Key Brand Management & Marketing Decisions

Decisions, decisions, decisions. What are the most important ones for brand managers? It depends on the scope of the job function within your organization, but here are the typical important decisions:

• Who are the brand's target customers?
• What are the different customer segments and why have we created those segments?
• What is the brand's competitive frame of reference? 
• What is the brand's essence, promise, archetype and personality?
• What are the brand's key differentiating benefits or values?
• What does our brand "own" in the minds of its customers? What is its positioning from their perspectives?
• What are the most important proof points for the brand's unique value proposition or promise?
• What are the most important brand messages overall and for each market segment?
• What is the brand's elevator speech?
• Do we need a brand story? Do we have one? How compelling is it?
• What is the brand's product/service portfolio?
• Should we add some products or services? Which ones and why? Should we eliminate some products or services? Which ones and why?
• What sub-brands and product names exist as a part of the brand's architecture? Why?
• Should we simplify or otherwise optimize our brand's architecture?
• What is the brand's pricing strategy?
• What is the brand's distribution strategy? Is our brand in the right distribution channels?
• Does the brand have a consistent but powerful identity system? Is this codified in a guidelines manual? 
• Does everyone in our organization know what the brand stands for? Can they consistently articulate the brand's elevator speech?
• Do we know how to define and measure the brand's equity? Do we know what it is?
• What are the metrics by which we will evaluate the success of the brand?
• Do we have a comprehensive brand plan? Are we actively managing the brand against that plan?
• What are the brand's market share, sales and profit goals?
• Who is responsible for achieving or exceeding brand goals?
• Should we extend the brand into new product or service categories? If so, which ones and why?
• Should we license the brand to third parties? Why? What impact will it have on the brand and its associations?
• Should we expand the brand's geographic footprint? If so, to what markets?
• What is the brand's awareness among its target markets? If it is not acceptable, what should we do to increase the awareness?
• Are our customers emotionally connected to our brand? If not, what should we do to increase that emotional connection?
• Are people loyal to our brand? If not, what should we do to increase that loyalty?
• Do we have the right marketing mix? What is our media plan? Is our media mix optimal?
• Given limited budgets, to what extent should we focus on reach versus frequency in brand communication?
• Are we using proactive publicity to supplement our paid brand marketing?
• Do we really understand how to build our brand online through social media and other digital approaches? If not, how do we get better at this?
• Are our marketing agency partners the right ones? Are they doing the best job for us? Is it time to conduct an agency search/review?
• Are we doing all that we can to protect our brand's intellectual property legally?
• Do we possess all of the competencies necessary to manage the brand properly and to increase its equity and financial contributions to our organization?

How many of these decisions are you actively making as brand manager? What other key decisions have I missed? Let me know in the comments section below.

The Brand Management Process - An Overview

While the brand management process is not a linear process (it is organic and iterative), it generally begins with customer and market research, followed by brand strategy and positioning. The brand strategy and positioning comes to life through brand identity, marketing communication and organization design-related activities for brand-promise alignment. Sometimes there are also customer touch point design activities to create more proof points for the brand promise at each point of customer contact. Brand equity monitoring and adjustments then occur on an ongoing basis. These should result in the five drivers of customer brand insistence - awareness, relevant differentiation, value, accessibility and emotional connection, all of which contribute to strong business results including increased brand loyalty, decreased price sensitivity, ability to charge a price premium, increased ability to attract and retain the best employees, increased ability to align the organization in a specific direction, increased bargaining power with business partners, greater flexibility for future growth, increased sales and market share and increased market valuation and stock price.

Here is a chart that provides an overview of how this works.

Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here. © 2015 Brad VanAuken

Brand Manager Frustrations

Often, I encounter frustrated brand managers who are responsible for their brands’ equities but who do not have the jurisdiction to control all of the variables that result in their brands’ equities. Here are some examples:

• People throughout a highly decentralized organization are creating communication material using the brand’s identity, often incorrectly.
• The sales force is empowered to create brand communications without any oversight.
• The organization’s leadership team agrees to what the brand stands for and what its unique promise is, but the brand manager has no authority over most customer touch points.
• The brand manager is incented to invest in the brand but most other people throughout the organization are incented to cut costs in a way that undermines the brand.
• A separate department is licensing the brand to whoever is willing to pay for its use, even if that use conflicts with what the brand is supposed to stand for.
• The organization’s management believes that the least painful way to cuts costs is to slash the brand’s marketing budget.
• Someone else in the organization is responsible for discounting the sales price of (that is, promoting) the brand’s products and services.

Here are some solutions to this dilemma:

• Work with the HR department to redesign the organization in greater support of the brand.
• Learn how to become a master influencer with compelling stories that win others over.
• Create a robust yet flexible brand identity system and standards.
• Establish a digital asset management system that provides maximum control over use of the brand’s identity.
• Make the organization’s leadership team aware of the issues associated with effectively managing the brand.
• Lobby to take on all responsibilities that are required to control delivery against the brand’s promise.
• Head up a cross-functional brand identity oversight group.
• Establish rigorous criteria for extending the brand into new product and service categories, including through brand licensing.
• Spearhead a brand customer touch point design workshop with senior leadership's endorsement.
• Lobby to establish key brand management measures as a part of a balanced scorecard.
• Regularly report progress against key brand metrics to the organization’s leadership team.
• Provide regular brand management seminars, presentations and readings to the organization’s management team.

Brand Manager Competencies and Responsibilities

Brand Manager Competencies

• Strong ability to influence behaviors and perceptions without
• formal authority
• Respected throughout the organization
• Strong written and verbal persuasion skills
• Adequate analytical skills
• Customer research experience
• Strong intuition about human behavior and motivation
• Good project management skills

Brand Manager Responsibilities

• Identify, refine, the brand’s “unique value proposition.”
• Monitor, measure, and manage brand equity/strength.
• Increase brand awareness, relevant differentiation, value,
• accessibility, and emotional connection.
• Develop brand plan.
• Monitor progress against brand plan.
• Be responsible for results against brand plan.
• Drive brand understanding and support organization-wide.
• Champion/drive initiatives that support delivery of the brand
• promise.
• Brand messaging—elevator speech, tagline, campaign themes,
• proof points, etc.

Brand Identity Manager Competencies

• Strong ability to influence behaviors and perceptions
• without
• formal authority
• Respected throughout the organization
• Likable
• Assertive
• Ability to say “no” in a nice way
• Some understanding of brand identity standards and systems

Brand Identity Manager Responsibilities

• Manage the brand architecture.
• Establish brand architecture and naming decision rules.
• Establish brand identity standards including co-branding standards.
• Maintain brand identity consistency.
• Chair the brand identity council/team/board.
• Help manage brand identity transitions resulting from mergers
• and acquisitions.
• Help determine identities for new brands/subbrands.
• Anticipate and accommodate new brand identity needs

© 2015 Brad VanAuken

Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available for sale here.