what does strategic brand management mean

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What does strategic brand management mean?

Why is strategic brand management so important?

Points that well-known and successful brands have in common

How to develop a strong brand

Different types of successfull brand management

Current challenges of strategic brand management

How can a software support successful brand management?

What does strategic brand management mean?

Strategic brand management is the systematic development and expansion of a brand. Successful brand management is not a short-term project, but a long-term strategy in which the company's brand is gradually developed and strengthened. The management process of strategic brand management thus includes, on the one hand, finding and securing one's own position on the market and, on the other hand, accompanying this brand position from the actual state to the desired target state. The factors value generation, perception, appreciation and value creation, play a decisive role in the process of strategic brand management.

Value generation

Clear value benefits must be generated for the consumer through the use of the product or service. Does your brand generate tangible and unique value for your target audience?

Perception

The value benefits described are only of use to the company if they are perceived as such by the consumer. Is your target group aware of the values your brand contains?

[Translate to eng:] Expertise der Zentrale

Appreciation

If consumers know the value of a brand, they will make their own assessment of what the product or service is worth to them. In the best case, they estimate the value of the brand to be higher than the price charged for it.

Value creation

Value is created on the part of the consumer when he has the feeling that he is getting more value/benefit for the brand than he has to spend for it and makes a purchase. Value is also created on the part of the company: it is rewarded for the value it has created.

Why is strategic brand management so important?

In our everyday lives, we encounter countless brands of various products and services every day. Most of them we do not even actively perceive and only a few we can even remember later. Why is that?

As a rule, brands only remain in our memory if we come into contact with them repeatedly and/or if they have a strong recognition value. The recognition value of a brand can lie on the one hand in the design, for example in the choice of colors, the presentation of the logo or in the visual packaging design. But certain slogans, sounds, quality promises or emotional messages also ensure that consumers remember brands and recognize them immediately. Well-known unique selling points are, for example, the unmistakable purple cow of Milka, the famous lettering of Coca-Cola or the short slogan "I love it" of Mc Donald's.

In marketing, companies with a decentralized corporate structure in particular are faced with the task of achieving brand uniformity across their entire partner network. Strategic brand management therefore plays a particularly important role for this type of company. For example, a car manufacturer must manage to have uniform marketing materials in all car dealerships to ensure brand recognition. Particularly in today's fast-moving times, when consumers are constantly being overrun by digital innovations, it is a real challenge to create a brand with high recognition value that cannot easily be replaced by other new brands. Accordingly, strategic brand management is important for building and expanding a brand in the long term. How a brand positions and develops itself on the market is crucial to the overall success of the company. In this way, strong brands manage to increase the value of the entire company and boost sales figures.

Points that well-known and successful brands have in common

High recognition value
Authenticity and credibility
Uniform identity and values
Emotional character and trust-building
Long-term strategy and adaptability

How to develop a strong brand

A strong brand with recognition value cannot simply be created overnight. Strategic brand management is a long-term process that has no fixed end date. We show you which four steps are essential in the process of strategic brand management.

The first and most important step in brand management is brand positioning. The goal of this is to determine which unique selling propositions it has, how you differentiate yourself from the competition, and what position you can and ultimately want to occupy in the appropriate market. Start by conducting an as-is analysis. To do this, you should first work out the strengths and weaknesses of your product or service and determine what your brand stands for. In other words, what values it reflects and what specific benefits the product or service should bring to the previously defined target group. It is helpful here to develop a concrete vision and mission to guide the process of strategic brand management. You then delineate the relevant market, examine the competition, and determine which features differentiate your brand from the existing competition.

Before you take your brand to customers, you should first make sure that the brand's values are anchored in your own corporate culture. Make absolutely sure that the concept is not only communicated at management level, but that all employees know what the company's brand stands for and what the vision or mission behind it is. Internal branding, i.e. brand building and brand communication within the company, is the keyword here. It is particularly important to create a uniform identity, the so-called corporate identity, which is understood, pursued and lived by everyone in the company.

During the entire customer experience, i.e. along the customer journey, the customer may come into contact with the brand at different points. Make sure that at as many touchpoints as possible, the customer perceives a positive brand experience and that your brand follows a consistent concept. External communication is where different marketing activities come together, known as the marketing mix. According to the classic marketing mix theory, the brand strategy is accordingly played out via the four instruments of product, price, place and promotion.

A brand is always characterized by visual and non-visual success factors. The visible, i.e. visual, features include, for example, the design and colors of the logo, the packaging design, the slogan, the font or even the price. The non-visible characteristics that every brand has include, among other things, experiences that consumers have with the brand. Conscious and subconscious emotions that customers associate with the brand are also included here. Do customers trust the brand and would they recommend it to friends and family? Often, the non-visual and intangible attributes are more critical to holistic success than the visual ones.

Even if you think you've already created a successful brand and don't want to tweak much on the visuals, always keep in mind that the non-visuals are critical to consumer purchase and loyalty. New competitors on the market may be able to quickly excite your target group with visual features - but trust, emotions and values that the target group has built up with your brand over the long term are difficult to replace and thus make your brand unique.

Different types of successful brand management

Even though strategic brand management basically pursues the same goals for different brands, companies can set different priorities in their brand positioning strategy. For example, they can choose either an identity-oriented, a function-oriented or a differentiation-oriented brand management. We explain the differences between the three different types of strategy.

Identity-oriented brand management

If the main focus of strategic brand management is on building an identity, the emphasis is on emotional communication measures. The company tries to create a sense of "we" and a deep connection between consumers and the brand. This is often referred to as corporate social responsibility.

Function-oriented brand management

Function-oriented brand management places particular emphasis on the quality features of the brand. Customer benefits and added value as well as unique product or service quality are the focus here and should lead the brand to success. If the focus is on outstanding quality, this is often found in the high-end price segment.

Differentiation-oriented brand management

If the goal of a company is primarily to create the greatest possible difference to the existing competition with the brand, then differentiation-oriented brand management is applied. Whether in terms of function, design or price, the brand should clearly stand out from the crowd and be different from everything that has been offered on the market to date. High recognition value through unique features are crucial here.

Current challenges of strategic brand management

Increasing digitalization and globalization offer many opportunities for companies to build a successful brand and make it known on the market. At the same time, the digital and global transformation also presents companies with some challenges in terms of their brand positioning. Digital transparency makes it easy for new brands to emerge among the competition and makes it harder to stand out from the crowd. Customers can choose from an increasingly wide range of products and service providers and easily compare prices themselves. Even small missteps are also noticed much more quickly and spread at a rapid and unstoppable pace in the digital world.

Companies are thus faced with the major challenge of maintaining control over the development of the brand image themselves. It is often not possible to steer one's own brand in exactly the direction one had envisioned. Agility and adaptability therefore play increasingly important roles in marketing.

How can a software support successful brand management?

For the marketing of decentralized companies that need to reach their customers across different locations, software can be very helpful in supporting strategic brand management. By having a Local Marketing Platform through which the various sales and distribution partners* can order and execute their advertising measures and campaigns provided in the corporate design, brand uniformity can be created. Decentralized companies can thus guarantee that the values of their brand are communicated uniformly, their local visibility is increased and the corporate identity is adhered to.

Strategic Brand Management

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