What Does a Brand Manager Do?

There are countless titles in the marketing field more so now with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the ubiquity of social media. One of these titles is “brand manager”. Now, you will probably be asking what a brand manager does. To answer this properly, we’re going to first need to delve into what a brand is before we can show you how to manage a brand.

Managing a Brand

What is a ‘brand’?

Internationally renowned marketing gurus Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller, in the 12^th Edition of their seminal work entitled Marketing Management (2006), look at how the American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a ‘brand’. The association defines this concept as:

“A name, term, sign, symbol or design – or a combination of them – intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or design or a combination of them intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.”

Yes, the elements that Kotler and Keller mention are indeed integral to what makes up a brand. However, the true anatomy of a brand, and the effect that it has on people’s perceptions, goes much, much further than this.  For example, a number of years ago there was a stock outage, at a well-known supermarket chain, of Coca-Cola. This lasted for a  lengthy period of time. It had the effect of substantially decreasing revenue for the chain because when customers saw that they couldn’t buy Coca-Cola, they would not resort to buying a similar product which tasted the same as Coca-Cola. Instead they would go to another outlet to find their desired product but, unfortunately for the supermarket, they didn’t purchase any other items on their shopping list – they bought them with the Coca-Cola at the next shop. Thus the power of the Coca-Cola brand caused the supermarket chain to lose millions.

How does someone manage a brand?

The brand manager is responsible for making sure that there exists a rock-solid link, in the minds of consumers, between the brand and the product or service that the company offers. In other words, they are responsible for maintaining brand equity for the company.

Kotler and Keller define “brand equity” as “… the added value endowed to products and services.” The brand manager has to make sure that when consumers think of their brand, there are extremely positive emotions associated with it so that when the company launches a new product or service they will feel like they have no option but to purchase it. Take Apple, for example. The company has become masters at building phenomenal brands by living their company ethos, which was defined by Steve Jobs, as “To create great things that change people’s lives”. The advantage is that when they launch a new product, there is a lengthy waiting list of people who’ve ordered the product and will receive it as it hits the shelves.

We’ve highlighted just a snippet of what a brand manager does. To learn more about how brand management forms an integral part of your digital marketing strategy, we suggest that you sign up for the Digital School of Marketing’s Brand Management Course. On this digital marketing course, you’ll learn how to:

• Develop an identity for your brand
• Develop Brand Equity for your products, services and/or business
• Position your brand well in the marketplace so that it is easily distinguishable from your competitors
• Make your brand messaging cohesive
• Communicate effectively in your marketing efforts
• Manage a corporate brand
• Develop branding growth strategies
• Master the fundamentals of marketing communication concepts.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

This digital marketing certificate is accredited by the MICT SETA. This means that you will be receiving quality education with the highest stamp of approval when you sign up for the Digital School of Marketing’s Brand Management Course. Follow this link to find out more and to become a brand manager who is in hot demand!