Brand management begins with having a thorough knowledge of the term “brand”. It includes developing a promise, making that promise and maintaining it. It means defining the brand, positioning the brand, and delivering the brand. Brand management is nothing but an art of creating and sustaining the brand. Branding makes customers committed to your business. A strong brand differentiates your products from the competitors. It gives a quality image to your business.
Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of brand. In case of product brands, the tangibles include the product itself, price, packaging, etc. While in case of service brands, the tangibles include the customers’ experience. The intangibles include emotional connections with the product / service.
Branding is assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give you an identity. It is nothing but capturing your customers mind with your brand name. It gives an image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.
Brand management as one of the marketing functions has been around for as long as we have known professional marketing.
But, it has been a part of the traditional marketing approach in which many functions of today’s brand management were performed in a spread out fashion by the marketing manager and a combination of his team members like the sales manager, the advertising and communications manager, and the marketing administration manager to name a few. The terminology of brand management was not used.
Brand management, in its present integrated form, has come into limelight and focus over the last 20 years. The functional execution has undergone transformation in terms of its description as a substantive job under one head. This implies that the overall functions of brand management are full of substance and therefore are described specifically under the head - brand management and not as disparate parts of the overall marketing functions.
In other words, brand management has not lost its primary roots that are well-entrenched in marketing; it only has acquired explicitly defined dimensions within which the function operates.
To further elucidate the point, there have been functional adjustments within the overall marketing functions only to bring into clear and sharp focus the specific functions and job of brand management.
Brand management now presents itself as a distinct part of an integrated marketing approach in which it connects with all the touch points within and outside of the marketing department.
The whole concept can be exemplified by seeking your attention toward two fruit baskets; one full of mixed fruits and the other having compartments carrying different fruits of each type in each compartment. Each type comes into a sharper focus! So do the touch points.
This course is going to give you a clear understanding of what a brand is, why and how it is managed, and what are the dynamics involved in managing brands in the present day competitive market.
What is a Brand and Brand Management?
We all know from our study of the basic marketing course and also as consumers that a brand is “a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of them intended to differentiate one product from those of the competitors”.
Perhaps, the most distinctive professional skills of marketing persons are their abilities to create, maintain, and protect a brand in a hostile market. These abilities call for a collective input on part of all within the marketing department and other departments.
Brand creation, therefore, is the end product of a team of professionals and not just one person. It is a team effort. If the art of conceptualizing the brand rests with marketing, then the actual creation of it is the cornerstone of the overall company team.
How Brand Management Came into Being?
We also know that brands have been around for as long as we can look back into the modern business management. However, we need to have a distinct understanding of how brand management came into being in its present form.
Over the decades as businesses and competition grew, in case of multinational corporations in particular, the growth of brands exploded. With economic growth and the technological advances of the later half of the 20th century in particular, various industries ranging from the areas of foods to pharmaceuticals to textiles to cars to electronics and many other registered impressive growth.
Functions of Brand Management
While performing the core functions of brand management, brand managers:
Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of brand. In case of product brands, the tangibles include the product itself, price, packaging, etc. While in case of service brands, the tangibles include the customers’ experience. The intangibles include emotional connections with the product / service.
Branding is assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give you an identity. It is nothing but capturing your customers mind with your brand name. It gives an image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.
Brand management as one of the marketing functions has been around for as long as we have known professional marketing.
But, it has been a part of the traditional marketing approach in which many functions of today’s brand management were performed in a spread out fashion by the marketing manager and a combination of his team members like the sales manager, the advertising and communications manager, and the marketing administration manager to name a few. The terminology of brand management was not used.
Brand management, in its present integrated form, has come into limelight and focus over the last 20 years. The functional execution has undergone transformation in terms of its description as a substantive job under one head. This implies that the overall functions of brand management are full of substance and therefore are described specifically under the head - brand management and not as disparate parts of the overall marketing functions.
In other words, brand management has not lost its primary roots that are well-entrenched in marketing; it only has acquired explicitly defined dimensions within which the function operates.
