Branding is at the heart of marketing. There are different elements of brand management that help position a brand in the market. Brand management is a concept that encompasses strategizing, analyzing, and evaluating brands to target customers and establish a robust brand image.
By creating and sustaining the brand, brand management takes care of the key aspects and differentiates a product from others in the market. By lending a unique quality to the business or product, brand management encourages customers to stay loyal to the brand and improve repeat business. Take up a brand management course that will help you learn the required concepts to step into the world of brand management and build the required skills.
Importance of Brand Management
Brand management is a function that entails the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand. This concept is adopted by major marketers to develop an emotional connection with the customers that go beyond the transactional relationship. By leveraging brand management, marketers help create a positive image of the brand and enhance brand awareness.
The image of the brand is the foundation of how customers interact with the brand. By strategic assembling of various aspects of branding, marketers and companies give a new identity to the brand. In the case of service brands, various aspects may include customers’ experience with the brand, customer loyalty, and more. In the case of product brands, it may include the product, price, efficacy, packaging, and so on.
Brand management is all about capturing customers’ attention in the niche market and providing unique solutions to their problems. The aim of brand management is to foster positive associations in all spheres of the niche market. It helps companies to create goodwill and increase their revenues.
Additionally, this helps position the brand strongly in the market and get ahead of the competitors. Customer reviews and repeat business can help identify if the customers have a positive impression of the product or service. Strong brands build brand equity over time to maintain a profitable position in the long term. Another key contribution of branding is to differentiate the brand from its competitors. Through strategic brand management, marketers help build and reinforce a positive brand image and create a competent brand.
Understanding Important Concepts of Brand Management
Brand management includes several key concepts that help understand the brand management process better. Let us look at them one by one.
Brand
A brand is defined as a name, symbol, sign, or combination of all these that customers buy. It is essentially a product or service that identifies with the goods of the company and differentiates it from its competitors in the market. A brand may also be something offered by the company that signifies the source of the product and render responsibility to the manufacturer.
Customers remain loyal to brands that consistently fulfill their expectations and perform in the desired manner. Some examples of successful brands include Sony, Dell, Coca-Cola, American Express, and so on. From the seller’s point of view, a brand signifies a way to increase revenue, get a competitive advantage, or way of bestowing quality products to the customers.
Brand Attributes
Brand attributes refer to key brand characteristics that tell about the nature of the brand and highlight its physical aspects to create a robust brand identity. A solid brand includes these key attributes:
- Sustainable: A sustainable brand drives the business and gives profitable returns in the long run.
- Consistency: A consistent brand is rooted firmly in its core proposition to the customers.
- Relevancy: A strong brand must be relevant and meet its customer’s expectations. It should also evolve with time to deliver customer expectations in the best possible manner.
- Credibility: The brand is considered credible when it delivers on its promises. It should not exaggerate the claims and be honest with the customers in setting the right expectations.
- Unique: A strong brand should be unique from its competitors and capture the attention of its customers in the niche market.
- Appealing: The brand should be attractive to different types of customers and known for the value it delivers.
Brand Identity
Brand identity is how the brand wants to be perceived by the customers in the market. In the retail industry, different brands hold different identities based on their offerings. While some brands are on the top of their game and keep creating a buzz in the market, others may lack similar exposure. Through solid brand management, marketers can establish a unique brand identity so that the company can communicate rightly with its prospective customers. Brand identity should focus on the inherent features of the brand and reflect the brand value being promised by the company.
Brand Image
While brand identity focuses on the key features of the brand, brand image is all about how customers perceive the brand. It reflects the current view/perspective of the customers and their set of beliefs about the brand. Brand image is a mental image of the brand and is essentially accumulated by observation by the people outside of the brand. Strong brands encourage an overall positive impression of the brand so that the brand remains sustainable in the long term. For instance, the brand Volvo is associated with safety. It is the mental feedback from customers whether they buy the brand or not. A positive brand image enhances goodwill and loyalty among customers and leads to repeat business.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to the degree to which customers associate themselves with the brand and its specific product or service. It indicates the probability of familiarity of customers with the brand. If consumers recognize a particular brand and its offerings, they can differentiate it from its competitors in the market. Building brand awareness is of utmost importance for the companies for brand equity. It is usually done through media channels, advertisement, word-of-mouth publicity, events, and more.
Brand awareness needs consistent work as the brands evolve. It can be improved through brand management to make the products offered by the brand relatable to the prospective customers. In the context of brand awareness, it is also important that the brand message is delivered clearly so that customers can get easily acquainted with the brand.
Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty is a measure of customer satisfaction and to which extent customer keeps buying the same product from the company. It also implies that customers will be reluctant to buy a similar product from a different brand in the market. In a retail scenario, brand loyalty is dictated by repeat business, word-of-mouth publicity, reference, customer satisfaction, brand trust, etc. When customers remain loyal to a specific brand, they establish an emotional connection with the brand. This emotional connection is translated into the form of loyalty. Loyal customers do not buy from competitive brands in the same category.
Higher loyalty levels lead to higher repeat business and revenue. Brand loyalty is crucial to the success of any business – online or offline. A brand with higher loyalty will have greater sales and a consistent stream of revenue along with less advertising or marketing costs. To inculcate brand loyalty, companies should identify their niche market, target customers, anticipate their needs, and deliver value to them. By bringing consistent innovation to the product, brands can expect increased sales and repeat business.
Brand Promise
Brand promise refers to what a company promises to the customers and what they deliver. A strong brand should deliver value to the customers and demonstrate brand promise. Brands that do not adhere to their brand promise will not have a sustainable future. At the core of brand promise lies the ability to recognize customer expectations. If a brand can anticipate customers’ needs ahead of time, it is easy to satisfy customers. While delivering the brand promise, companies should also focus on delivering a positive experience to the customers.
Even if the customer has a negative experience, the brand should be able to convert that into a positive one and reassure the customer by delivering a swift resolution. For instance, if you have a restaurant business, it is important to work on the smallest detail to stay ahead of your competitor. You should also implement a system where customers can exchange their feedback and expect to get a resolution for their concerns. This ensures that your customers remain loyal to your brand and they do not go anywhere. You can also hire or train the best staff that can deal with different types of customers and be able to change terrible experiences to positive or near positive ones.
Brand Equity
Brand equity is defined as the value of the brand that decides its worth. This concept exists as the function of customer knowledge of the particular brand in the marketplace. Brand equity is influenced by various factors such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand association. By measuring the returns and evaluating earnings in the long run, brand equity can be determined.
To Sum Up…
So, now that we have enlightened you about the important concepts of Brand Management, we hope you will put those to good use. now you can build key management skills to drive business excellence with this Executive PG Program in Management. Learn about basic management foundations, and then choose a specialization of your interest from marketing management, data science and analytics, operation management, finance, and human resources.
