What Is Brand Management? Definitions, Examples, and Walkthrough

What is Brand Management? How to plan brand management? How brand management works. We are looking for answers to many questions about brand management through a guide. But first, we need to understand the concept of brand and its definition. So our first question should be what is a brand.

What are Brands?

A brand is a combination of different and unique aspects that distinguish a product or service from its counterparts. It is a concrete and abstract concept that is a combination of name, logo, icon, design, colors, and all this.

According to a different approach, the brand is not the product itself, logo, or slogan. It is entirely the consumer’s perception of your product and/or company.

The value that consumers give to your product in their minds, the bond they establish between your company and your product, allows you to become a brand at some point and price your products according to the severity of the purchasing motive created in the mind of the consumer.

The branding of a product or service depends on the ability of a company or person to establish an effective communication channel with the consumer on the product.

Brief Story of Branding

The word “brand” etymologically; In German, it means “Marc”, that is the borderline, but earlier than written sources on the use of German, it was first recorded in Italian geography as the word “border” in Latin. In Late Latin “marchese” was used as “border commander”. In French, the word “Marque” means the product mark, and the word “Marquis” means a noble title. It is used in the sense of “Brand” – “Branding”, namely marking – burning, as it is said now.

The use of the concept in the 19th century in the USA is “burning their mark”. It means that the herd of cattle is marked to bear the traces of the farm to which they belong.

Nowadays, products bearing the logo, name, and symbols of a brand, embody the feelings of belonging in the people who use them. The point that distinguishes us from the cattle herd in the logo of your shirt and the cattle herd is that we carry these stamps voluntarily, with the pleasure of having them. Joking aside, in the historical journey of the brand, we see that the abstract concepts and psychological impact of the brand have evolved over the past 100 years.

Brand Management

In marketing, brand management refers to the analysis of how a brand is perceived in the market, how it is positioned or how it will be realized, and the studies for the success of the brand within the framework of a strategy based on these analyzes.

Accurate analysis of the target market is necessary for brand management to develop interactive relationships with prospective customers that make up the market and to re-analyze the data obtained from these relationships, and create a loop that will improve the brand.

Concrete elements of brand management; The form of the product includes its features, appearance, price, and so on. The abstract elements of the brand are the key elements in the success of brand management. The experience of the consumer with the brand, the bond, and the relationship it establishes with the brand determine the fate of the brand.

Brand management is built on building a bond and creating value. If you can establish a connection between the product that carries your brand and the mass of customers if you can ensure that the customer perceives the value, respectability, and price that the brand deserves as a prestige line, brand management is successful.

Brand management is the process that involves determining the core value of a particular brand and catching customers targeting the core value. Brand in a modern sense; can be an organization, product, service, or person.

The success of brand management is measured in continuity. Your customer’s trust in the brand is the chain of loyalty between the brand and the customer. Loyal customers determine the competitiveness and shape of the brand with its counterparts. If your customer base is loyal, your competitors’ price discounts, promotional campaigns, and intense advertising work will not affect you much. But customer loyalty is a sensitive relationship, and an unpredictable error in your brand strategy can result in disaster. We have witnessed many times that many brands that have been operating for decades have become history in a few years.

How Brand Management Works

Companies should conduct effective, innovative, and functional brand management when creating a new brand or to develop their existing brands. Brand management should also create an energy that will protect the brand image and keep up with new trends, fashion, and the changing rhythm of time, especially with its traditional line forming the bond with loyal customers.

Effective brand management increases brand awareness and subsequently brand value. Increases equal and manages brand value, brand management plays a key role in effectively positioning the brand in the market.

We can summarize the basic stages of Brand Management as follows:

Strategy — Purpose –– Management

As we begin, we make supportive analyzes based on a strategy. We analyze the main metrics for analysis, for example, target audience, target market, stakeholders, product, service, location, competitors, customers, etc. We integrate the obtained data with the main objectives of our brand and determine which vehicles and roads we will use to move towards that goal.