To further elucidate the point, there have been functional adjustments within the overall marketing functions only to bring into clear and sharp focus the specific functions and job of brand management.
Brand management now presents itself as a distinct part of an integrated marketing approach in which it connects with all the touch points within and outside of the marketing department.
The whole concept can be exemplified by seeking your attention toward two fruit baskets; one full of mixed fruits and the other having compartments carrying different fruits of each type in each compartment. Each type comes into a sharper focus! So do the touch points.
This course is going to give you a clear understanding of what a brand is, why and how it is managed, and what are the dynamics involved in managing brands in the present day competitive market.
What is a Brand and Brand Management?
We all know from our study of the basic marketing course and also as consumers that a brand is “a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of them intended to differentiate one product from those of the competitors”.
Perhaps, the most distinctive professional skills of marketing persons are their abilities to create, maintain, and protect a brand in a hostile market. These abilities call for a collective input on part of all within the marketing department and other departments.
Brand creation, therefore, is the end product of a team of professionals and not just one person. It is a team effort. If the art of conceptualizing the brand rests with marketing, then the actual creation of it is the cornerstone of the overall company team.
How Brand Management Came into Being?
We also know that brands have been around for as long as we can look back into the modern business management. However, we need to have a distinct understanding of how brand management came into being in its present form.
Over the decades as businesses and competition grew, in case of multinational corporations in particular, the growth of brands exploded. With economic growth and the technological advances of the later half of the 20th century in particular, various industries ranging from the areas of foods to pharmaceuticals to textiles to cars to electronics and many other registered impressive growth.
- Growth of industries attracted more players, who along with the existing ones felt the need to make their presence felt by way of differentiating their products from each other. Hence, the drive toward brand management got progressive impetus.
- The more competitive the markets became, the more they tried to get into the areas of distinction and differentiation and created conditions worthy of sophisticated management techniques. Hence, the emphasis on brand management became increasingly evident.
- The stronger the brands emerged, the higher the value they created for the company and led businesses into diversified areas, and hence, brand management became ever more obvious and sophisticated.
Functions of Brand Management
While performing the core functions of brand management, brand managers:
- Develop long range competitive strategy for success of the brand.
- All tactical moves that form part of the strategy are formulated for execution by relevant personnel of the company.
- Prepare in coordination with sales personnel sales forecasts and dovetail the same into marketing plans and budgets.
- Sales forecasts serve as the basic denominator of all budgetary figures, which are divided and sub-divided into small pieces to be achieved by different personnel in different departments.
- Work with advertising and other related agencies (promotional and research) to develop advertising copy, communication strategies, and plans for execution of advertising and promotional campaigns.
- Stimulate support of the brand among the sales force and trade members (distributors, wholesalers, and retailers) through communicating lucidly all the rationale for brand plan.
- Gather intelligence on the brand’s performance to see how the brand stacks up against competition, customer and trade attitudes develop and change, and new problems and opportunities arise. Identification of problems, their solutions and further improvements are part of the function that keeps brand managers busy for most of the time.
- Meet changing market needs through improving and initiating new products/brands. This function is an extension of the preceding one and, as mentioned, cannot be performed convincingly unless problems are identified and changing needs pinpointed.
The aim of branding is to convey brand message vividly, create customer loyalty, persuade the buyer for the product, and establish an emotional connectivity with the customers. Branding forms customer perceptions about the product. It should raise customer expectations about the product. The primary aim of branding is to create differentiation.
Strong brands reduce customers’ perceived monetary, social and safety risks in buying goods/services. The customers can better imagine the intangible goods with the help of brand name. Strong brand organizations have a high market share. The brand should be given good support so that it can sustain itself in long run. It is essential to manage all brands and build brand equity over a period of time. Here comes importance and usefulness of brand management. Brand management helps in building a corporate image. A brand manager has to oversee overall brand performance. A successful brand can only be created if the brand management system is competent.
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