation, some of your stakeholders carry more weight than others - i.e. your CMO or Legal and Regulatory Affairs teams. So, in addition to checking alignment with brand values and objectives, also check alignment with the importance and impact of the feedback itself. i.e. if you are being told that what you are doing is against local regulations, pay attention and fix it!

Na minha opinião, após coletar todo o feedback, é essencial priorizá-lo com base nos valores e objetivos de longo prazo da marca. Embora muitas sugestões possam surgir, é importante focar naquelas que realmente fortalecem a narrativa da marca. Avalie o impacto de cada feedback na identidade da marca e concentre-se nos que a aprimoram. Essa priorização garante que você não esteja apenas reagindo, mas integrando o feedback de maneira que enriqueça e apoie a essência da marca.

To keep your brand's narrative true, define a clear purpose and messaging framework, and establish a single source of truth for brand guidelines. This will be your north star as you juggle feedback from multiple team members. Ensure all feedback aligns with the brand's core values and purpose, and use a consistent tone and language across all communications. Regularly review and refine the narrative to maintain clarity and cohesion, and you'll be able to maintain a unified brand voice that resonates with your audience.

Na minha opinião, a comunicação clara é fundamental ao lidar com diversas opiniões. É importante ser transparente com a equipe sobre a narrativa da marca e a necessidade de mantê-la intacta. Ao discutir o feedback, explico por que certas ideias são aceitas e outras não, sempre conectando essas decisões à mensagem central da marca. Essa clareza ajuda todos a entenderem o processo de decisão e garante que estejam alinhados com o mesmo objetivo. Além disso, minimiza confusões e mantém a narrativa da marca consistente.

The real skill here lies in how the feedback is communicated to the agency or creative team in the brief. Be sure to share the full context and the outcome. I find it is best with creative teams to share the problem and the context and then to let them have the creative freedom to work out the solution. Provided they are clear on the constraints, they will get to a good solution.

And check if the feedback is unbiased or not aligned entirely with the project or campaign, usually we deal with the ego of creative directors, and each one wants to be right and have the final word for the campaign, here you will need your leadership skills at the fullest, prioritizing the best decision for your client and the objective stated.

Keeping your brand consistent is like telling a story that always makes sense. When everything you do—whether it’s a social post, an email, or your website—reflects the same message and vibe, it helps people understand and trust your brand. This consistency makes your story clear and easy to follow, so your audience knows what to expect from you. By staying authentic and true to your brand's voice and values, you ensure that your story resonates deeply with your audience, making it easy for them to engage with and remember you.

And consistency between the project stages, consider that each change that you apply will affect in the final deliverable, and if you already defined with your team and client a concept route and design look and feel, try to respect that step in order to keep continue in the process, some teams and clients tend to restructure all the concept in an advance step of the creative process, thus resulting in total reimagination of the brief and finally, start all over again.

After the end of a project, always do a final thoughts meeting, in order to understand the process, the strong points to highlight, and off course the challenges that were not covered in the proper way or things to be improved, you should include this as a final step in every creative process, and the added value for your team will be huge.

Creating something unique can be challenging, but sometimes even when you create it, it doesn't always work out. Reflection and feedback is as much important part of the process as the creative stage itself. Dedicate specific time for reflection, and adapt.