What is brand management? Brand management methods

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Brand management is a set of marketing techniques that are applied to a particular brand, product or service in order to increase its value in the perception of end consumers and target audiences. From the definition, it can be seen that this is a complex and varied process, since there are a huge number of different products and services in a market economy.

Goals

Brand management aims to increase the value of a brand. In this case, value is the benefit that the producer receives. It should be noted that such concepts as brand management, marketing and PR are different things. In the first case, managers draw up financial reports and keep accounts, since the effectiveness of their work is calculable materially. In the second case, the budget for marketing tasks is allocated at the very end of the business plan, for the actual "leftovers". The same principle often applies to PR. Accordingly, unlike PR and marketing, brand management plays an important strategic role in the work ofthroughout the organization.

History and development

The term "brand management" was coined in 1930 in a memo from Procter and Gamble advertising executive Neil McElroy. He proposed to introduce a new position called "brand man" and formulated job responsibilities. Neil McElroy successfully brought all his ideas to life, then led the company itself, and later also the Department of Defense of the United States of America.

Ratings

Today, this concept has firmly entered the structure of the market economy and corporate culture. Many consulting firms and magazines often publish their various rankings of the most valuable and best brands. These classifications are designed to reflect the most objective value in the market of the represented companies, which is largely based on the value of the brand itself. As numerous studies show, large and strong brands can always provide more comfort and significantly higher returns to their shareholders than highly specialized and weak ones.

Brand classification

Brand management at the present stage is not even a tool, but a whole science. That is why a certain typification of brands is necessary. As a result, many models of brand management have emerged. Consider them:

• Premium class - these are brands whose product price is significantly higher than the average price for a single categorygoods.
• Economy class is aimed at the broadest masses of buyers, has a wide price range.
• “Boets” is a brand that can be in demand with minimal advertising and marketing costs. It is created when necessary to ensure competition with private cheap brands.
• Private labels (aka "white brands") are retail brands.
• Family - related products of the same name (for example, toothpastes and brushes).
• Brand marketing expansion is the use of an already well-known brand to bring some new products or a whole line of goods and services to a wide market.
• License - a document confirming the act of transferring rights to another manufacturer to use an existing brand.
• Co-branding is the combination of marketing efforts of several manufacturers.
• Corporate - The name of the company is the brand itself.
• Employer brand - creating an image of the company in the vision of potential customers, colleagues and employees.
• Strategic brand management is the most global and long-term methods of planning marketing steps, usually used by large holdings and corporations.

Architecture

There are three main types of company brand structure. They are also known as brand management techniques.

1. Several brands are combined into a system called architecture. Each individual brand has its own name,style and image, but the foundation company itself is invisible to the layman. An example is Procter and Gamble, which is the originator of this concept. It has spawned many strong and big brands such as Pampers, Pantene, Ivory, Tide.
2. Subsidiary brands develop and advance in the general context of the parent. This approach significantly saves the marketing budget. Examples include MTS and Stream.
3. The last method of architecture uses only the parent brand, and all other products have its name in the name and use similar styles and images. A striking example of this direction is the Virgin company with its subsidiaries such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Megastore, Virgin Brides. They share the same logo and style, are supported by each other, and are advertised in the same way.

Importance of choosing a name and promotion technology

Good brand management should be based on the name of the company. It should be easy to pronounce, attract attention, harmonious, memorable. The name should contain a mention of any positive qualities of the service or product, reflect the image and mission of the company, positively position the product, stand out clearly among many other products. Rationalization, orientation and rebranding are used as common technologies.

Rationalization is a reduction in the number of brands, as their number may eventually exceed the allowablemarketing power of the company. Rebranding is a brand change, but with the preservation of some basic initial data. This technology is very risky, but in the long term it allows you to keep old customers and attract new ones. Orientation is the creation of the symbolic value of the product. This means that the characteristics of the product themselves are no longer the decisive and main arguments for buyers - the brand itself has come to the fore. Product life cycles have become very short in today's free and competitive market. And the emergence of cheaper analogues and substitutes threatens the existence of popular products. Hence the need to focus not so much on product characteristics as on marketing and brand. That is, the focus is on the end user.