The term brand management is trending these days. But what is brand management? It is a marketing technique that employs strategies to raise the perceived value of a brand or product line over time. Successful brand management allows product prices to increase while building loyal customers through favourable brand associations and imagery or high brand awareness. Brand management involves foolproof strategies to make it visible to the audience and stand out from its competitors. A strategic brand development thus helps preserve or increase brand equity or value and necessitates a thorough grasp of the brand, as well as the company’s overall goal and its target market.
What are the Principles of Brand Management?
Brand management is the process of creating and maintaining a company’s identity and reputation in a constantly changing market. All on-brand strategies, including product plans and marketing, are built on it. When done properly, a company can hold its market worth, increase revenue and extend the brand’s longevity.Â
The core principles of brand management are as follows:
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Brand recognition
The journey of a brand to getting recognition begins with raising awareness or letting people know that it exists. The more acquainted customers are with the brand, the easier it will be for them to recollect. If a company becomes successful, its brand will leave an impact on consumers’ minds, triggered by simple signals like logo, packaging and even colours they are using. To attain brand recognition, a brand needs to catch the attention of the audience. For that purpose, brand managers must ensure that the brand’s touchpoints work together. These touchpoints include websites, salespeople, commercials and packing. Also, a brand should also have authenticity, as most people turn towards brands that stand out in the market.Â
Brand loyalty
To create a loyal customer base for a brand, it is essential to build brand awareness. Collaborating with celebrities and relevant influencers is one way to create and raise brand awareness. However, it is important to make sure that the feedback they are providing is honest and authentic. So, often, brand managers can ask real people to provide their testimonials on a brand.Â
To improve the brand value, it is thus important to create a community of loyal consumers. Brand managers can set up loyalty and referral programs to reward their fix customers. Furthermore, brand managers can build channels for customers to exchange their opinions and experiences with the brand, like social media forums and communities.Â
Evoke emotions in customers
Brand managers must create the brand, keeping the emotions of customers in mind. For instance, if an ad campaign of a brand was meant to trigger happiness, when the products are in line, it should make the customers happy instead of sad or sentimental. Humanising a brand entails engaging with customers at an emotional level. One great example that has successfully established an emotional connection with customers is Coca-Cola.Â
Innovate to stay relevant
When a brand fails to achieve recognition, business leaders keep rebranding until they find the right solution. The issue is that once they find an idea that works, they are typically too hesitant to experiment with it. Their opponents are well ahead of them when they decide to overhaul. To prosper in a competitive environment, brands must innovate. When it comes to exploring new solutions and designing goods, data is a brand manager’s best friend. Innovation should also be evident in their teams. After all, employees are the face of a brand.
What are the Strategies to Employ in Brand Management?
Here are some strategies that one can employ to get their brand management journey started.Â
Evaluate
Brand managers should have an evaluation plan which shall include what’s working and what’s not. This is an ongoing process in the lifespan of a business and so companies must hire skilled talents to perform it on a daily basis.Â
Create a Unique Selling Point of the BrandÂ
Brands should have a unique factor when it comes to building a brand image. Brand managers should thus make plans that would set their products or services apart from their competitors. They should also address the question of why people should buy their products and remember why they loved the product in the first place and what emotion was attached to the brand initially so that they can use that factor while branding.Â
Use Digital Marketing
The key to the future is digital marketing. There are several factors to consider when launching a brand, one of which is having a digital marketing component. Digital marketing encompasses everything from stunning images to social media strategies. Investing in a graphic designer and social media manager may be worthwhile. Because most buyers pay attention to detail on the look of a brand, it is vital to give it a beautiful design that is visually pleasing.Â
Benefits of brand management
Some benefits of brand management are as follows:
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Improves Effectiveness of Marketing Activities
A strong brand may increase the effectiveness of marketing activities by offering a consistent message and image across several platforms. By increasing brand recognition, drawing new consumers, and promoting repeat business from existing customers, consistency may assist in boosting the ROI of marketing initiatives.
Co-branding
The practice of combining two or more brands to produce a new product, service, or marketing campaign is co-branding. Through the relationship with the partner brand, it may assist in enhancing brand awareness, attracting new audiences, and generating a competitive advantage.
Reliability and credibility
A company may create trust and credibility with its consumers by regularly delivering on its promises and maintaining a strong brand image. This trust can lead to enhanced consumer loyalty since buyers are confident in the brand’s quality and dependability.
Enhanced brand equity
Brand equity is the worth a brand adds to a company that goes beyond its tangible assets. A successful company’s brand equity may be increased by establishing an intense psychological connection with its customers. This personal connection can lead to a higher considered brand value, increasing its pricing power. Higher brand equity may lead to higher market share and profitability, making it a critical component of long-term corporate success.
Customer loyalty
Strong brand management may assist in building a loyal client base that is more inclined to pick one brand over another, even if they provide identical products or services. This loyalty may lead to repeat revenue, higher customer lifetime value, and favourable word-of-mouth marketing, all of which are critical for a company’s long-term success.
Conclusion
Brand management is a vital part of marketing that involves building, establishing, and upholding a positive and recognisable brand image and reputation. Among other things, a good brand manager must be able to design a complete brand strategy, oversee product launches, plan and execute efficient marketing campaigns, and analyse brand performance data.Â
If you also want to be a successful brand manager, you can participate in the Executive Programme in Brand Management offered by CEP, IIT Delhi. This 6-months programme has been aligned with industry requirements and provides practical insights into the intricacies of brand management.
FAQs
1. What is the role of brand management?Â
Brand management is a process that involves various tactics for the overall management of a brand. It helps to increase the perceived value of a brand by increasing its awareness among customers.Â
2. What are the four components of brand management?
The four components of brand management include brand loyalty, brand equity, brand consistency and brand awareness.Â
3. What are the three C’s of brand management?
The three C’s in brand management are constancy, clarity and consistency. A strong brand will have these three elements to make it stand out.Â
4. What is the objective of branding?
Branding for a company has three basic objectives: impacting people’s connections and sentiments about the brand, developing a distinct identity, and building brand loyalty over a period of time.
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