Brand management is the process of creating, developing, and maintaining a positive brand reputation. The goal of brand management is to create a strong, positive perception of a brand in the minds of consumers, and to differentiate it from its competitors.
It's clear why your brand's reputation is important but many companies don't include it in their strategy until it's too late. So let's explore why brand management is so important and whether it's time for you to do a brand assessment.
How Effective Brand Management Can Help Your Business Grow
What makes brand management important? Brand management is a critical aspect of any business, as it helps companies to build a strong, recognizable brand that can differentiate them from their competitors and create a loyal customer base.
There's 5 different ways in which effective brand management helps you grow your business:
Competitive advantage: A strong brand can help a company stand out in a crowded marketplace, giving it a competitive advantage over its rivals. Just think about recognizable brands like Coca Cola or Apple. Because of their strong brand image they have loads of loyal customers who are willing to purchase their products at a premium price.
Increased customer loyalty: A well-managed brand can create a strong emotional connection with consumers, which can result in increased customer loyalty. And brand loyalty leads to increased sales and lower customer acquisition costs.
Higher customer value: A well-established brand can command a premium price, as consumers are willing to pay more for a product or service that they perceive as high-quality and trustworthy. Increasing the customer lifetime value will help you increase the overall sales and turn your customers into brand advocates - they will recommend your company's product or service to others because of its perceived value and unique identity.
Improved reputation: A successful brand management strategy can improve a company's reputation, making it easier for the company to attract new customers and business partners. Maintaining a good relationship with both internal and external stakeholders is crucial for the long-term success of your organization which is why it's important to include branding in your overall marketing strategy.
Increased brand equity: Over time, a strong brand can increase in value, becoming an important asset for a company. This is known as brand equity, and it can provide a significant source of revenue for the company. We've previously covered what exactly brand equity is and how the company's brand can help increase revenue and overall growth.
To effectively manage a brand, companies must engage in ongoing research and analysis to understand their target audiences and the perceptions of the brand. It all starts with looking at your brand assets and brand strategy as well as the target audience and market.
Read also: The benefits of brand equity - maximize brand ROI
When To Do A Brand Assessment?
Ideally, your company would commit to doing brand assessments regularly. One of the key aspects of brand management is consistency and building long-term relationships. But there's a few special situations that call for a brand assessment:
Launching a new brand
Before launching a new brand, a company should assess its potential for success in the marketplace and identify any challenges or risks that need to be addressed. One of the most common misconceptions is that branding is all about the logo, the colours or the website. But it's about much more than that.
When launching a new brand you need to work out the intangible elements like the brand identity, a consistent message you want to communicate to the potential customers etc. All those will help you and your marketing team when working on introducing a new brand to the market.
Read also: A brand is more than a mark and a typeface
Rebranding
When rebranding, a company should assess its existing brand image, including its strengths and weaknesses, to ensure that the rebranding effort is aligned with its goals and effectively addresses any challenges. It's important to look for things like the public relations and perceptions of your brand and your company's products or services. Both inside the organization and outside of it.
A rebranding is a unique opportunity to evaluate your entire marketing and branding strategy. When creating a new identity for your brand you need to make sure it creates positive associations with your organization, product or service. If you don't already have a brand manager on your team, this would also be the perfect time to hire one.
Read more: Rebranding - when and why?
After major changes
After major changes such as mergers, acquisitions, or shifts in business strategy, an organization should assess its brand to ensure that it remains relevant and effective in the marketplace. Now, those changes can affect different areas of your business and there's no specific rules surrounding which changes require a brand assessment.
But good examples include launching a new product, entering a new market, significant changes in marketing campaigns or in the customer journey. If the change feels significant to you and other managers, chances are it's time to do a brand assessment to ensure you're making the right decisions for your business.
Read also: Bigger marketshare with brand research
How To Do A Brand Assessment
As all brand managers will tell you, there's a lot of elements of effective brand management. But it all starts with having all the crucial information. And we've developed brandr Index to help you with that. Most brands use our tool once a year to conduct a thorough analysis of their brand's position on the market, against the competition and in the customers' minds.
The tool takes into account the target audience and market as well as employees and other internal stakeholders. Based on years of experience with brand management, we create a report that has actionable insights that you can take directly to your marketing team and start implementing right away.
Besides the branding basics like whether your brand has strong awareness, we also look at the segmentation of your customers, social responsibility aspects as well as how well your competition is doing. This way, you get a complete overview of your brand value and can create a brand management strategy tailored to your customers and their needs. Contact us to get started on your brand assessment!
