Brand Management

Brand Management Definition

Brand management is vital to customer engagement. A brand manager's job is to create positive brand experiences and perceptions within consumer groups. Positive brand sentiment can lead to repeat purchases and brand loyalty.

A brand marketer has to ensure brand messages are communicated effectively across all communications channels. All promotional campaigns must contribute to greater brand awareness and preference. To do so, branding activities should be customer-centric - that is, conveying only what is relevant and valuable to customers.

Importance of Brand Management

One key aspect of brand management is communicating the brand position. The first step to developing a strong brand position is determining the company's purpose, values, and envisioned future.

A strong brand position will help companies connect more deeply with customers while ensuring cohesive organizational operations.

For larger brands, it is important to review the brand values against the company's strategic goals.

Brand management also plays a crucial role in creating brand equity. Brand equity means creating positive associations with the brand in consumers' minds. Building positive brand equity can result in:

• Increased customer loyalty,

• Increase profit,

• Effective brand extensions,

• Access to new markets and channels,

• Effective communications,

• Long-term customer relationships.

Types of Brand Management

Marketers may use various types of brand management techniques to reach different customer groups (see Figure 1 below). Let's take a closer look at some of them:

Brand Management: Emotional Branding

Marketers use emotional branding to connect with customers on a deeper level. Beyond outlining a product's characteristics and benefits, emotional branding allows customers to view the product as more than just a good or service.

There are many emotions marketers may try to evoke, but generally, the four most common ones are:

• Humour - can be effective for creating awareness and sparking communication.

• Fear - is used to grab the consumer's attention and induce a purchase.

• Empathy - may be used to stimulate shared experiences between the customer and the brand.

• Nostalgia - can evoke a familiar feeling within the target customer segment.

Brand Management: Cultural Branding

Cultural branding is a brand management technique that helps companies to address customers' societal and cultural needs. Its goal is to make people automatically associate the brand with certain cultural contexts.

Cultural branding can address a variety of consumers, including cultural subgroups.

Brands may also decide to champion a cause. That shows customers that the brand stands for something bigger than the product itself. For example, a brand can champion a cultural and environmental cause.

Brand Management: Innovative Branding and Online Brands

Brand managers may also adopt an innovative approach when handling consumer behaviour changes. As society changes, consumers' wants and needs also change. Changes are not comfortable, but they can bring new opportunities for the company.

As with Netflix, many companies have decided to move their brands online. Driving brands online requires managers to adopt new business models and communications strategies. However, it may also result in many benefits from a brand management point of view. For example, marketers learn much more about customers through their digital purchasing patterns. Additionally, digital channels may also allow for rapid international expansion.

Strategic Brand Management

The role of brand managers goes beyond creating effective positioning and communications strategies. Many companies have an extensive portfolio of different brands, which requires much effort to build a cohesive brand image. This is where brand managers have to make strategic decisions.

Most brands must innovate to stay relevant with customers and survive competitive markets. However, innovations and brand extensions have to be planned carefully to avoid the risk of losing brand equity. To examine this concept in more detail, let's look at the 'perimeter of brand extensions' model (see Figure 2 below).

• The inner core represents the brand as it is perceived by customers right now - what the brand is known for.

• The outer core represents the immediate associations that come to mind when considering brand extensions. For instance, when conducting market research, interviewees may be asked to describe what they think would be a natural subsequent product development for the brand.

• The extension zone is also known as the latent potential zone. This area represents potential untapped markets and product developments that could present opportunities for the brand. During the market research process, subjects may be asked to evaluate the extent to which the new products link to or differ from the brand's inner core.

• The no-go zone represents extensions with weak connections to the brand's core, which customers may perceive as far-fetched from the brand's core values.

For brand extensions to be successful, customers must see the link between the new product or brand and the brand's overall core purpose. The further away the new development is from the core, the less natural the extension will seem.

Brand Management Example

Before we conclude this session, let's consider an example of brand management in action.