How to get internal alignment on brand before a big project
(and why it’ll save your neck later)
If you don’t align early, you’ll fight later
You’ve just briefed your agency. Everyone’s excited. The ideas are flowing. Then the feedback starts rolling in:
“It’s not quite us.”
“We’ve never said things like that before.”
“Why wasn’t I consulted?”
Welcome to the great unravelling — the moment when a promising creative project is slowly pulled apart by internal politics, personal preference, and good old-fashioned misalignment. Here’s the truth: most projects don’t fail because the work is bad.
They fail because the business didn’t agree on what the brand is before the work began. So, here’s how to get your team on the same page — before the agency ever opens Figma or starts writing scripts.
Agree what your brand is (and what it’s not)
This sounds obvious. It isn’t. Ask ten people in your company what your brand stands for, and you’ll get eleven answers. That’s not strategy — that’s entropy.
Before you brief a rebrand, campaign or website, make time to ask:
What do we stand for?
What do we want to be known for?
What do we never want to be mistaken for?
Codify it. Not in a 97-page PDF, but in one simple statement everyone can remember and believe in. If you can’t explain your brand in a sentence, you can’t expect your agency to get it right.
Get the right people in the room — early
Brand isn’t just marketing’s job. It’s not just the CEO’s, either. It lives across sales, product, HR, ops, customer support — everyone who shapes how you’re experienced.
So, before a big creative project starts, do this:
Run a brand workshop or alignment session.
Invite decision-makers and culture carriers.
Give people a chance to contribute — not veto — early on.
If you don’t involve key voices upfront, they’ll come in later with red pens and question marks. And they’ll be right to — because you never asked them what mattered in the first place.
Identify the non-negotiables
Every brand has a few core elements that shouldn’t move — and many more that can (and probably should).
Agree what’s sacred:
Your name?
Your values?
A certain tone of voice or visual motif?
Once those are locked, everything else is fair game for evolution. But be honest: “everything’s up for grabs” rarely means that. And “we want to keep our logo exactly the same” isn’t a problem — it’s a parameter. Your agency will love you for this clarity.
Kill off the sacred cows
Every company has unwritten rules that block progress.
“We’ve always done it that way.”
“Our old CMO came up with that.”
“Legal will never go for it.”
Call them out. Decide what matters now — not what mattered five years ago or to someone no longer in the building.
If something’s holding your brand back but no one wants to say it, say it. That’s leadership.
Choose one decision-maker — not a committee
Alignment doesn’t mean groupthink. It doesn’t mean everything gets decided by vote. You need discussion early. You need ownership at the end. Someone needs to say: “This is the direction. We’re backing it.” That might be your CMO, founder, head of brand — whoever understands the vision, the brief, and the business case. Without that clarity, you’ll end up designing for compromise. And compromise is where brands go to die.
Conclusion: alignment isn’t admin — it’s strategy
Brand work is expensive. Not just in pounds — in time, trust, and emotional investment. So don’t start until your team is aligned on what the brand stands for, what it needs to do next, and who gets to make the calls. Get aligned early, and you’ll unlock better creative, faster decisions and fewer headaches. You’ll spend less time defending work — and more time making it sing. Because alignment doesn’t kill creativity. It sets it free.
