Beyond Marketing -- Brand Management
You walk into the grocery store and you see boxes of cereal that are all from different brands. Each brand has their own flavor, product name, and marketing message that sets them apart from the competition. But there's more to these brands than marketing messages. They have gone through a process called "brand management" in order to achieve their good looks and cohesive message -- a process that is often overlooked when thinking about branding.
In fact, without brand management, even with the best creative minds in advertising on board, your company might never make it out of an office or basement. Without brand management, your brand could become invisible to the consumer.
Part of this invisibility comes from the company's perception of what branding is -- it is seen as the end product of marketing activities with very little strategy or thought going into how a brand will grow and be managed throughout its entire lifespan. Branding is often just a response to a problem or situation, which means that it is reactive rather than proactive.
Another key reason why brands are overlooked in many companies is the belief that branding mistakes are not detrimental to a business because they only affect marketing campaigns and Web sites. In reality, however, brand mistakes can damage a company's entire reputation and future growth.
Brand management, on the other hand, involves all the planning and strategizing that goes into managing a brand. It includes four key components: identity, vision and mission/values, products/services/offering, and customer relationships. Brand management is the necessary decision-making process to make sure that each of those components is working in harmony with one another.
Some companies believe that brand management is too complex for their small business or for people who don't have experience in branding. The truth is, it can be as simple as a single event on business cards or a visual trademark. Brand management does not have to be overwhelming, however. It just requires some analysis and planning for the company to go beyond marketing and become a brand itself.
Here are some tips to help ensure your brand is well-managed:
- Find out if your brand is strategic or tactical. A strategic brand will have the same value in all places around the world; whereas, a tactical brand has no real meaning outside one country or market. If your organization is marketing outside of its own domestic market, you need to know that your identity and vision do not lend themselves well to an international audience. If your company is planning on opening a line of products outside of its domestic market, it needs to know what the brand image outside of your home country would be for that market. If you are not sure about where the brand fits, ask others what they think.
- Make sure you are communicating your values and vision across all channels -- including social media. If a customer sees that someone at a company is posting hate-filled comments or photos on Facebook or Twitter, they will assume that every employee shares those sentiments and that the company itself is evil. This is why all employees need to be aware of their own online presence and how it will reflect on the company. It would also help to have a person who oversees what is posted on your company's official Web site, Facebook page, Twitter account, and so on.
- Don't neglect the customer experience -- not just what is being said about you as a company, but how you are treated as well. Make sure that every employee understands how he or she should be representing the brand and what actions he or she needs to take to ensure that your customers have a positive experience while they are with your brand. If you are unsure, ask them questions and try out some ideas yourself.
- Make sure the employees who are representing your company have the appropriate tools and knowledge to properly manage a brand. If they don't understand how to work in the new media, how to speak to customers in a social media setting, or other basic elements of branding, they will not be able to effectively manage your brand. You need to make sure that your employees are trained properly on how to represent your business before you allow them near customers. If you do not want all employees handling all types of communications, make sure the proper people are assigned specifically for each area -- whether it's emailing back and forth with a customer or responding on Facebook for the company's page.
- Make sure that you are planning for growth. As companies grow, the brand has to grow with them. It needs to be able to change and adapt to any new product or service that is brought into the company. If you want your brand to grow, you have to think about how it will fit with the future of your business.
- Make sure that your employees understand how their actions will affect the brand and how they can improve the image of the company in any given situation. Employees need to know what steps they should take when responding on blog comments or Twitter, what sometimes called "brand damage control," and how they should attempt to repair any damage if a customer fills out a complaint form or review online.
- Develop systems for employees to communicate with each other about the brand and how it is being represented. Today, communication no longer happens just in an "all hands on deck" situation that occurs during a crisis. Employees navigate various social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, daily. It is important that they recognize when they have a negative post or comment on their own personal account and try to get it removed before it becomes newsworthy or goes viral. If they don't see the post in question, they should ask someone who monitors social media for them if they have time to remove it before anything happens. Employees should communicate this information to other employees immediately and also make every effort to get the post removed.
- Manage your brand at all levels of your company. If you do not have a brand manual for your marketing or sales teams, don't expect them to know how the "lower level" employees are representing the brand. Similarly, if you don't have a manual for all of your employees, you may leave yourself vulnerable during an emergency or crisis.
- Be sure that everyone in the company understands why it is important to care about its branding and marketing efforts. When employees understand the brand, they are more likely to care about it. Even if you believe that your brand does not matter, you need to make sure that it is represented appropriately every day in all forms of communication. Just because a company is small and takes pride in its employees has nothing to do with the brand itself. It is a matter of semantics.
- If your employees are being asked by customers or other people they interact with on an everyday basis to represent your business and how they are representing it, make sure those conversations are factual and respectful.
Conclusion
- Make sure that your brand represents who you are and what you want to be. Make sure the image is consistent across all media, including Web sites, social networking sites, and email responses. Make sure that every employee is aware of what the brand image and vision means for the public at large as well as for customers in particular and how it is conveyed through social media. Make sure that employees know how to protect and manage the brand on behalf of your company.
- Develop a plan for change in your company's branding to accommodate growth or other changes in international markets or products. You need to understand how the new brands will fit into your existing strategy and make them fit seamlessly without creating confusion.