A new environment for brand managers

In our experience, brand managers always have great intentions. What often gets in their way of achieving something exceptional is internal, not external.

You would think the market and customer would dictate success. However in most cases, everyone in their company from sales to operations think they are a leading marketer with a handle on brand.

So, by the time our poor brand manager or marketing executive has influenced their internal audience, in most cases their brand strategy or new concept has been shelved or taken to market by a nimble competitor.

How can brand managers overcome this?

By building and communicating a brand strategy for execution not negotiation.

Here are 5 imperatives to consider:

1 – Make your brand matter. Define the benefits and experiences that make your brand relevant, distinctive, and credible to your customers. Then develop strategies to differentiate your brand through superior positioning relative to competitors. This frequently means re-positioning an established brand to better meet customer challenges and needs.

2 – Optimise your brand portfolio. As brand managers and marketers launch many new brands and sub-brands to address their customers’ fragmented requirements, you need to define the roles and relationships of brand assets within a portfolio and consolidate brands to reduce complexity, overlap, and costs—all within a coherent brand architecture.

3 – Communicate and deliver your brand promise. Your brand promise must be communicated and delivered at all places of contact with the customer, both online and off. You need to specify what your company must do to deliver a consistent brand experience to your customers.

4 – Build core brand values. Develop your very own brand values. What do you stand for and what is your brand’s why. This will bring your people together – ensuring alignment and activation. Companies that invest in employee experience are 4.2x more profitable than those that don’t. Focusing on brand values to enhance customer experience may be the single most important investment you can make.

5 – Measure and sustain impact. Develop the metrics to better understand where you started, where you’re headed and to measure the impact of your efforts.

These five imperatives will help brand managers move forward with speed and respect.

Remember, your branding and marketing work will always serve a greater purpose when you engage with a clear strategy built with evidence and ROI.

Related: Better 2 Best Accenture Report

More Reading: Why the millions we spend on employee engagement buy us so little

INDUSTRIAL BRAND ACTIVATION GUIDE

Learn how to activate your brand, increase brand awareness and engagement levels. You’ll need to consider 5 key questions to be customer driven, enhance customer experience and set your brand up to win for the long-term. It’s the brands that challenge, create change and have the ability to inspire the people around them who will win with their Brand Activation Strategy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.