Aug 27, 2008
Most important steps in brand management
by Bi3ard / General
 How to create a brand that will be different is probably the biggest dilemma that everyone who is starting business has. There are some basic steps that should be followed and mistakes that should be avoided.
It seems that the most companies have the same ideas at the same time. You just made up a nice name for your company or product, did a little research and found that name you’ve chosen is already in use by one or sometimes more companies.
No wonder, because majority of companies recruits the same type of people, uses the same competitive intelligence and the same research, insights tools and models. Companies all over the world use the similar if not the same new marketing ideas or strategies.
Question is then how to be different in Brand Management?
This is the baseline where anyone who meets the brand management for the first time should start.
Step 1. - Don’t let high first year volume estimates fool you
There are a lot of new products, successes of year one, that failed in following years. Keep in mind that only those brands that can sustain volume after support is gone or reduced will succeed tomorrow. Brands that stand firmly on their feet.
Advice - You need an accurate estimate of your long-term volume potential to know if your brand is really a success.
Step 2. - Don’t expect much from purchase intent
Purchase intent is a very useful measure, since it is related to the volume of your product, but what if your product doesn’t have high enough purchase intent?
Purchase intent however, doesn’t tell the whole story: while it helps you know how strong your concept is, it will not help you know how to improve it.
Advice - Test with a system that includes both diagnostic measures that explain your brand’s performance and based on that diagnostic measures, a model that tells you the volume behind each improvement.
Step 3. - Wrong advertising can damage your product
Advertising builds your product’s positioning in consumer’s mind. The way you advertise your product can greatly affect its long-term sales.
Advice - Before going on market with your product, always perform a final check.
Verify that your advertising:
- delivers the intended positioning
- fits with your products’ delivery
- truly produces the targeted volume
Step 4. - Avoid wrong packaging
This is one of the biggest mistakes in brand management. Shelves are full of packaging that is invisible to consumers, mostly because of the trend of cutting package costs to increase profitability. Many manufacturers package all their products similarly, without realizing that this strategy makes their individual products disappear from consumers’ eyes.
To be noticeable, your product needs to stand out from the products that surround it on the shelf. Those neighbors on the shelf are very often other products in same range as your product. So, don’t forget that consumers will buy it only if they can see and find it.
Advice - Using different visual signals such as colors, shapes and product forms can help. You can use different pack formats as well. Be inventive and creative are the most important things.
Step 5. – Score with the right name
Products are too often released with a name that reduces its sales potential. It’s either too long, too complicated, or doesn’t mean anything. Sometimes this is done because companies want one name to be recognized worldwide. But, the product’s name can have a significant impact on your future volume. Getting the name right can help the product be noticed and purchased as well as right packaging or advertising.
Advice - Brand name must be short and easy to remember. If possible, the product name should mean something in the local language, even better if that meaning helps reinforce the positioning or key benefits.
Step 6. – Make a difference
 It’s been mentioned that your brand has to be different if you want it succeed. But, how to make your product different? What really matters is being different in a way that is relevant to consumers. A herring flavored ice cream or chewing gum with garlic aroma is very different, but you won’t sell any of them.
Advice - Differentiate your brand on a benefit that drives consumers’ purchasing and the more important the benefit, the better. Also, try to differentiate the new item from the parent brand. Separate identity will add an additional advantage and drive incremental volume to the parent.
Step 7. - Build a sustainable competitive advantage to your product
In order to become loyal buyers of your product, consumers need to believe it is better than the brand they are buying now. If you don’t create a competitive advantage, you can end up developing and supporting your competitors.
Advice - Give your product an advantage in terms of emotions, performance, or value. In the same time, this gives it a shield to defend itself against future competitive launches, spending, or price cuts.
Step 8. - Don’t over-price your promise
Offering a good value proposition is one of the strongest drivers of long-term volume potential. Your price relative to competition needs to be in-line with the strength of your promise, relative to that same competition, to offer good value.
Advice - To determine your product value, you need to look beyond the price data and understand how the market views your product versus views of your competitors. It is important to remember that if your value is not optimal, you can always improve it by changing either your promise or your price.
Step 9. - Spending more is not the smartest strategy
Weak concept in the brand management still can sell product, if the product itself is strong or you have enough money to spend. But, wouldn’t it be better to figure out how to improve your concept instead, and save your money?
Advice – Try to understand how a consumer chooses a brand and how your brand performs versus your competitors, and then it is easy to identify improvements that unlock the potential of your brand.
Step 10. - Long-term success building
Long-term success building on forecasting your sales is not longer enough. You have to know your competition and their products as well.
Advice - Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your product compared to its current competitors, and be able to take advantage of this knowledge to stimulate improvements that will protect your initiative from future competitive threats.
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