Investing in Long-Term Branding to Ensure Resilience and Meet Customer Needs
Brand marketers today face a conundrum. Focus too much on short-term brand management to boost sales and long-term brand equity may suffer; home in solely on the future value of the brand and sacrifice innovation in order to serve immediate customer wants.
To be sure, long-term brand building remains top of mind for many executives. In April 2025, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services surveyed 530 members of the Harvard Business Review audience involved with marketing or strategy decisions that affect their organization’s brand. Survey respondents overwhelmingly agree that long-term branding (referring to branding efforts focused on the next five to 10 or more years) is critical for an organization’s success. Specifically, 93% agree that long-term brand building is essential to an organization’s growth, and 91% agree that long-term brand building is linked to an organization’s sustained commercial success.
