A global brand should have a global marketing strategy and set of standards for the brand. But, not all details of implementation should be dictated centrally. There needs to be some local flexibility in the marketing, advertising, and perhaps product customization. At the same time, individual country managers or regional managers should communicate with one another so that best practices discovered in one country can be shared with managers in another country.
Its easy to discount brand strategy ideas and say that they will never work in a certain country. But, sometimes fresh, unexpected, strategies can work well. By communicating effectively in working groups, success stories can be shared and new ideas can be tried in other places.
Local brand management efforts have to be coordinated somehow. One way is by having a global brand manager. Another way is having a global brand champion within the company. Or, perhaps a firm can have a global brand team with some authority. Each of these people/teams should also have specific responsibilities other than working on global brand management so that they have practical experience and credibility. The responsibility of this person/group needs to be harmonizing global brand strategies with country specific brand strategies.
Another idea is that the country managers of a global brand need to speak the same “language.” In other words, they need to use the same terminology when describing ideas. They should examine the same things such as the target segments, brand identity or vision, brand equity goals and measures, analysis of customers and competitors, and methods of success measurement.