Analysis — Process –– Reporting

After determining our goal and strategy, the management process of the brand begins. All data obtained during the brand management process is analyzed. Periodic reporting starts daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly. Brand management takes place in this cycle.

Brand management takes place within the framework of this cycle, but with regular analysis, new goals, new tools, and naturally new paths are followed. Brand management is a dynamic process.

Brand Management Journey

Brands are looking for differentiation to be noticed, attracted, and preferred by their products or services. It is not possible to see competitors and their products that are not equivalent to products outside monopolistic markets, so every company has to struggle to exist in the market.

Today, when you explore the foundation stories of top brands, we see that their original investment initially focused on developing brand solutions and services, not the company’s core assets or corporate identity. Brands concentrate on strategic brand management to achieve this.

5 Tips for Successful Brand Management

1. Unique sales offer: Your promises to the target audience should be based on the strengths of your brand. Always focus on what you are best at. Price, quality, durability, diversity …. Your marketing strategy and brand management should focus on this point. You should focus on the best points of your brand.

2. Use slogans for your marketing communications: When creating your slogan, use a slogan that reflects your vision and values. You will carry out marketing activities for your brand on different platforms, use your slogan on all channels. The slogan will lead both to take place in the customer’s mind and to strengthen your employees’ sense of belonging within the framework of this slogan. Finally, focus on your brand vision and company values while creating your slogan

3. Evaluate Your Brand from the Perspective of Your Employees: In order to get to know your brand better and make the most correct steps for brand development, ensure that all employees of the company consult with the person or team responsible for brand management in interactive communication. Since your employees work in different departments of your business, each of them can look at your brand from a different point. Evaluate their perspectives and expectations at regular intervals, contributing to your brand management.

4. Focus on Social Media and Digital Channels: Until a few years ago, social media was only a marketing and interactive communication medium for brands. Social media channels were currently used as both promotional and marketing and sales channels. Currently, these channels have also become customer service channels. Social media channels are not only about heavy balls like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, but there also are twitch, Tiktok, Reddit, and many other channels and a new channel to be opened tomorrow may reach millions of users in a few months. As a result, your brand must be actively involved in all popular social channels, except for digital channels, namely your company’s site, mobile applications.

5. Increase your influence with Influencers: Influencer Marketing is a space for brands. This is one of the areas where your brand marketing efforts and brand management intersect. Influencers have a very different effect than the promotional and commercial films you will make with a pop star or movie actor. Especially a brand study to be done with an influencer that operates in a field related to your brand causes a very positive interaction so that influencer followers do not see the work for the promotion of your brand as a pure advertisement, to receive the given message more easily and to establish a bond with your brand.

How to Create a Brand Identity: Tips and Walkthrough:

Many of the steps we will discuss in this section apply to brands that have just started their branding adventure or need to update their existing brand, logo, slogan, colors, or several elements that form their corporate identity.

Design an effective and original logo that can represent your brand. Of course, we recommend you to work with an expert company or a designer who will do this design for you. On the other hand, it is available on sites that provide online services that offer fast, practical, and affordable solutions. Use your logo not only on your products, business cards, and signs but on all materials that express your corporate identity.

Create your brand slogan. The slogan will have a short and clear message to your brand against the customer base. Write an expressive, memorable, meaningful, and concise statement that expresses the essence of your brand. What are the important messages you want to communicate about your brand? At this stage, get support from all of your company’s employees. The advantages of companies with strong internal communication and benefiting from the ideas and foresight of their employees are undeniable in brand management.

Integrate your brand. Creating brand awareness is reflected in every aspect of your business, the landing page of your website, the first address to customers calling the corporate switchboard phone, the communication strategy, e-mail signature, everything that your brand manager or sales marketing team has designed to represent your brand. Integrate the language of your brand effectively and consistently in all your communication channels.

