[An institution in transition—where continuity and change coexist.]
Over the past couple of years, I’ve found myself in recurring conversations with leaders across very different organisations—social foundations, legacy businesses, learning institutions, B2B enterprises and policy platforms.
The question is rarely about logos or campaigns.
It is usually some version of this: “We know what we stand for—but we’re not sure we’re being understood anymore.”
That gap between intent and perception is where much of today’s branding work is unfolding.
Looking across my recent work, five clear shifts stand out. Not as trends in the usual sense, but as patterns already taking shape inside organisations trying to make sense of change.
Seen together, these shifts trace a progression—from sense-making and purpose, through narrative and co-creation, and ultimately towards trust.
This feels especially relevant now. Leadership churn is high, institutions are fatigued by constant change, and public trust—in organisations, expertise and even intent—is increasingly fragile. In such a climate, branding can no longer be cosmetic. It has to help organisations orient themselves before they can persuade others.
1. Branding Is Becoming Sense-Making in Times of Transition
Branding seems to matter most when organisations are crossing thresholds.
This might be a social foundation seeking clarity as it scales beyond instinctive “doing good”; a legacy enterprise grappling with generational change; or an institution realising that its language no longer reflects who it has become.
In such moments, branding is less about visibility and more about clarity. It helps people make sense of who the organisation is becoming—and why that matters.
Often, these conversations happen midway through transitions: a new leadership team, a funding inflection point, or a growing sense that the old story no longer fits.
I recall working with an industrial manufacturer that had long operated comfortably behind the scenes, producing for other brands. Almost overnight, it found itself needing to step into the foreground as it prepared for an IPO.
The most productive conversations I’ve seen begin when leaders stop asking, “How do we look?” and start asking, “What problem do we exist to solve now—and for whom?”
At that point, branding becomes a leadership act.
2. Purpose Is No Longer a Statement—It’s an Operating Logic
Purpose has moved decisively beyond slogans and CSR pages.
One illustration comes from a foundation working at the intersection of ecology, community and livelihoods in India’s North-East. The organisation convenes an annual forum that brings together voices from conservation, agroforestry regeneration, policy and enterprise to debate the future of one of the world’s most fragile ecological regions.
My engagement with them—first as a panel moderator and later as a facilitator of a brand workshop—revealed something important: their purpose was not aspirational language. It was a way of thinking.
Ideas such as blending ecology and economics, or reimagining degraded forests as regenerative, community-led economies, were not communication devices. They functioned as decision frameworks—shaping programmes, partnerships and priorities, and drawing thought leaders into the conversation.
The result is a distinct identity and growing global recognition—not merely as an environmental NGO, but as a movement for ecological equity. Purpose here does not sit on a wall. It shapes behaviour, credibility and, ultimately, impact.
3. Brands Are Moving from Campaigns to Narrative Platforms
One-off campaigns are steadily giving way to something more cumulative.
I see this in forums that convene voices across disciplines; in think tanks evolving into multi-format platforms; and in institutions that understand credibility is built over time, not in bursts.
When conversations, events, publications, learning cohorts and recognitions are stitched together with intent, they begin to form a narrative platform rather than a communications calendar.
The shift is subtle but significant—from broadcasting to convening, from messaging to meaning-making, from visibility to continuity.
In 2025, brands that endure are the ones that create spaces for dialogue, not just announcements.
A learning institution working in livelihoods and poverty alleviation illustrates this well. My association with it began years ago as a speaker at leadership clinics. Over time, that role evolved—into anchoring a Brand 2.0 exercise, mentoring the leadership team, working with entrepreneurs from its fellowship cohort, and partnering on its digital communication journey.
There was no single “campaign moment”. What emerged instead was a continuum of narrative.
In 2024–25, this journey culminated in a five-minute film capturing the life journey of the institution’s founder—not for promotion, but to build trust and empathy among donors and partners. Launched across key donor communities in the US and Indian metros, it became a catalyst, amplified by stories of enterprise growth from entrepreneurs nurtured by the institution.
Today, the organisation has invested in its own campus, bringing together a close-knit team alongside a growing circle of mentors and supporters focused on its larger mission.
This is what narrative platforms look like in practice: reputation built patiently, relationally and over time.
4. Co-Creation Is Emerging as a Strategic Capability
Some of the most energising brand work today does not begin with positioning. It begins with shared discovery.
A long-standing associate based in Dubai once reached out for help articulating his personal brand. What began as conversations around leadership presence gradually opened into deeper reflections on the future of his business consultancy—one I had helped rebrand several years earlier.
As trust grew, so did the canvas.
Those conversations moved beyond brand expression to a broader exploration of opportunity, including how emerging geopolitical and economic shifts might be meaningfully leveraged. Out of this process emerged an entirely new agenda: positioning the firm as a catalyst for collaboration along the India-Middle East business corridor.
There was no formal brief. No predetermined outcome. Just two practitioners learning from each other and connecting the dots—a kind of strategic jugalbandi.
That, to me, is co-creation at its best: where branding becomes a shared act of discovery, and strategy emerges from dialogue rather than declarations.
5. Trust and Credibility Are the New Brand Currency
In an age of noise, claims are cheap.
Credibility is not.
Across social institutions, policy platforms, learning ecosystems and B2B contexts, trust is emerging as the most valuable—and fragile—brand asset.
Increasingly, trust is questioned not because organisations lack intent, but because language, governance choices and actions have fallen slightly out of sync.
Trust is built when words align with behaviour, governance is visible, expertise is communicated with humility, and narratives remain consistent across time and touchpoints.
Branding in 2025 is increasingly about making trust tangible—through clarity, coherence and conduct.
A Closing Thought
What all of this points to is a quieter idea of branding.
Not as projection, but as reflection.
Not as performance, but as practice.
Perhaps the more interesting question is not how brands should speak in the years ahead—but how clearly they understand themselves before they do.
