The State of Business Branding in Australia (2026)
Independent research conducted April–June 2025.
What 164 Australian business leaders reveal about brand confidence, investment, and performance.
Australian businesses are entering 2026 with cautious optimism. After several years of disruption, many leaders are consolidating, tightening operations, and refocusing on sustainable growth. At the same time, competition is intensifying, customer expectations are shifting, and pressure on margins remains high.
In this environment, clarity matters. The ability to differentiate, command pricing power, attract talent, and build long-term resilience depends on how well brand is understood, managed, and embedded as a commercial discipline.
The State of Business Branding in Australia 2026 research was commissioned to understand how Australian leaders truly view branding today. It explores where brand is delivering value, where it is falling short, and why a gap continues to exist between belief in brand and disciplined execution.
This page summarises the key findings from the State of Business Branding in Australia 2026. The full research report, including detailed charts and methodology, is available below.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
This report brings together insights from 164 senior Australian business leaders across 12 industries, including professional services, manufacturing, retail, technology, health and wellbeing, finance, FMCG, government, and non-profit.
Respondents included founders, CEOs, managing directors, CMOs, and senior leaders from businesses ranging from under $3M in annual revenue to over $30M, operating across local, national, and global markets.
The research was conducted between April and June 2025 by Taverner Research, using a 10–15 minute online survey combining quantitative and qualitative responses. All findings are anonymised and analysed to identify common themes, patterns, and performance gaps.
This research provides a practical benchmark for Australian businesses seeking to understand where brand sits today, and how leaders intend to focus investment in the years ahead.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: KEY FINDINGS AT A GLANCE
The data reveals a consistent and telling pattern across industries and business sizes:
- 81% of leaders agree that branding is a key driver of competitive advantage
- 76% believe brand is a critical business asset
- Yet 40% are unsure or do not believe their brand clearly communicates a point of difference
- Only 29% run structured brand reviews
- And just 16% plan to invest in branding within the next three years
Australian businesses overwhelmingly believe in the power of brand. What’s missing is structure, discipline, and follow-through.
Brand is often positioned as a marketing activity rather than treated as business infrastructure – governed, measured, and managed with the same rigour as finance, operations, or technology.
THE CENTRAL INSIGHT: BELIEF IS HIGH, DISCIPLINE IS LOW
Across every section of the research, one core insight emerges: the challenge is not conviction, but execution.
Leaders understand that brand shapes reputation, differentiation, customer choice, and long-term value. Many can clearly articulate what brand is and why it matters. However, far fewer organisations have embedded brand into their operating rhythm.
Brand ownership often sits at the top, but day-to-day discipline is inconsistent. Reviews are irregular, investment decisions are reactive, and measurement focuses narrowly on awareness rather than commercial impact.
This gap between belief and behaviour limits return on investment. Without clear governance, structured measurement, and internal alignment, even well-defined brands struggle to deliver sustained advantage.
WHAT AUSTRALIAN LEADERS MEAN WHEN THEY SAY “BRAND”
When asked to define branding, leaders demonstrated a strong conceptual understanding. Most described brand through three dominant lenses:
Reputation and identity
Brand as how a business is perceived – its credibility, consistency, and trust built through experience.
Differentiation and positioning
Brand as a strategic tool that articulates value and influences why customers choose one organisation over another.
Connection and meaning
Brand as the emotional and cultural connection people have with a business, its story, and its purpose.
The issue, then, is not a lack of understanding. It is the difficulty of translating that understanding into consistent action across culture, customer experience, operations, and leadership decision-making.
INTRODUCING THE BRAND ACTION GAP
Across the research, a consistent pattern emerges – what we describe as the Brand Action Gap.
The Brand Action Gap is the space between knowing brand matters and acting on that knowledge with discipline, structure, and intent. Australian leaders overwhelmingly recognise brand as a driver of competitive advantage, yet far fewer operationalise it as a managed business system.
This gap shows up repeatedly in the data:
- Strong belief in brand’s importance, but limited governance and accountability
- Reactive investment decisions driven by capacity rather than strategy
- Narrow measurement focused on awareness instead of commercial outcomes
- Underinvestment in employer brand and employee experience
Left unaddressed, the Brand Action Gap erodes differentiation, limits return on investment, and weakens long-term resilience, particularly in competitive or constrained markets.
WHAT THE RESEARCH COVERS
The State of Business Branding in Australia 2026 examines how Australian organisations approach brand across key areas of business performance – from confidence and governance to value, experience, and the impact of AI.
Each section focuses on a distinct area of the research, highlighting how organisations are currently performing, where execution tends to break down, and where leaders have the greatest opportunity to act.
State of Business Confidence
How leaders are feeling heading into 2026, where growth is expected, and what pressures are shaping decision-making.
State of Brand Governance
Who owns brand, how it is managed, and why a lack of structure undermines consistency and differentiation.
State of Brand Value
How organisations perceive, measure, and realise brand’s contribution to growth, pricing power, and long-term value.
State of Experience
The link between brand, culture, employee experience, and customer outcomes, and how employer brand remains underutilised.
The Role of AI in Branding
Where AI is being adopted, where caution remains, and why human strategy still leads effective brand building.
CLOSING THE BRAND ACTION GAP
A practical framework outlining how leaders can move from belief to execution and embed brand as a commercial discipline.
Each of these areas will be explored in dedicated follow-up pages, building a complete picture of how Australian businesses can strengthen brand performance in 2026 and beyond.
ACCESS THE FULL REPORT
This page summarises the key insights from the State of Business Branding in Australia 2026. The full report includes detailed data visualisations, industry comparisons, qualitative leader quotes, and methodology.
👉 Download the full State of Business Branding 2026 report (PDF)
If you’d like to explore how these findings apply to your own organisation, or benchmark your brand’s maturity against Australian peers, you can also complete the Brand Strength Quiz or get in touch to continue the conversation.
Written by: Jodie de Vries
Published: February 5, 2026
