Insights on brand strategy, relevance, and leadership impact.
Gustavo Mendes, Professor of Building Meaningful Brands at Porto Business School, combines a background in Psychology with over 20 years of experience in branding and marketing. Holding an MBA from Porto Business School, he shares strategies in the course to help build purpose-driven, impactful brands in a fast-changing world.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became involved in teaching Building Meaningful Brands at Porto Business School?
I began my career in Psychology, earning my degree from the University of Porto and working as a clinical child psychologist and university lecturer. An early exposure to an Entrepreneurship program and later an MBA at Porto Business School sparked my transition into marketing and branding.Over the past 20+ years, I’ve led brand strategy and marketing across diverse industries—B2C, B2B, and D2C—spanning s ectors like healthcare, tech, food & beverage, and financial services. Today, I run Ichika Brand Consulting, helping brands stay relevant and purpose-driven in a fast-changing world. Teaching Building Meaningful Brands is a way to share this journey and equip MBA participants with tools to build brands that truly matter.
What do you find most rewarding about helping MBA students understand the importance of branding in today’s business environment?
The most rewarding part is seeing students shift their perception of branding—from thinking it’s just about logos or advertising to understanding it as a strategic tool for building emotional connections and driving business value. Those “aha” moments, when they realize how a strong brand can shape behavior and create long-term impact, are incredibly fulfilling. It’s even more meaningful knowing they’ll carry these insights into their careers—whether leading companies or launching their own ventures. Helping them build critical thinking and practical skills to navigate today’s complex, fast-changing landscape is what drives me.
What are the key challenges brands face today in remaining meaningful and relevant, and how can business leaders address them?
Brands today face a rapidly changing environment marked by three main challenges: fast-paced technological shifts, growing market saturation, and evolving consumer values and expectations. New digital platforms require constant adaptation, differentiation is increasingly difficult, and customers now seek brands that authentically connect with their communities, create culturally resonant experiences, and back their values with tangible actions.
To address this, business leaders must prioritize innovation—not just in products or services, but in how they engage with consumers and create lasting impact. Delivering value is essential—value for all stakeholders: customers, employees, partners, and the business itself. This means aligning brand actions with a clear purpose and consistently delivering on that stand. Leveraging data, AI and behavioral insights to understand and connect, personalizing experiences, and maintaining a continuous dialogue with audiences are all critical. Ultimately, it’s about evolving with the world while staying grounded in what makes the brand truly matter.
In your opinion, how does a strong brand contribute to long-term business success and leadership impact?
A strong brand is much more than a marketing asset—it’s a strategic driver of long-term success and a catalyst for leadership influence. It fosters clarity, trust, and emotional connections, cultivating loyalty, resilience, and a competitive edge. As a unifying force, it aligns internal teams, inspires employees, attracts like-minded partners, and provides clear direction for decision-making. By consistently delivering value to all stakeholders—customers, employees, partners, and shareholders—it builds credibility and influence over time, anchoring businesses in a disruptive, ever-changing world. In a world where disruption is constant, meaningful brands help businesses stay grounded, focused, and future-ready.