May 2, 2025
Written by Evans Momodu, published 16:56
Discover the fundamentals of brand management, its importance for businesses and key strategies to build, maintain and grow a strong brand identity.
The market is volatile, with a lot of noise from various businesses and organisations struggling to catch the attention of consumers either directly or through B2B relationships. Consequently, businesses use branding to filter out the noise and make a bold statement in the market that continues to echo in the minds of their consumers even when there is no one to defend the product.
One of a company's most important assets is its brand. It conveys what it does, what it stands for, what its values are, and what it represents as a firm— this influences customers' perceptions of the brand.
While every company wishes to have a market-leading brand, creating one requires time, effort, and money. Customer recognition, word-of-mouth marketing, customer loyalty, improved legitimacy, and simplicity of purchase are just a few of the advantages of developing and sustaining a strong brand.
Businesses, therefore, create their brand personas—a perception of a business from how it presents itself through its brand identity and voice. Brand management is more than just designing a logo or choosing a slogan—it’s about creating and nurturing a consistent and positive image of your business in the minds of consumers. In today’s competitive market, having a well-managed brand can make the difference between thriving and fading into the background.
Brand management refers to the planning, development, and oversight of a brand's strategy. Its purpose is to increase the perceived value of a product or company, ensure consistency across touchpoints, and build emotional connections with customers. This helps businesses attract loyal customers and sustain long-term growth.
Brand management is the process of creating and shaping a brand in the minds of consumers to give meaning to a specific organisation, company, product, or service. It is a strategy devised by organisations to assist people in quickly identifying and experiencing their brand, as well as giving them a reason to choose their products over the competition's by clarifying what this specific brand is and is not. The goal is to attract and retain loyal customers and other stakeholders by consistently delivering a product that fulfils the brand's promises.
A strong brand builds trust, boosts recognition, and differentiates a business from its competitors. Good brand management ensures that every customer interaction aligns with the company’s values and promises, building lasting impressions and deep customer relationships.
The essence of brand development lies in creating a cohesive and resonant story that captures the essence of your company. This story should convey your unique value proposition, showcase your values, and connect with the emotions of your target audience. By doing so, you cultivate customer loyalty and trust, making your brand a recognisable and preferred choice among a long list of competitors struggling to get the attention of consumers.
Effective brand management gives a business a unique identity in a crowded market. Consistent branding, from visual components to messaging, makes it easier for customers to recognise and remember the brand.
Building a brand identity consumes the majority of a company's time, effort, and resources. The company decides how its brand will appear, how customers should feel when they interact with it, where and how the brand should be remembered, and other connotations. When all of these factors are considered, a brand personality emerges, which is then followed by a brand image when a customer interacts with it or learns about the business.
It is not always essential for a brand's image to emerge from interactions and experiences with it. There are instances when potential buyers develop an image of a brand in their minds after reading about it in the news or seeing an influencer critique it.
It's the same with humans. When we first meet someone, we analyse their personality and create an impression of them based on our interactions. Similarly, when we hear about that individual from some of our friends, we confirm or adjust our impressions or even create new ones. This reinforces the importance of investing in carefully building brand identity and recognition.
A strong brand name helps in Customer loyalty and shared values. Customers are more likely to return to brands they recognise and trust. When brand experiences meet or exceed expectations, loyalty grows. Customer loyalty is enhanced by the recognition and elevation that a successful brand provides. Customers are drawn to brands that share their beliefs. To create an emotional connection with customers, you must communicate these principles while building a great brand. Brand loyalty may endure a lifetime, and it can even be passed down through generations.
Strong branding not only attracts new customers but also gives companies leverage in pricing, partnerships, and expansion opportunities. A reputable brand becomes a powerful asset that makes the introduction of new products easy. It is generally easier and less expensive to offer new items or try them out before investing more in them when you already have a strong brand and devoted clients. Customers who are loyal to your brand will be interested in new items and may even wait for them to be introduced if you have a strong brand following. A strong brand name grows customer loyalty and shared values. This gives a soft landing to new product launches in the market, giving them a competitive advantage that catalyses sales growth and business expansion.
A brand needs to be positioned in a way that reflects its ideals, mission, vision, and values to management, stakeholders, employees, and customers. Each of these groups plays a crucial role in strategically shaping the brand’s identity and messaging. Clear positioning defines what the brand stands for, who it serves, and how it distinguishes itself from competitors. Effective messaging ensures that these concepts are communicated clearly.
