Top Tips: Brand Management
by KMF Kamal
Brand management is perhaps the most difficult element of branding. When dealing with management of brands at a company level, the number of product lines, brands or sub-brands can be quite astonishing.
The objective is to create an emotional connection with the customer through the brands. Effective use marketing techniques to leverage or enhance the brand equity of the different product lines can create long and profitable relationships. Hence, here are Top Five Pointers to ensure that your brand management philosophy is sound and will last you a lifetime.
1. Be consistent
Whatever the case may be, make sure that whatever product brand awareness or promotional campaign you run is consistent with the philosophy of the brand. This helps to leverage off a common identity and gets customers familiar with the brand. Doing something off kilter or running tactical campaigns which have nothing to do with the core brand philosophy should be avoided.
2. Use brand equity
If you have created a unique identity for your product, then what is the point of fighting with others on their terms? Reactive campaigns with your competition using cost cutting or freebies does help create emotional connections. Freebies are nothing but bribes, and show you have nothing else to offer. If you must, then make sure that campaigns leverage off the core brand philosophy you have built. When your target audience keeps getting hit with the same messages that show how your brand can add value to their particular lifestyles, you will see the profits rolling in.
3. Be wary of extending brands
There is a great danger in creating too many sub brands linked to a core brand proposition or brand name. It is for this reason that large FMCG companies have large brand portfolios with nothing to do with each other so that they can target audiences more specifically. Trying to launch a myriad of sub brands attached to one core brand philosophy will have the effect of diluting the core message because the target audiences will inevitably not feel the connection with individual components. If you are targeting specific audiences that move away from the existing brand's value proposition, it may be better to create a new brand if the existing main brand does not add value.