Create a “sound” for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and included in the visual images of all materials (including websites, social media channels, and smartphone applications). The language of communication of your brand, my picture, sincere, your communication channels are clear Do you address every layer, or are you a luxury brand. Shape the image you want to create and adopt a language that is compatible with it.

Trust your brand. Your brand will have promises to the target audience. Effective brand management ensures a balance between promises and opportunities. Take steps towards your budget, capacity, and goals. Keep the image in your client’s mind alive and reliable. Make sure you do what you promise and make your customers aware of what you are doing. Customers will turn to other brands if you don’t fulfill your brand promise. This danger can also be experienced due to a feeling of insecurity that will occur at the election stage. Show your trust in your brand to your customers on your social media channels, in printed and visual media advertisements, with your messages and stance.

Be consistent. All the work done on behalf of your brand should reflect the parts of a whole, all your commitments, discourses, and presentations should be compatible with each other and should be part of a strategy. Effective brand management involves studies in which the language to be used for the formation of brand identity is designed, analyzed and the results are predicted.

Social Media Process

With the proliferation of social media platforms and offering e-marketing and e-commerce opportunities to its users, the road map of branding has become much more complicated even though the definition of the brand has not changed.

The competitive coefficient of branding has increased more than ever. Now, we can easily say that every consumer who makes an effort in this regard is a publisher and we witness the process of forming thousands of new brands every day.

The Intangibles Of Brand Management

Concrete elements of brand management include concrete features such as the price and color of the products in the brand portfolio. However, for a product to reach the target audience, the image to be created in the eyes of the customer, the formation of customer loyalty, and the brand to be successful. Creating abstract concepts such as mark value, brand image, brand positioning is perhaps more important than concrete features for a brand to form, develop, and maintain its existence. Aside from the quality, price, and other features of a product, it is the abstract features of the brand that enables it to be sold, appreciated, and appreciated by the customer.

Brand Value: Apart from the raw state of the product, it is the value of the brand that changes in the customer’s mind according to the impression, purchasing, and loyalty.

Brand Image: The sum of the impressions a customer has about the brand. The location and reputation of the brand in the eyes of the customer determine the brand image. Buddha expresses a completely subjective and abstract value.

Brand Positioning: Positioning is the unique space of a brand in the minds of customers. The brand should sit somewhere in the mind of the target audience and be easily recognized by the target audience due to this position.

Brand Relationships: Images and symbols associated with a brand or brand are useful in terms of establishing an easy connection between the brand and the customer base.

Brand personality: The personality of the brand is based on the emotional bond formed between the brand and the customer mass. The brand personality concept is related to the connections established between the relevant brand and the consumers.

Brand Manager Duties and Responsibilities

A Brand Manager is responsible for creating a brand strategy for the company’s target market and target audience. Brand strategy is a basic guide for all works on the brand.

‘Brand managers ensure that the company carries out works in accordance with brand integrity and brand strategy in marketing activities and marketing communications carried out through different channels of the company, and ensures that the product portfolio related to the brand progresses in line with the brand management.

Today, brand managers are expected to be more knowledgeable on digital channels and social media channels, knowledgeable and experienced in the field of e-marketing in addition to classical marketing instruments.

Brand management in digital media is a very complicated field that requires both internal and external service purchases and working with partner companies.

What are the Brand Manager Tasks

• A brand manager carries out the necessary work for the formation of the brand strategy.
• He is responsible for the planning and execution of communication and media work on all channels, including digital and social media platforms.
• It is expected to contribute to the studies on product development, pricing, and product positioning by developing new business opportunities, analyzing the target audience, market conditions, and competing products.
• It is expected to cooperate with the marketing and sales team to follow up on the progress of advertising and promotion activities carried out in the process of brand formation and development in line with the brand management and strategy.
• It can take part in the preparation, control, and analysis processes of advertising and promotional budgets.
• Brand managers have a great influence on competitor and customer analysis studies.

They can take part in the stages of sales forecasts and related financial analysis and reporting of product sales.