The visual components of a brand, such as colour, design, and logo, that identify and distinguish the brand in customers' eyes, project the brand identity. Visual elements play a huge role in shaping perception. A cohesive visual identity builds brand recognition and supports storytelling. This implies that when a consumer is looking for a certain product or selecting a service provider, they should be able to recognise your firm listed among the options, even if they don't know much about your firm at the moment. This is because customers are significantly more inclined to select a known brand than something unfamiliar.
Every organisation has a reputation to build through hardwork, consistency in product offerings and satisfying its customers. Brand reputation simply refers to how the public generally perceives a brand. The term reputation refers to how others perceive you. When it comes to how others perceive you, certain factors influence it. These factors are various marketing functions such as public relations, advertising, digital, and so on. How a brand is perceived online and offline matters. Monitoring reviews, feedback, and media coverage are some of the ways to manage reputation and handle crises effectively.
Investing in a strong brand narrative that delivers a promise customers look forward to is an effective way to engage them. Even satisfied customers may explore new brands to see if they can find the same or better value at more affordable prices, fostering healthy competition. Each interaction with customers shapes their perception of the brand. To ensure positive engagement, it is essential to provide personalised experiences, excellent service, and engaging content.
Understanding your target audience’s needs, values, and preferences is key. Research helps brands tailor messaging, products, and services to meet customer expectations. A good market research strategy can reveal the best demographic, psychographic and geographic targets that specific product offerings can be tailored to based on certain conditions unveiled by the market research.
Your brand must have a strong and consistent presence across social media platforms. Engaging content, influencer collaborations, and timely responses help build community. Swift response to queries and comments across all digital channels is crucial for gaining the trust of customers and prospective customers and the ability of the brand to deliver on its promise.
Always begin your brand story by explaining why you do what you do. The following are some questions to ask yourself to help you figure out:
Why we exist.
How we can make a difference in the world.
The purpose of our mission.
The final question is: What inspired me to start my organisation?
An impactful brand narrative must encompass clear answers to these questions in the quest to build a strong brand community. To be more effective, this can be done through blogs, videos, and social content to foster emotional connections and help audiences relate to your values.
Measuring brand performance involves tracking key metrics to assess a brand's effectiveness and market position, including awareness, perception, loyalty, and engagement, using various methods like surveys, social media listening, and website analytics.
One can also track performance indicators such as customer retention and net promoter score (NPS) to evaluate branding success and refine strategy.
Professionals in this field must understand the need to manage the corporate reputation of a company, which includes the brand reputation, organisational reputation and stakeholder reputation. Corporate reputation is an intangible asset of an organisation which successful brand managers leverage to create a household brand that continues to echo in the minds of customers thereby leading to customer trust and loyalty.
A positive corporate reputation leads to greater revenue and stock prices, lower churn, higher customer lifetime value, and even better job applicants and employees. In addition, because the process of launching a product is both exciting and difficult, it is critical for branding professionals to develop a marketing strategy that produces results, bearing in mind the following:
MSBM has a detailed approach to unearthing the secrets of brand management. Concepts, strategies, tools, best practices in brand management and more are all espoused in detail in MSBM’s Advanced Professional Certificate Course in Strategic Brand Management.
The MSBM Brand Management Programme provides flexible, industry-focused training designed to equip professionals with modern branding skills. From visual identity to analytics, you’ll gain practical knowledge and a globally recognised certification that can elevate your career or business.
Brand management is an innovative approach that enables businesses to launch effectively, quickly gain a significant market share, and differentiate themselves from the multitude of competitors vying for customer attention.
Regardless of whether your products are digital or physical, effective branding creates a unique identity that helps you stand out. It also establishes a strong reputation, allowing your offerings to be recognised in a volatile market.
Brand management is crucial for building a business that people recognise, trust, and recommend. It is a long-term investment that pays off through enhanced customer loyalty, increased value, and greater market influence. Whether you are starting a new venture or expanding an established company, understanding and applying the principles of brand management is essential for success.
Brand management is the process of developing, maintaining, and improving a brand so that it resonates with the target audience and builds long-term customer loyalty. It involves everything from brand positioning and messaging to visual identity and customer experience.
Brand consistency ensures that customers have a unified experience across all touchpoints — from social media to packaging to customer service. This builds trust, reinforces the brand’s identity, and helps people remember and prefer your brand over others.
The key elements include Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Brand Promise, Brand Voice, and Customer Experience.
Strong brand management increases brand recognition, customer loyalty, and perceived value — all of which contribute to higher sales, better margins, and competitive advantage. A well-managed brand can also command premium pricing and improve customer retention.
Branding is the initial process of creating a brand’s identity and message, while brand management is the ongoing strateg/y to uphold and adapt that identity in a changing market. Think of branding as the foundation and brand management as the long-term maintenance and evolution.
Image: Coursera Digital Silk