A company’s marketing plan should include brand management because it enables businesses to better identify the value of their goods and services, establish and sustain their brand identity, and build strong relationships with their target markets. Depending on a brand’s industry and marketing goals, the techniques used in brand management differ.
Successful marketing relies heavily on knowing the fundamental components of brand management techniques and how to apply them to promote your brand’s reputation. In this article, we define brand management, talk about its importance, and provide examples of jobs in brand management.
What is Brand Management?
Brand management is an aspect of marketing that uses strategies to boost the perceived value of a brand/product line. Effective brand management allows products’ prices to increase and establishes loyal customers through strong awareness, images, or positive brand associations.
A deep understanding of the brand, its target market, and the company’s general vision is necessary to create a strategic plan to boost the brand value or maintain brand equity.
Brand Manager‘s Job Description
Because every organization organizes its marketing department differently, a brand manager’s duties may differ from organization to organization. To help you with your hiring procedures or get ready for a job interview, below is a sample job description.
Job Summary
Brand managers are to understand the motivations of our target market and create marketing strategies that position our brand under those factors. These marketing strategies will increase customer engagement while also defining our brand’s reputation and image in the marketplace.
Job Responsibilities
The job responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Carry out market and consumer research.
- Determine the market position that our brand is currently holding.
- Create a brand strategy based on research.
- Develop and carry out marketing campaigns to communicate our brand’s message.
- Internally communicate our brand personality and align the organization around core principles.
- Guide members of the marketing team through campaigns.
- Marketing campaign success should be measured and reported.
- Anticipate customer trends and keep our brand current.
How does Brand Management Work?
Brands have a great impact on consumer engagement, market competition, and a company’s management. A powerful brand presence in the marketplace sets apart a company’s products from those of its competitors and fosters brand loyalty for its goods and services.
Any brand that has already gained traction needs to maintain its reputation through brand management. Effective brand management improves brand recognition, monitors & manages brand equity, identifies and accommodates new brand products, and strategically positions the brand in the market.
Building a brand could take years. Therefore, it must be maintained by creativity and innovation. The following prominent brands have made names for themselves as industry leaders over the years—Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Lego, McDonald’s, Ford, Microsoft, Nike, IBM, Disney, Procter & Gamble, and CNN.
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Why is Brand Management Important?
For many reasons, brand management is a very essential component of effective marketing. These reasons include:
1. Boosts brand awareness
Giving customers a precise logo or image to remember can help in their ability to identify and remember a brand while deciding about purchases.
The likelihood that buyers would think of your brand first when weighing their buying options can be increased by fostering an effective brand management approach.
2. Creates an identity
Understanding your company’s identity and principles is crucial for managing a brand. You can prioritize the areas of your brand that you wish to explore, develop, and promote by building a brand management strategy.
Fully knowing your brand’s identity will enable you to make wise decisions regarding your organization’s business strategy, and present and prospective products.
3. Promotes consistency
Your business can build and maintain consistency throughout its marketing, advertising, and development initiatives by creating a clear brand management strategy. Consistency enables your organization to make decisions that are in line with its identity, values, and mission.
Brand management also helps avoid confusion among your target audience by allowing your organization to focus its marketing efforts on a precise set of brand-specific principles.
Benefits of Brand Management
There are many benefits of committing resources and time to brand management. Some of them include:
1. Customer recognition
Customers usually prefer a brand they know over an unfamiliar one. Strong brand management works by including ideas and images that customers can quickly associate with your company. A brand management plan that successfully boosts customer recognition may enable customers to make better purchase decisions and lead to more profitable sales.
2. Credibility
Building credibility for your organization can be done by promoting a positive brand image. Additionally, building and maintaining customer loyalty & recognition can be made easier with improved credibility within your industry, market, and customer base. Credibility frequently plays a role in your customers’ decisions to be loyal to and invest in your business.
