Brand management is the process of building, managing, and improving a brand. It is a function of marketing that uses techniques to increase the perceived value of a product line or brand over time. In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis of how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to plan how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives, and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives. It can play a significant part in maintaining your reputation and ensuring people experience it in the way you intend. Good brand management can improve brand loyalty, which subsequently keeps customers coming back.
The aims of branding are:
- to differentiate a company’s products and services from its competitors.
- persuade the buyer for the product
- to convey a brand message vividly
- create customer loyalty
- establish an emotional connectivity with the customers
Developing a good relationship with target markets is essential for brand management. Developing a strategic plan to maintain brand equity or gain brand value requires a comprehensive understanding of the brand, its target market, and the company’s overall vision. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging, etc. The tangible aspects of a company’s brand include the product(s), price, packaging, logo, associated colors, and lettering format. Marketing experts know that both customers and employees can build emotional attachments to a brand that then translate into strong loyalties, and even a sense of partnership or ownership. The intangible elements are the experiences that the target markets share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. It helps in positioning the offering in a unique way that provides the company with marketplace advantage and boosts the value of a product.
Brands have a powerful influence on customer engagement, competition in the markets, and the management of a company. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer’s brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain. If you have bad branding, it will be reflected in weak sales, poor client retention, and sluggish growth. A strong brand presence in the market differentiates a company’s products from its competitors and creates brand affinity for a company’s products or services. It deals with the overall brand development right from the birth of the brand until the time it ceases to exist.
