Brand Management Strategy and Why it is So Important?

Brand management strategy is crucial for any brand in order to maximise business objectives such as brand recognition, revenue and long-term goals. Brand management in retail environments means providing a high level of customer service whilst ensuring great standards and compliance levels. If you’re still unsure why having a brand strategy is essential, read our guide below to discover all the benefits. 

What is brand management? 

Strategic brand management is about developing and protecting your brand. Embedding personality and a character within your brand is paramount to establishing it as reliable and trustworthy. In order to give substance to these attributes, companies must create an emotional connection with customers and care for their services and products once they are sold. 

For retailers and fast-moving consumer goods (FCMG) brands, moulding an efficient brand management strategy is critical. Typically, they are defined by reputation and perception. Customers are likely to be predisposed in their consumer choices based on these factors, so the work for retail brands is generally done. The crucial aspect that is an ongoing process is brand maintenance. 

Pertinent to retail, if a product is not maximising its marketing potential or a point-of-purchase display is poorly executed, then the brand performance will start to fall down. This is obviously detrimental to the overall brand image and requires attentive measures to make improvements. 

The importance of successful brand strategy management

A strong brand is the cornerstone of any successful business, from those that have only just begun to those that are already well-established. Behind every successful brand is successful brand strategy management.  

Think of some of the world’s leading brands and the strategic brand management they adopt, like Mcdonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple, and Amazon. Although their business models have proven to be incredibly successful, their dedication to ensuring brand management is ongoing and upheld is a constant process. 

Creating a successful brand strategy for your business requires careful attention to avoid the pitfalls that could prove detrimental to the perception of your brand. In today’s digital age, we are almost always in contact with brands through the mediums of social media, TV, websites and online advertising. 

Building trust with brand consistency 

The ability for brands to cement themselves at the forefront of consumers’ minds is an eternal marketing strategy requiring continuous tweaks and adaptation to stay fresh, current and on-brand. Ensuring any modifications are in accordance with the overarching brand values is key to brand consistency. 

An effective brand management strategy is one that examines the entirety of a brand meticulously to ensure your business is communicating itself clearly and reliably across channels and platforms. Therefore, it ensures that the brand uses a tone of voice that best reflects the company’s culture and values. It also ensures that the messaging remains consistent across all correspondence from social media to design. Style guides are also implemented to assist with maintaining replication of style throughout a company’s products and services.

The bottom line is that strategic brand management can help your business reach its full potential, so it should be at the forefront of every company’s corporate policy. No matter what industry you’re in, the organisation you run, or what kind of products you sell, a smart brand strategy can make all the difference in obtaining maximised results. 

How does a brand management strategy incorporate the brand?

Although we can define what brand management is, the term “brand” carries a huge sense of genericism. By understanding the different strands of what a brand entails will help determine what core points should be contained at the heart of your brand management strategy. 

Firstly ascertaining what a brand is and what it is composed of is essential in building your strategy outwards from the nucleus of the brand. Having a brand is more than just a fanciful logo and company slogan, though they are still very important. 

Beyond initial representation, there are a multitude of facets that determine what a brand is, what it does and what it represents. Typically, these are determined by four main components, the identity, the imagery, the culture and the personality of a brand. 

All four components intertwine with one another as forming the main basis of the perception and reputation of a brand. In order to generate brand awareness, the impact of your brand identity and imagery needs to be clear cut. A mission statement or the values of your brand are unique, therefore this is something that requires promotion and visibility within the public domain. 

Culture within brand management

Culture and personality tend to inform each other when assessing the makeup of a brand. They are increasingly prominent factors in defining what stance a brand represents, particularly on societal issues. Across varying industries, political and ethical messages are becoming more apparent within corporate brand management strategies. 

However, it is important to consider your target audience if combining ethical issues or politics into the cultural framework within your brand management strategy. Marketing campaigns of a political nature can equally unite and divide certain quarters of your audience, depending on how a message is conveyed. 

It is wise to try and avoid being too divisive or controversial, as this could negatively affect the reputation and perception of your brand and lead to declining brand performance. Here, clear, concise messaging is fundamental. Embedding a core identity that everybody can align with will enhance your brand management strategy, and breed confidence in your brand within your target audience. 

We’re here to help build your brand management

Strategic brand management helps companies protect their brands, maximise ROI, and improve the customer experience and collaboration with retail partners. With tailored branding solutions you can take advantage of personalised and consistent content, feel and messaging across all retail environments.

CJ Retail Solutions provide strategic solutions for retailers and FCMG brands that can help you understand the importance of raising and maintaining your brand awareness through effective strategy. 

Our retail maintenance teams ensure that our clients’ in-store fixtures and the merchandise they hold are fully operational, working and effectively promoted to maximise all sales opportunities. Through a combination of proactive and reactive calls and flexible store scheduling, we can assist you in maximising your ROI on any retail maintenance budget.

If you’re looking to uplift your retail solutions, contact us today, and we’ll ensure the reputation of your brand is elevated to the next level. Alternatively, request a brochure to find out more about the solutions we offer.