Ramkumar

What is Brand Management? Brand management begins with having a complete knowledge of the term “brand”. 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 or service. It is all about capturing the niche market for your product or service and creating a confidence in the current and prospective customers’ minds that a particular brand is the unique solution to their problem. Definition of a Brand: A brand, in short, can be defined as a seller’s endeavour to provide a unique set of characteristics, advantages, and services to the buyers or consumers. It is a name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of all these planned to differentiate the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers from those of competitors. Some examples of well known brands are McDonald’s’, Mercedes-Benz, Sony, Coca Cola, Kingfisher, etc. How to get into Brand Management Customers will recognize your company, your product, your service and your status through your brand. You can build an incredible brand through messages, images and ads but whether you realize it or not, your company is creating this reputation with everything that you and your local affiliates do. So you need to make sure you are consistently living up to your brand promise each and every day. The most important part of brand management is ongoing maintenance and control. Proper brand management involves making sure that each promotional piece, touch point and every usage of your name, logo and message supports your organization and goals by reinforcing your brand in the way you intended. This allows you continue to strengthen the association your brand imprints on your customers. Even the best brands can fall apart if not managed properly. Many large corporations hire a full-time brand manager to ensure the brand is held in high regard, and not diminished or misused. Even with a brand manager, developing high quality promotional pieces that consistently strengthen your brand and controlling its use can be a challenge for anyone. Do's and Don'ts of brand management Do – Define Your Brand Early Never plan a branding budget at a later stage. It shouldn’t be meticulously planned. It should be minutely laid out and easy for people to understand. Branding isn’t about logos and websites only. It’s about what your company is and what it represents. Do – Research work thoroughly This is one area of branding that we have learnt about it extensively in a business school. Typical questions arise, like who your competitors are and how and what you’re offering is different. What makes your product or service so special? Moreover, what is going to make your brand stand out from the competitors. While preparing a business plan and building a brand or an image, you must make sure that it stands out from their competitors. One should know precisely which aspects of their product, brand, and business model reverberates well with the market, as well as which aspects you can improve upon. Compare their pricing models and determine how your pricing can help position you as a more affordable or more premium option. Do – Give Your Branding the Respect it deserves Everyone considers himself or herself as a creative director. This is not true. Creative directors and brand managers have a job because branding and public relations is their specialty and they’re better at it than you are. “Thinking you can do it alone is one of the worst mistakes you can make,” Go and hire a professional to get consultation and advice on crafting your image. After all, these professionals are the ones who give you sound advice that will eventually be taken in account. This is part of the overall branding investment. Don’t mess on it. It’s a must. Do – Create Branding Consistency A business builds a consumer’s trust over the years and across platforms by branding itself not only strongly, but consistently. This means consistency in marketing, product packaging, site design, etc. Reliability leads to comfort and trust. Find out what your product is all about. Find out what your customers depend and trust you for and then make your product the image everyone can associate your logo and business with. Do – Invest in Ads Giving ads online are essential to spread the message about the product or service. Part of branding is investing in ads. This is a must for every company which is serious about its products brand. But one should not be of the impression that ads are the only way to get a positive return on investment. Once you’ve identified your audience, customers or clientele, find out what type of traditional advertising they’re most likely to trust. Billboards can be a key part of both business and marketing success, especially in highly competitive industries. They can form an essential foundation for reaching potential clients, winning credibility and trust. If your target market listens to the radio, put an ad on the radio. If they watch TV, then advertising it on TV every day would do wonders for the brand. Do – Invest in a Website A website should be the best option if you want to seriously market your brand. The informative website can be a powerful tool for informing your potential customer or helping them find the right product especially when they’re looking for it. Here are a few questions to ask when having a site built for you: Does it match the design, tone, and message of your established brand? Does it clearly present your unique selling proposition? Is the URL easy to remember? Can it be customized in the future? Is it optimized for search engines? Your website will be there for you, selling your business and reaching potential customers even when you can’t. Its importance can’t be overstated. Finally after all the dos there is something we shouldn’t do which goes against the brand and the interest of a particular brand. Don’t – Can’t get Results overnight All of the above tips will give you anxious moments but success doesn’t come overnight in anything we do or aspire to do. While you’ll have a tough time getting off the ground without a consistent, memorable, and easily distinguishable brand, in the end it’s going to be hard work, patience, good salesmanship, a few lucky breaks, and a solid business model that carry you to success. Conclusion To finally end this discussion I would like to point out that a brand is most important for any company, big or small because it is with which, customers identify it and which catapults a company’s image or product into higher hierarchy of brand management.