Influencing is a Critical Brand Management Skill

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States of America

Brand management is an enterprise-wide endeavor. But most brand managers do not have enterprise-wide authority, even if they are highly placed in the organization. This is why influencing skills are critical to the success of that role. I always took Harry S. Truman's quote seriously. I figured out who I needed to influence and what I needed them to know, believe or conceive and then carefully "seeded the field" with those ideas. I would casually mention these things in the hallway, over lunch, at a dinner party or at a ball game. I was most successful if each person thought the idea was his or her own, not mine. Then I would watch what I wanted to occur unfold naturally throughout the organization with all of the right people championing the things that needed to happen on behalf of the brand.

You can be so brilliant at subtly influencing others that people may begin to think that they don't need you because the right things seem to be falling in place and getting done without your driving force. However, as long as you let your boss know what you are up to, completely support these brand-positive efforts and compliment your peers on "their" brilliant ideas, things will go smoothly for you. Plus, if you are influencing people on the right things, you should achieve or exceed your objectives. 

People don't like to be told what to do, especially by someone outside their chain of command or at a lower level in the organization. This is why it is critical to get them to believe that what you want them to do was their own idea. 

I was a master at this and it helped me immensely in my stint as Hallmark's chief brand advocate. You too may find that influencing others is a skill that helps you in your role as a brand manager.

Course Recommendations for Future Brand Managers

Different business schools offer different courses in their marketing curricula. Some of those schools have brand management concentrations. Here are the courses I would recommend for students who would intend to become brand managers:

• Introduction to marketing
• Marketing research
• Consumer behavior
• Advertising and promotion strategy
• Integrated marketing communications
• Social media strategies and tactics
• Product management
• New product development
• Pricing strategy
• Marketing channels and distribution strategy
• Global marketing
• Accounting
• Financial statement analysis
• Business forecasting
• Analytical tools for decision making
• Business plan development
• Statistics
• Business law
• Business writing or copywriting
• Interpersonal communication
• Marketing management
• Public relations management
• Competitive and business model strategy
• Brand management

In addition, the following electives would be useful:

• Service marketing
• Business-to-business marketing
• Luxury marketing
• Customer service management
• Sales management
• Brand valuation and brand equity measurement

I would also recommend taking additional psychology, philosophy and writing courses. 

Qualities of An Effective Brand Manager

While this is only my opinion, I believe the following to be qualities of an effective brand manager:

• Well read - fiction (storytelling, character development, plot development, human motivations and drama), nonfiction (art, architecture, music, history, biography, leadership, philosophy, religion, physics, metaphysics, science fiction, food, travel, psychology, sociology, anthropology, behavioral economics, marketing, finance, business management, business strategy, etc.) and poetry
• Well travelled - as a true world traveler, not just a tourist, getting to know local people and cultures
• An ernest observer of human behavior, with an intuitive understanding of what motivates people
• A solid understanding of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• Curious about everything with a genuine interest in everything
• Spiritual and philosophical, striving to have a deeper understanding of things
• An out-of-the-box thinker - an idea person
• Friendly, amiable and approachable
• A strong orator with persuasive verbal communication skills
• An entertaining conversationalist
• A good command of logic and argument with good debating skills
• A very strong writer, with a flair for language and persuasive written communication skills
• A good storyteller
• Talented at creating emotionally compelling sound bites
• An effective influencer
• A competent project manager with the ability to manage against cost, schedule and performance
• Adequate analytical skills - ability to sift through data to discern anomalies and trends
• Marketing research expertise
• Financial management skills
• Decisive
• Confident
• Self-aware
• Willing to make tough decisions and take calculated risks
• A good manager, counselor and coach

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.

Profile of a Successful Brand Manager

To be a successful brand manager today, one must possess these qualities:

• Strong interpersonal skills
• Good listening skills
• Political savvy
• Influencing skills
• Leadership skills
• An entrepreneurial spirit
• Strong analytical skills, including a basic understanding of statistics
• At least a basic understanding of marketing research
• A basic understanding of financial principles
• An intuitive understanding of human motivations
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• A love of lifelong learning
• Social media proficiency
• A strong work ethic
• Common sense

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.

