Iconic brand designer Walter Landor once said, a "Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." This memorable phrase perfectly encapsulates the core value behind brand management and the impact it can have on your business.
Rooted in emotion and experience, branding goes way beyond the tangible products you’re selling. Each touchstone, from the way you create your own logo and your website to your interactions with customers, shapes the perception of your brand.
What is brand management?
Creating a brand takes time, energy and a deep understanding of your target market. Brand management refers to the relationship with that target audience, and the efforts to nurture and maintain it.
Brand management involves an ongoing process of evaluating brand perception and understanding how to influence it. By increasing the perceived value of your product or service, this enables you to foster brand trust, gain loyal customers and enhance brand awareness.
While you can’t control the way people will react to your brand, you can anticipate it. Successful brand management requires strategy, research and analysis to not only cultivate positive brand equity, but sustain it. You can learn from the responses of audiences to improve your offering, stay ahead of potential issues, and improve your brand reputation in an honest and authentic way.
With this in mind, it is important to recognize the full scope of brand management and the role it plays in all of your marketing strategies. Anyone who comes into contact with your brand, be it customers, stakeholders, employees, social media followers and even competitors, will create their own associations based on how you manage it.
Why brand management matters
Think of your brand as a garden. You dig the earth, plant the seeds, water it and watch it grow. However, in order for your plants to flourish, you must give them adequate sunlight, constant care and attention. With nurturing and support, your garden will thrive and blossom. Just as you wouldn’t leave a seedling unattended and expect it to grow, you can’t expect a new brand to have instant followers and loyal customers without time and effort.
This is exactly what brand management represents and why it is so important. By putting in the work and managing your brand, there are endless opportunities and benefits such as:
· Developing brand awareness
· Building brand trust
· Cultivating a loyal customer base
· Positively impacting consumers purchasing decisions
· Driving prices and boosting sales
· Increasing brand equity
Great brands take years to not only grow but to become established in their industry. Take a look at some leading brands like Apple, Coca-Cola and Nike that have secured their brand identity through purposeful and authoritative efforts, and continuous brand management. It is because of this ingenuity, creativity and relevance that these brands have earned their place within their respective markets, but also in the hearts and minds of consumers.
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