What is brand management? How to manage a brand well

To create a recognizable and successful brand, you need to invest in brand management . Here's everything you need to know about brand management .

Summary

• Brand management includes ensuring brand compliance by providing the entire company with easy access to your brand parameters.
• Good brand management leads to increased brand awareness, which leads to community support and company growth.
• Brand management is an iterative and collaborative process that requires time and investment in the right tools.
• Brands are not static, as customer preferences and trends are constantly changing. That’s why it’s important to monitor your brand’s performance. When your brand’s performance is declining, it may be time to rebrand.

Here's everything you need to know about developing, managing, and adjusting your brand strategy.

What is brand management?

If your team has ever struggled to maintain brand cohesion or felt like you've completely "lost control of the brand" during periods of rapid growth, a clear brand management strategy can help.

Brand management is the steps you take to monitor your brand image, increase brand awareness, and build a strong brand community.

Strategic brand management is all about translating your company’s brand purpose into everything you need for your sales and marketing strategies, from business cards to presentations to social media posts. By building a cohesive brand, you can develop a strong reputation and increase awareness, both online and offline.

Brand Management Process

The brand management process begins with a strong brand identity and involves continuous monitoring, updating, and analysis of brand performance. Many brand managers measure brand sentiment and awareness as a benchmark for growth.

Types of brand management

Strategic Brand Management

Strategic brand management is the intentional use of your brand to scale business growth. Before you can activate your brand to contribute to sales and marketing initiatives, you need to build an initial brand identity that aligns with business values.

Steps of strategic brand management:

• Define your brand’s positioning and values . Brand positioning is the act of differentiating your brand in the minds of consumers. Your values ​​will shape your company’s goals, which will help you decide on the best brand positioning strategy to use. Consider your brand values. Do they give your brand a purpose that aligns with your company’s goals?
• Develop and test brand campaigns . Highlight your USP (unique selling proposition) and try different types of brand campaigns to see what resonates best with your audience. Try brand campaign ideas like using emotional branding, promoting your brand across multiple channels, using video, or working with brand ambassadors or influencers.
• Measure brand performance . Set internal and external benchmarks by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) such as growth, engagement, and conversions, and setting goals based on your industry. Brand performance metrics include brand recognition, brand awareness, brand consideration, and referrals.
• Maintain and improve brand equity . Brand equity is the perceived value of a brand to customers and can be positive or negative depending on how consumers perceive their experience. To build brand equity, establish trust in the brand, focus on reputation management, prioritize customer experience, and increase brand awareness. Companies and organizations need to add SSL certificates to their websites to secure online transactions while keeping customer information private and safe.

Online brand management

Online brand management is a system for managing digital brand assets, monitoring online brand reputation, and building brand communities. Digital branding strategies should focus on your target audience and creating emotional connections that drive brand awareness.

Online brand management may include:

• Create valuable content for your audience
• Improve customer experience with helpful technology
• Use design and asset management tools or project management software
• Incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) and branded keyword research into marketing campaigns

Video on how to determine brand value

Core Brand Management Principles

A brand is more than just a logo and color scheme, it is also made up of product quality and customer care.

• Brand management is a long-term project.
• Brand management creates monetary value.
• Brand management requires company-wide compliance — and great brand management tools.
• Brand management helps your company build brand equity, so regularly measure and track your success.

Brand Management Examples

Companies that have successfully grown their businesses through brand management strategies have a deep connection with their target audience and a strong presence on digital platforms.

For example, Zappos is known for its customer service, communicated through prompt responses on social media, flexible return policies, and easily accessible customer support throughout their website.

Dropbox grew brand awareness and reached a $10 billion valuation in 10 years using a clear branding and referral program carefully crafted by its marketing team.