Brand Management for Small Business
Brand Management to Build Your Brand
"A brand is a personification of a product, service, or even entire company."
- Robert Blanchard
Brand management starts with a good understanding of 'brand'.
What is a Brand?
A brand is sometimes described as making a 'promise' (that must be kept).
What is Brand Management?
Brand management is the active process of defining, positioning and delivering the brand. A strong brand inspires customer loyalty, imbues a business with quality and locates a business within an industry group whilst differentiating itself from competitors.
Brand management concerns the total brand experience - from price, package and product details to customer service, customer experience and building emotional connections.
What is Branding?
Branding emerges from the total marketing mix. The aim of branding is to create trust, loyalty and confidence. Brands must actively seek to remove or reduce 'barriers' to conversion - where value gained outweighs risk. Brand value is perceived as being greater than monetary cost and risk is negated.
Branding conveys a clear message.
Branding creates expectation and points of difference in a crowded marketplace.
Brand Management for Better Brand Performance
Brand management covers a wide diversity of disciplines. Read on for a discussion of 5 key areas by which to enhance the management of your brand.
1. Brand Management and Building a Brand
It is often said that it is the brand itself that inspires customers to buy. Brand is highly related to promise. It signifies quality, value, lower risk and simplifies a purchase process. Brand is a type of 'trust exchange' with the product or service provider. Customers save time with a valued brand as less effort is spent searching and purchase decisions are made more quickly.
To the Customer : Brand = Benefit.
With effective brand management, a brand continues to perform consistently and meet expectations. Successful management of a brand ensures competitive advantage, protects the customer and is identified with ease of purchase and quality standards.
2. Brand Management and Brand Identity
Brand identity is strongly related to the organisation as a whole. Brands utilise brand identity to become memorable amongst target groups. A brand identity can involve such elements as trademark colours (the bright red of Coka Cola), sound logos or jingles (Nokia ringtone or Intel inside), tagline (Apple's 'Think Different') or visual signifiers (the Nike swish).
Brand identity includes the mission statement, customer promise and competitor advantage. It finds expression throughout the organisation. An effective brand identity motivates staff, infuses corporate culture and converts customers.
Brand management seeks to ensure that brand identity is both durable and well realised throughout an organisation. Brand management strategy should aim to future proof brand identity - so that is its sustainable, highly correlated with product and service quality and fulfils customer expectation.
3. Brand Management and Brand Image
Brand image refers to the brand from the customers' point of view.
Brand image is a summary of how the brand is understood amongst those who use it. For the customer it is the benefits and beliefs a brand offers in addition to product or service attributes.
Brand management strives to reinforce brand image with logo design, advertising, positive reviews, packaging, promotion and word of mouth publicity.
4. Brand Management and Brand Position
Brand position is a strategic approach which seeks to establish a competitive advantage within its industry group. Brand position addresses elements that include cost strategy (where costs are competitively lower), differentiation strategy (where quality or uniqueness of products is established) or best value strategy (where affordability is emphasised in conjunction with value inclusions).
Successful brand management will identify clear strategies to neutralise or better the strengths and offerings of established competitors. It begins with an analysis of industry competitors. Offensive brand strategies are devised and implemented to address areas of competitor weakness.
5. Brand Management and Brand Loyalty
The foundation of any successful business is loyal and returning customers. Increased loyalty is associated with reduced marketing cost.
rand loyalty is demonstrated by repetitive buying, trust, engagement and satisfaction from the buyer. It may be measured by the extent to which a customer consistently engages with a specific brand over others in an industry group. As brand loyalty increases, a customer is less responsive to messages from competitors.
Growing and maintaining brand loyalty is a key component of effective brand management. It is important to note that brand loyalty is grown 'post purchase'. An organisation must actively seek to know their target market and engage, support, develop and nurture loyalty in a personal way.
Do you need assistance with Brand Management?
Roundhouse has over 20 years brand experience. We are a full service creative agency located at Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast. We are experts at brand design, brand promotion and brand management strategies, both online and offline. We develop brands to reach your target market and grow your profitability.
As Creative Director & Roundhouse Founder Saul Edmonds has over 20 years professional design and digital experience.
He is an expert on Brand, Website and App Development. He has worked with clients across all industry groups - including startups, small business, government and entrepreneurs - on projects of all sizes and budgets.
Saul and his team can help you grow your business and discover new possibilities with :
- strategic brand design
- web design & development
- app design and development
- digital marketing
- creative engagement
Saul Edmonds believes that every project begins with a story.
Saul and his team offer a one to one, tailored service - where he works with you closely to develop innovative solutions that will take your business to the next level.
Find out how Saul can help you turn your ideas into reality.
Book an obligation free consultation with Saul Edmonds for ideas and strategies to take your business or project to the next level. Click here to arrange your booking.
Phone : +617 1300 727 749
email : us@roundhouse.cc
- Learn about our web design here.
- Learn about our app development here.
- See our brand and logo portfolio here.
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