“When done correctly, brand management achieves a powerful combination of design, content, and experience that manifests into very specific feelings. These feelings create a sense of desire that entices the customers into buying.”

The creation of a successful brand is no accident. It requires meticulous research, a calculated set of steps, and engagement management over time. And while every brand wants to be successful, only a few end up thriving. Why is that? The answer is the continuous evolvement of their brand management strategy. It needs to stay relevant as consumer behaviour changes.

• So is your organisation’s brand management strategy up-to-date?
• Does it include the latest marketing platforms and content that is appealing to the audience?

You can pursue an MBA alternative course to find the answer to these questions, or you can continue reading…

1. Discover the True Value of Your Brand

The discovery phase is also known as the grand audit phase, wherein you need to understand the purpose behind your brand, where it comes from, where it stands currently, and where you want to take it in the future.

This audit will focus on:-

• Examining your brand’s products, services, and people.
• Conducting thorough analysis of its business plan and sales & marketing approach.
• Examining its niche market and how the target audience perceives your brand.
• Analysing the market share, positioning, distribution, and pricing.

The insights this discovery phase will provide include:-

• Brand’s vision and roadmap.
• Its business plan and marketing strategy.
• How your people and customers perceive the brand.
• Insight into your rivals and their market positioning.

1. Define Your Brand’s Unique Position

Also known as brand positioning, this process includes placing your brand in the mind of your customers. Determining your current market position can give you valuable insights into the next steps in developing your brand strategy and planning.

Having gathered all the information from the grand audit phase, further analysis is required to assess customer interactions with your brand. This includes how your brand is attracting its audience compared to the competition. At this stage, a close analysis of the buyer journey is also required as it will help gauge current awareness about your brand.

Understanding these touchpoints will enable you to enhance positioning at moments of maximum influence, thereby increasing the chance of reaching customers in the right place at the right time with a spot-on message.

1. Create Individual Attributes for Your Brand

Now that you’ve established how and where your brand should be positioned in the market, the next step is to curate your brand’s differentiation attributes that will add context and meaning to its basic structure.

These attributes should align with how you want your brand to be perceived and how you want to make the audience feel. This process will help build character for your brand. Next, you need to add personality traits to really bring your branding to life.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to:-

• Establish a unique descriptive brand identity
• Set the brand’s tone of voice and personality
• Understand the brand’s essence
• Identify your value proposition and key messaging strategy
• Develop a robust content and communication strategy

1. Develop Your Brand’s Visual Image

A strong visual image is the most powerful way to capture attention and build brand recognition as it delivers the message in the shortest time possible.

For instance, the logo design should reflect the essence of your brand. And if done correctly, it can encapsulate everything your brand stands for as well as convey the same to your audience. So while designing your brand’s logo, ensure it is simple and quickly decoded by a layman. Remember, including elements like typography, shapes, colours, and space help create a highly effective identity.

Another imperative facet of visual identity is the tagline. It should be a part of your logo and communicate who your brand is and what it stands for, rather than what it offers.

If you are striving to build a lucrative career in this domain or simply seeking expert guidance on brand management, consider pursuing a masters in business and management. These courses are goldmines when it comes to comprehensive knowledge and practical application. Boasting of an extensive curriculum and unique project-based pedagogy, masters in business and management can equip with the A-Z of brand management.

1. Track Results and Performance

The final step includes tracking results and performance. Before you roll out any advertisement or campaign to your audience, define clear metrics, KPIs and targets to measure its success. These should align with your company’s overall objectives, sales & marketing strategy, and existing performance data.

For instance, if you are starting a new digital marketing campaign, you can leverage tools like Google Analytics for SEMrush to analyse and measure the performance of your marketing efforts. On the other hand, if you are going for offline activities like press advertising, curating custom landing pages can be ideal for measuring web traffic.

Measuring these results can help you understand how your brand is perceived and rooted in the minds of your audience. A closer look can enable you to see where and how your campaigns need improvement. You can use this information to increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and, in turn, change customer behaviour.

Ready to Rollout?

Whatever your brand’s journey, and at whatever time in its lifecycle you decide to enhance it, a 360-degree understanding of the process is a must. Don’t delve into the brand management process with half the knowledge, or the consequences can be catastrophic for your organisation’s reputation.

To assure you are doing the right thing to maximise your brand’s true potential, seek expert guidance from an MBA alternative course. These courses can help you understand the intricacies of building and positioning a brand effectively, along with hands-on knowledge in popular tools you can leverage. A masters in business and management truly is the ideal choice when it comes to brand management as it can also provide exposure to the latest branding, marketing, and sales trends in the domain.

So what are you waiting for? Scour the internet for an MBA alternative course and make your way to advanced knowledge and expertise.