Comprehensive Brand Management Training

Here is what I would want a brand manager in my marketing department to know:

• What a brand is
• The benefits strong brands deliver to organizations
• The brand management process
• What leads to customer brand insistence
• What contributes to brand loyalty
• What helps brands connect emotionally to their customers
• How to conduct a brand audit
• How to measure brand equity
• How to measure the asset value of a brand
• How to read and use point-of-sale (POS) data in managing brands
• Customer segmentation approaches
• Qualitative and quantitative brand research methodologies and approaches
• How to use projective, laddering and guided imagery techniques
• How to align brand values with customer values
• The different types of brand benefits
• How to turn your brand into a “customer badge” (self-expressive benefits)
• How to read brand positioning maps
• How to develop brand essence, promise, archetype and personality
• How to successfully (re)position a brand
• How to differentiate commodities
• How to create a “category of one” brand
• How to successfully extend a brand into new product or service categories
• How to create and manage a strong brand identity
• The various types of brand names and architecture
• Developing a brand identity system and standards
• How to develop a powerful brand tagline
• How to develop a brand “elevator speech”
• How to write a creative brief
• How to evaluate advertising campaigns
• How to develop a successful direct marketing campaign
• How to use publicity and word-of-mouth marketing to a brand’s advantage
• Using blogs and other social media to build brands
• How to build brand proof points into every point of customer contact (customer touch point design)
• How to develop a strong brand marketing plan
• B2B marketing tools and techniques
• How to use internal communication, education and training and organization design to align the organization in support of the brand
• How to develop a brand building organization and transform employees into enthusiastic brand champions
• Key considerations in brand pricing strategy
• Key considerations in brand distribution strategy
• What is important to know about managing global brands
• The primary responsibilities of brand managers
• The primary responsibilities of brand identity managers
• Trends in brand management

We offer comprehensive one- to three-day workshops to teach all of these brand management skills, overall or in-depth on a particular brand management subject. We do this through conference companies in numerous countries in every region of the world. We are also brought in to deliver this as a part of university MBA marketing programs. And, individual companies and organizations hire us to conduct these workshops for their employees. We are happy to customize these workshops for specific industries. For instance, we have customized workshops for the bed & breakfast, digital media, energy, fashion, municipality and restaurant markets. Our workshops include lecture, numerous case studies, individual and team exercises, and many tools, templates and checklists.

Brand Aid, second edition is available here.

Brand Management & Marketing Competency Assessment

Over the past decade, I have helped hundreds of organizations refine their brand management and marketing efforts. In so doing, I have gotten pretty good at making a fairly quick assessment of an organization’s or individual’s marketing capabilities. Here are some of the signs that the organization or individual knows what it/he/she is doing regarding brand management and marketing:

• An insightful and nuanced (and often elaborate) description of the target customer groups and segments
• Backed up by qualitative and quantitative marketing research
• Including brand positioning maps for the brand in question and its competitors
• Knows the difference between attributes, benefits and values
• The brand strategy is based on benefits and values (especially emotional benefits and values)
• The brand’s promise is unique, compelling and believable (with an emphasis on compelling)
• The brand’s tagline reinforces the brand’s promise
• Familiarity with self-expressive brand benefits
• Understands the importance of category description and competitive “frame of reference”
• Familiar with the concept of “category of one” brands
• Understands (and has used) the following qualitative research techniques: projective, laddering and guided imagery
• The brand’s media plan is highly targeted and efficient based on the target customer definition
• Is familiar with the concept of customer touch point design
• The CEO is involved in the brand strategy process
• Good understanding of customer purchase and usage behaviors
• Customer-centric, common sense approach to all marketing decisions

Test yourself and your organization against the previous bulleted items. How well do you stack up?