You can tell a brand is working by what happens around it.

A campaign that gets people talking. A customer who keeps coming back. A new starter who can explain what the company stands for by the end of their first week.

Here are 30 questions every brand should ask itself.

Write your own answers first, then ask your team. Where the answers match, you have something to build on. Where they don't, you've found where to start.

Only 28% of CMOs say they have a very high level of influence in their own organisation.

Today the greatest Marketing challenge isn't external. It's internal.

It isn't the pressure to drive growth. It isn't a lack of data. It isn't the threat of AI.

It's trust, autonomy and whether anyone outside Marketing actually believes in the brand's strategic position.

Fewer than half say marketing operates with any real autonomy. And 84% report difficulty aligning leadership around a shared marketing vision.

Years ago, in a salary review, I said, “you know everyone under the age of 30 that works here shares their salary with each other”. The room temporarily went silent and then carried on. The comment hit the cutting room floor.

We live in a world that wants transparency but still lacks it.

Years ago I saw Kings of Leon play a sports centre in Reading in the early 2000s. No stage, no lights, they just played half in darkness on the basketball court. Mumbling lyrics. Guitars, loud enough to create an inner ear issue. I loved it.

A few years later I saw them headline V and Reading Festival. Massive show, with 60,000 people screaming “Your Sex on Fireeeeerrrr”. It was great. But it didn’t feel the same.

Now, I’m aware how this sounds. (Great looking) bloke in his (early...mid) forties, liked them before they were famous. But we do see this a lot in culture. Music, fashion and, of course, brands.

Something new captures your attention. You found it early. You’re part of a club, sharing the same passion. Then it grows. More people find it. And the club stops feeling like a club.