Brand Management

Brand Management begins with knowledge of what ‘brand’ means. Brand Management begins with leaders of the organization who fix the brand and control its management. It also goes through entire system of the company and mainly to the people engaged with customer interactions and to the product developers. When Brand Management performs its one hundred percent, the entire management system of the company begins and ends with brand.

In general, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company is considered as Brand Leader of the company.  Creating a good brand is both memorable and desirable. Any brand, if nobody remembers it, is worthless, and a waste, if nobody wants it. A good brand promise stirs up feelings. For example; dot net technology, a brand of Microsoft Corporation evokes safety and excitement in IT managers and web developers.

In the fast changing world market scenario, making promises for a good brand in no more the task of CEO’s only, rather it became the task of everyone engaged in the company to keep one’s brand memorable and desirable. Most of the responsibility of Brand Management lies on the shoulders of sales and marketing team and Brand Manager of the company. 

A brand manager works in full cooperation with other departments of the company. A brand manager is also responsible for supporting sales teams, brand budget and development and distribution of brand strategy. To sum up, one can say a brand manager is the person responsible for perfect performance of activities like formulation, production & packaging and distribution.

Brand Manager should be aware about market trends, human resources management, and adaptive to new ideas. They do general work, coordinating the efforts and responsibilities with workers who carry out specific functions related to production, sales, advertising, promotion, R&D, marketing research, purchasing, distribution, package development, and finance.

The bottom line to successful brand management is practical approach and always keeping on the toes. Brand Management is one of the most challenging areas of management profession.

Almost every consumer goods company employs sales team assisted with Assistant Managers and Brand Manager / Product Manager. Many companies specializing in industrial goods also employ sales team and brand manager. One of the best methods to train to become a high level corporate employee is by gaining experience in brand management of a consumer goods firm.

In a consumer goods firm most beginners start as brand assistants. Typically new employees are hired as brand assistants and must pass through a training program consisting of sales training provided through company courses and seminars, lasting one to four months. The best brand managers focus on the results; have high levels of creativity, analytical skills, good communication skills and entrepreneurial tendencies.

To be a brand manager one must have a strong foundation based on the core aspects of marketing. These core aspects are advertising, research, consumer behavior, and strategy. Additionally one must be analytically sound and begin preparation for this through courses in finance and accounting.

To start Career as a Brand Manager a candidates should be post graduate and have qualifications like Master of Business Administration (MBA), / Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA) with specialization in Brand Marketing and related areas. People, who become successful brand manager, preferably start their career in sales team of the company. Depending on good performance of 2 / 3 years, the best performers are given promotion and designated as Assistant Brand Manager or Assistant Product Manager and later promoted to the level of Product Manager or Brand Manager.

Graduate students also recruited as trainees in sales team and then depending on performance promoted to the level of Assistant Brand Manager / Brand Manager / Product Manager