3. Simple product introduction
It could be easier to introduce a new service/product to a wide customer base using a consistent identity/message. If you already have a loyal customer base, they might buy your new products/services. They’ll even look forward to their release.
Additionally, if customers are familiar with your business, they’ll be willing to try a larger variety of your products/services. Thus, it is because of their good perception of your brand.
Examples of Brand Management
Here are some examples of effective brand management strategies within various industries:
Example 1
A toothbrush organization wants to launch its new line of children’s toothbrushes and is working on a brand management technique and marketing campaign to keep consistency. While designing their packaging, they choose to use the same logos and colors as their adult line of toothbrushes. They also decide to sell their toothbrushes in boxes shaped like a unicorn, dinosaur, rocket ship, and castle.
The company promotes brand recognition through familiarity and associative thinking, and by associating this product line with other children-friendly products. However, it maintains consistency by using the same logos and colors as its adult line.
Example 2
A car insurance company creates a brand management technique to promote brand identification & awareness and boost familiarity among its target market. They choose to collaborate with a well-known spokesperson for their television advertisements throughout their advertising and marketing campaigns. The spokesperson is a renowned actor who now stars in a well-known TV show. He has a sizable fan base and a track record of reliability and honesty.
The car insurance company builds a sense of familiarity and an emotional connection with their target audience, just by working with this actor to market their brand. In addition, they promote brand identification and awareness using associative thinking.
Customers may associate this actor with the car insurance company every time they see him on their well-known TV show. Hence, they will first consider that company when choosing car insurance options.
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Jobs in Brand Management
There are various career paths in brand management. The following are some jobs in brand management:
- Assistant Brand Manager
- Assistant Product Manager
- Associate Brand Manager
- Brand Assistant
- Product Manager
- Brand Manager
- Brand Strategist
- Senior Product Manager
- Product Marketing Manager
- Senior Brand Manager
- Brand Marketing Specialist
- Brand Marketing Representative
- Marketing Assistant
- Brand Marketing Manager
- Assistant Brand Marketing Manager
- Brand Marketing Associate
- Junior Brand Manager
- Brand Activation Manager
- Brand Marketing Intern
- Marketing Director
- Brand Marketing Associate
Bottom Line
Brand management goes beyond creating a brand. It involves knowing the products that would fit a company’s brand. So, a brand manager has to work with its target audience in mind when developing new products and services.
One key factor in brand management is constant innovation. An innovative brand manager will maintain its loyal customers and gain more traction. Therefore, brand managers should constantly seek ways to bring new ideas and remain relevant.
FAQs
Have a unique personality that is suitable for your target market. Be consistent in its design and message, buttressing the personality, promise, and position at every touch point. Show the value that your organization offers to the customer, and how the value is made.
You can promote a brand in the following ways:
Have a brand that is intellectually appealing to people.
Your brand must have a strong presence physically.
Do not over-promote your brand.
Use social media to promote your brand content.
Prove that your brand will last a lifetime.
Each element of a brand identity needs to support the broader message and the organization’s objectives as part of a multi-disciplinary strategic effort. It can comprise a company’s name, logo, and design. It includes the style and tone of its copy, and how its products look and are composed. And finally, how active it is on social media.
Here are some ways to increase brand presence:
Use SEO to increase brand presence.
Be up-to-date on what’s happening around you.
Collaborate with organizations that are well trusted.
Make the most of Content Marketing.
Harness the power of Influencer Marketing.
Brand elements are distinctive aspects of your brand; schemes, logo, name, color, etc that create a connecting identifiable image for your organization. They even cut across all that you create. These brand elements also make you outstanding among your competitors.
References
- investopedia.com – Brand Management
- indeed.com – Brand Management: Definition, Examples, and Tips for Success
- repsly.com – Brand Manager: Definition, Job Description, Salary, and More
- thebalancecareers.com – Marketing Careers: Job Options, Job Titles, and Descriptions
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