When was the last time you ordered a cab from Uber? If you notice closely, you will see that the popular ride-hailing company has changed their logo from a bold, all-caps font to a more stylish, sleek, and easy-to-read font. It is not like Uber was struggling with their business. Yet, they made the move. The organization claims that the redesign move will help them build a flexible, simple, and globally recognizable brand.
Uber is not the only company to do this. Rather, brand assessment, rebranding, etc. are some of the oldest tricks in the book. They are part of what experts call “brand management”. Most leading organizations, across various sectors, take advantage of brand management from time to time. However, it is not limited to large corporations. Brand management could be an integral marketing tool even for small and medium-sized businesses.
When it comes to our own business, we often play it safe and stick to what works for us, until it does not anymore. But if you want your business to continue thriving, you need to make some necessary brand adjustments when the time is right. So, if you are thinking of making the right move, it is time you know all about brand management.
If you are not familiar with the concept of brand management, or not clear about how to implement the strategy, this blog is exclusively for you. We have explained what brand management is, its benefits, basic principles, and how to use the concept to your advantage.
What is Brand Management?
By definition, brand management refers to the practice of perfect marketing that uses specialized techniques to increase the perceived value of a brand or product line over time. It involves the processes such as maintaining and improving products, services, and overall brand perception.
In simpler terms, brand management is the process of boosting and maintaining your brand value. It entails various methods such as logo design, packaging, advertising, price, and so on. The purpose of brand management is to create a strong brand image and make yourself familiar among your customers, making a lasting impression on them. Maintaining such a positive image will win you more customers and help cultivate positive customer relationships, thus allowing your company to thrive. In short, effective brand management can increase customer loyalty, facilitate customer acquisition, and build meaningful brand awareness.
Why is Brand Management Important?
The central idea of brand management is to differentiate one brand from another. It plays a crucial role in building brand awareness, retaining customers, and most importantly, giving you leverage in the competitive market environment. Simply put, your brand management strategy defines the way you handle your company. If it is well-positioned in the market and experiences a high demand among customers, it means that your product or service brings high value to your customers’ lives. Take for example companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Adidas, or even McDonald’s. These brands have become almost synonymous with the product or services they offer. This is all because they have a strong brand value and thus, rule out competitors.
To survive in today’s cutthroat competition, you must maintain your brand image constantly. To do so, you need to stand out among the crowd and provide your clients with consistent experience. This is what brand management can help you achieve. All you need to do is identify your target audience and implement an effective brand management strategy. This way you are going to establish positive associations with your customer base and create a strong brand image. This encourages the customers to remember your brand and come back to your company for products and services.
Now that you know why brand management is important, let’s delve deeper into the benefits of this strategy and how to carry it out in favor of your organization.
Benefits of Brand Management
Brand management involves a wide array of processes that are essential to every organization. No matter how large or small your company is, it is crucial for success as well as business sustainability. Let’s review the advantages of brand management.
● Brand awareness
● Customer loyalty
● Brand recognition
● Improved customer trust, market authority, and credibility
● Improved value of your product and services
● Increased product pricing
● Heightened sales volume
● Increased revenue
● Profit growth
● Strong market position
Principles of Brand Management
Every brand is unique and so it should be. It is quite possible, therefore, to manage each brand in their own unique way. However, there are some ground rules and understandings. In the following section, we will go over some of the basic principles.
Brand Recognition
This simply refers to your brand’s power of connecting with its target audience. In other words, brand recognition indicates how easy it is for your target customers to recognize your brand without hearing the name. It is typically a visual element, such as color scheme (e.g., Google’s four color scheme or Tifanny’s distinct blue), logo (e.g., Apple, Nike), packaging (e.g., Amazon) etc. However, sometimes it may extend to audio elements like a jingle or a slogan.
Whenever a customer comes across these elements, they are more likely to be reminded of your brand immediately. The result is a chance of them choosing your brand over your competitors.
Brand Equity
Brand equity is an element that creates value for your brand through positive impression, reputation, and value perception. This can potentially change the dynamic of your product or service, since customers often trust the brand more compared to their perception of the product/service. This eventually enables companies to increase their price and in turn, earn profit. To explain, imagine coming across two kiosks at the marketplace offering the same product, e.g., soft drinks . One of their banners has Coke’s logo, while the other is a lesser-known brand. It stands to reason that you would end up buying from Coke stand even though the other one is offering a 20% discount.
Brand Loyalty
Just as the term suggests, brand loyalty is when buyers are devoted to a particular brand over any other competitor. This is, however, different from customer loyalty, where a customer buys a service or product based on a particular quality. Brand loyalty refers to the instances when buyers purchase from the brand solely because they are loyal to the brand. This is typically achieved with years of reputation and positive impression, and most often has nothing to do with product quality.
How to Implement an Effective Brand Management Strategy?
Knowing the principles is not enough. You need to be able to mold them into a perfect strategy to manage your brand. Here are some strategies that could help you achieve your goal.
1. Create Your Brand Identity. Find your unique selling point (USP).
2. Create a brand voice that represents your vision and resonates with your audience
3. Evaluate what strategies perform well and what quote does not. When something works effectively, try to do more of it.
4. Organize your brand elements and assets
5. Come up with a sound plan for all of your teams
6. Develop a specific brand message
7. Leverage social media
8. Create a company website
9. Invest in digital marketing
10. Survey customer experience to readjust and strategize your brand management plans
Conclusion
If you want steady business growth, running your business operations will not suffice. You need to constantly take care of your brand and strive to maintain your brand image. To this end, brand management plays an integral role. The better you manage your brand, the more chances you achieve sustainability and profit. Further, the more you review and redesign it, the higher efficiency it will produce in future. In simple words, brand management is all about making your product or services look appealing in the eyes of your target customers. This helps your company ensure its sustainability. And this is how brand management influences the bottomline of your business.
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