Brand management

Brand management is the process of using a brand's logo, product design, pricing policy, and ad campaigns to boost its perceived value. It helps establish strong brand awareness, obtain loyal customers, build a positive brand image, gain brand recognition, and drive revenue.

In this article, we’ll explore why you need brand management and how you can benefit from it. We’ll also explain the difference between brand management and marketing and discover 7 effective brand management tips.

Why is brand management important?

Companies like Adidas, Burger King, and Apple have managed to reach lasting success through effective brand management. These brands were able to develop successful design and marketing strategies and create outstanding brand personalities.

Branding enables owners and customers to differentiate between various companies' products, increasing customer engagement and influencing the competitive environment. If your brand is well-positioned in the market and is in demand among customers, it means that it brings real value, withstands the competition, and actually stands out.

Starting a company isn’t enough — you should constantly maintain your brand image. This is exactly where brand management comes into play. Business owners implement this technique to achieve strong brand awareness, consistent brand messaging, a good market position, high sales volume, and great profits. Besides, brand management helps evaluate and supervise brand equity.

To reach your audience and drive revenue growth, you need to stand out among competitors and provide customers with superb and consistent experiences. You’ll be able to do it if you implement strategies aimed at effective brand management. Managing a brand requires you to understand your target audience and your company’s overall vision. Brand managers use tangible assets to establish positive associations with a company and quality customer interactions. However, intangible properties like customer experience and emotional connections are to be reckoned with as well, as they can boost customer retention.

Now that you know why you should carry out brand management strategies, let’s dive into the advantages this process can bring to your business.

Brand Management Benefits

Brand management consists of a huge number of processes that are vital for every company. No matter your brand's size, age, and industry, it’s a must for lasting success. Let’s now review the benefits you can reap once you work on your brand management:

• customer loyalty;
• brand recognition;
• brand awareness;
• revenue growth;
• enhanced product and brand value;
• higher product prices;
• larger sales volume;
• trust, credibility, and authority;
• strong market position.

Now that the pros of this tactic are clear, it’s time to compare brand management and marketing — the two terms are often confused.

marketing">Brand Management vs. Marketing

Brand management and marketing often implement similar strategies and techniques to achieve their goals, so let's talk about the main dissimilarity between the two.

Brand management aims to create a perfect brand image that customers will perceive well. Brand managers do everything in their power to align their company’s product with consumers’ needs and desires. They implement brand awareness strategies, assess whether customers perceive their brand’s image positively, track sales progress, and create sales and marketing strategies to drive revenue.

Brand management means building an excellent reputation, positive brand image, high brand equity, and healthy customer relationships. It’s about your brand value, how you communicate it to your target audience, and the emotions it evokes in consumers.

Marketing aims to present a brand to its target audience. Marketers don’t focus on brand voice, image, and personality. They develop strategies to reach prospects, present a product, and encourage purchases. Marketing teams search for the most appropriate marketing channels to communicate their message to potential customers and sell more products. Marketers work hand in hand to convey information about a product and its value correctly. Their responsibilities also include tracking and analyzing demand for a product or service.

Now that you have a clear understanding of these two widespread terms, let’s take a closer look at 7 tips that will help you manage your brand effectively.

7 Tips for Effective Brand Management

Brand management is a multifaceted process — numerous tactics are at play to ensure that it runs smoothly. We’ll unveil how to implement your brand management strategy effectively with these simple tips.

1. Establish ground rules for your team. Come up with guidelines to ensure your team runs at full capacity. You should structure your brand data and materials and explain how they should be presented to your target audience. Take the time to develop and round up your brand assets, including a logo, design, fonts, images, symbols, names, etc. Once you establish your rules and guidelines, make sure that every person in your company has access to them. You should also assign particular roles to your team members and explain what departments can use your brand assets and for what purposes.
2. Create a unique brand strategy. You need a long-term plan to develop your business and establish a positive image and reputation among consumers. Your strategy should be clear about how your company should communicate your brand message. You should know how, where, what, when, and to whom to convey it. Analyze your audience beforehand to figure out your brand message.
3. Pay attention to customer experience. Think of the perfect customer experience you can provide to meet your strictest clients' needs. Strive to understand customer behavior and make improvements to eliminate both existing and potential issues. To establish an outstanding brand with a strong presence, you should focus on your customers and their buyer journeys. Building good relationships with consumers isn’t as easy as creating a logo — this process takes time and effort, but the result will justify the means.
4. Make customers your top priority. A huge number of companies in the world reduce your chances of success. You have to stand out to achieve your goals. Customer centricity and excellent service help brands attract more attention and become customers’ favorites. You need to find an approach and solution for every customer. There’s no single solution for all anymore. Remember, the best way to stand out is to provide a personalized experience tailored to each customer's individual needs.
5. Keep your brand assets together. Accessibility and transparency are also crucial for a company’s efficiency. Be ready to centralize all your assets and allow employees to access them. Once your assets are centralized, you’ll identify the gaps and figure out what you need to add or update.
6. Use one brand style for your content. There are so many brands, and people feel overwhelmed with advertising clutter every day. You need consistency across all channels to make people recognize your company. Using one brand style enables you to communicate your unique brand voice. Clear and concise messaging, quality content, and consistency across communication channels will enable you to gain trust. With a style guide, all departments can work in the same direction and create consistent content.
7. Encourage collaboration among departments. Encourage teamwork among different company departments. This will ensure seamless workflows and faster goal achievement. While collaborating, different teams can discuss new strategies in real time and agree to implement the best of them.
8. Keep up with the latest trends to stay relevant. Consumers’ demands and requirements change fast, so you need to be ready to adapt. As the trends evolve, your product should evolve too and become more innovative and up-to-date. As a result, your company will stay relevant and one step ahead of competitors.

A visible and recognizable brand is one of the keys to success. However, it’s often a challenge for business owners to maintain a leadership position in today’s increasingly competitive market. Customers expect brands to be transparent, credible, and customer-oriented. Companies should sustain consistent brand voices across different communication channels and carry value.