Brand management

Brand management has only developed into an interesting field of research in recent years and is predominantly practiced by large corporations. To understand the practice of brand management, it is first necessary to consider the brand in its own right.

The origin of brands and the process of branding go back thousands of years. Brands represent a long-term feature of the cultural development of mankind and appear in various ideological and institutional contexts. For over a thousand years, brands have represented cultural symbols and carriers of market growth.

Beyond the significant role of the brand in the past, it has also established itself in today's age as one of the most valuable assets within a company. Not only do companies with luxury products, such as Gucci or Louis Vuitton, for example, benefit from their brand but also everyday products, such as Coca-Cola or Zara, for example, see their brand as the company's most valuable asset. This is because customers often trust the brand when buying products and therefore choose the trusted brand rather than the unknown brand. For this reason, companies are dependent on improving brand value within the concept of brand management.

Definition

Brands

A successful and strong brand consists of three different fundamentals that must be established when the brand is created. First, the brand identity must be defined so that the brand image and brand personality can then be built up. The further development, monitoring and maintenance of the three brand concepts over time are important elements in brand management, which is why they are discussed in more detail below.

• Brand identity: To create a successful and strong brand, it is important to define a clear brand identity at the beginning – that is, to clarify what the brand is. This is composed of different information related to the brand, such as the name of the brand, the logo that symbolizes the brand, the age of the brand, the country of origin of the brand and the product or service offering of the brand. Brand identity is the foundation on which brand image and brand personality are based.
• Brand image: Brand image refers to the consumer's view of the brand – in other words, how the customer perceives the brand or what comes to mind when the customer thinks of the brand. This includes any form of positive or negative association that the customer has with the brand. Companies can shape the image of the brand by formulating value propositions and influencing brand perception as part of brand management.
• Brand personality: Brand personality results from the interactions that customers experience with the brand. For example, through the perception of the brand in stores, advertising of the brand or the typical customer groups that buy this brand. Through this, characteristics are formed over time that can be assigned to the brand and thus the brand personality – in other words, what kind of personality this brand is.

Within the concept of brand management, the three elements of a brand can be strategically coordinated to support the positive development of a brand.

Branding

An important process in relation to the brand is branding, which will be distinguished from brand management below. Branding is about building the brand and creating brand equity from the ground up. Before a brand is formed, various processes are pursued as part of branding in order to give the brand identity and also make it appear attractive to the outside world as part of the brand image. Brand management, on the other hand, pursues processes that strengthen the brand value after brand creation. These processes are described in more detail below.

Brand management

Brand management describes various strategies that can be used to control the processes surrounding a brand. These processes include, for example, the monitoring and maintenance of a brand, but the focus here is on strengthening a brand over time. The process of brand strengthening leads to maintaining the reputation of a brand or improving it in the future by creating added brand value. For this purpose, it is important to monitor the development of the brand reputation and to observe the position of the brand so that comparative analyses can subsequently be made. Based on this, an adjustment to brand strategy can be made to improve customer perception of the brand in terms of brand awareness, brand value and brand loyalty. Brand management aims to increase or maintain brand value in the future through the appropriate brand strategy.

A brand is composed of brand identity, brand image and brand personality. To give a brand value, these three components are defined as part of the branding process. Brand management forms the bridge between the brand and branding and helps to strengthen the brand within the framework of various processes. Examples of strengthening the brand as part of brand management include:

• the design of a website for the brand to increase brand visibility
• creating brand profiles on social media to strengthen positive brand reputation
• finding key advertising partners on social media to increase brand awareness
• coordinating the brand's packaging design to influence customer perceptions

Conclusion

Brand management is a very important part of companies increasing brand value. As the brand is one of the most significant assets of companies, it is also essential in the future to firmly integrate brand management into the corporate structures and to follow the processes for monitoring and maintaining the brand.

References

Johansson, J. K., Carlson, K. A. (2015). Contemporary Brand Management.

Krake B. G. J. M. (2005). Successful brand management in SMEs: a new theory and practical hints. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 14(4), 228-238.

Mogaji, E. (2021). Brand Management. An Introduction through Storytelling.

Wengrow, D. (2008). Prehistories of commodity branding. Current Anthropology, 49(1), 7-34.

Author: Andrea Adkins