Valeria Publications

Every business has it, no matter how large or small.

It stays with the business until its end. And the business can have a hard time functioning if it’s unsure of what it is.

That’s right. The brand.

Each business has its own unique brand. And guess what’s just as important as establishing your brand?

Managing it.

Once you’ve established your brand, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to maintain it as your business grows. This is where brand management comes into play.

Here is a simple introduction into the world of brand management.

The Basics

What is brand management?

It’s a marketing technique that determines the way that a business is perceived in the marketplace.

You’ve probably seen examples of brand management in your everyday life. If someone asked you about the happiest place on Earth, what place would come to mind?

Disney.

When you’re thinking about grabbing something quick and cheap to eat, what place first comes to mind?

McDonalds.

Brand management is pretty much strategic supervision of a business’s brand. It helps companies identify how their products and reputation can improve over time.

The Benefits Of Brand Management

The right brand management strategy can benefit businesses in so many ways.

Brand management can help businesses build closer relationships with their target audience. There are different strategies that businesses can use to establish their identity and connect with their customers.

The more relatable your business is to your customers, the greater the customer loyalty over time.

Brand management can also help with establishing a positive reputation for your business. No matter what stage your business is in, you want your current (and future) customer base to say and think of positive things when referencing you.

This will lead to the next benefit of brand management – recognition. You want your brand to be as recognizable as the Apple logo or the Coca – Cola color.

When your customers think of a certain product, you want your business to be the first thing that pops up in their mind. The right brand management techniques can make that possible for your business.

But where do you start? What do you need to develop an effective brand management strategy?

Establishing Brand Values

Your first step can be to establish your business’s brand values. What is your business about? What does it stand for?

Does your business have a particular logo? What is your mission statement?

These are some of the basics that you can use to help establish your business’s brand. Once this foundation is created, it will be easier for you to manage your business’s marketing needs.

The more defined your business’s values are, the better you’ll be able to connect with your audience.

One of the best tools to help establish your brand values is a creative brief. A creative brief is the spider’s web of brand identity.

From this document, you can determine your target audience, your brand’s tone, and the best type of marketing content for your audience. Which leads into the next step of brand management.

Creating Brand Marketing Opportunities

After your brand values are identified, you want to think about different marketing strategies for your business.

Every business needs an online presence; that’s why you want to take advantage of different types of digital content. Aside from social media, you have a personal website and video content at your disposal.

But with so many options, it’s easy for the digital content to start managing you. You don’t want to do what other businesses are doing online. Whatever digital content you create, you want it to align with your business’s brand and reputation.

Again, this is where a creative brief can help you. Just like with your brand’s values, you can use a creative brief to guide you as you create your marketing content.

You can use a creative brief to describe the type of content you want to create, the benefits that it offers your audience, and what features support those benefits.

Writing this information down can help you keep track of how you want this content to enhance your brand, which leads to the next important step of brand management.

Measuring Brand Performance

You want to measure the results of your strategies.

Marketing is all about adjustments. The same marketing strategies that worked for you a few weeks ago may not be as effective a few months from now.

You want to be able to know how each of your digital marketing strategies is helping to expand your brand. That’s why keeping track of your numbers is so important.

These numbers could be the numbers of followers on your social media platforms, the number of sales from your personal website, or the number of testimonials.

These numbers reflect the engagement on your website or social media pages.

It’s always great when a large number of people visit your website. But if they’re not engaging with your content, what’s the point?

Staying on track of your numbers will make it easier for the next step in brand management: expansion.

Preparing For Growth

Preparing for growth is a necessity for every business. But sometimes, a business loses its brand as it continues to grow.

You want to make sure that your brand remains consistent as your business continues to expand. You don’t want to be influenced by the latest social media trends.

You want to be the influencer.

Again, this is where your creative brief comes in. Your creative brief can be that foundation that you and your marketing team always come back to.

No matter what new strategies or people that you collaborate with, your creative brief can remind you of your brand identity.

This will help create consistency with each of your marketing strategies.

Final Thoughts

Take care of your brand and your brand will take care of you.

As you work to create your brand, keep these four elements in mind. The more you work on establishing your brand, the easier it will be to establish a deeper connection with your customers.

If you need more information on a creative brief, check out my blog post  How a Creative Brief Can Help Your Online Business – Valeria Publications.

Share your thoughts about establishing a brand in the comment section below.