Brand Management is a broader and much more strategic activity of any company than marketing alone. It is an important aspect of marketing so much so that brand management is nothing less than a CEO’s responsibility in any company.
This management includes instilling a certain level of confidence in the minds of existing customers that the quality they expect from the line of products of the particular brand can be expected to continue. This has been known to increase sales by comparing the product with other brands, making a properly managed brand more favorable in the eyes of the investor.
A company that is well managed will be protected by trademark law, be easily recognized and associated with good quality products or services, thus making it easy to remember. The company will be easily pronounced in any language, if the product or service is an international one, and it will definitely attract attention when and wherever it is mentioned. Brand management will achieve all the above mentioned points effectively and will also make the brand stand out when placed among other competitive brands.
A single company may own many brands pertaining to a range of products. This makes brand management even more difficult, and at the same time, gains the confidence of the consumer more easily. A consumer aware of a certain brand, having used the product or service, will easily trust another product from the same company. So, marketers usually advertise the parent company along with the various brands associated with it.
This is commonly seen during a marketing campaign, for example, a hotel being advertised as ‘The Residency Hotel’ – An International Hotels holding. The International Hotels is the ‘mother brand’ and the ‘local brand’ will be the Residency Hotel. People from another country will trust the Residency Hotel even though they have not been there only because of the mother brand the – ‘International Hotels’ group. This is one instance of brand management and is placed under Brand Management Architecture.
An established brand will find favor among consumers who will be willing to trust a new product under the same brand without many questions being asked. This is why corporate houses spend millions of dollars annually promoting their brand all over the world.
Brand theft is a very disturbing activity. This is why almost every company has a department looking out for infringement of their brand. The Internet is a wonderful tool when it comes to promoting a brand and it is also a wonderful tool for crooks to use a well-known brand to market their products and services by simply modifying a brand name or logo to attract consumer attention.
It is believed that brand infringement accounts for a loss of 120 million dollars of trade each year all over the world.
Trade laws prevent anyone from using a similar sounding brand name to promote their products or services. Neither can they use a similar looking logo of an existing brand. By turning to the Internet to monitor their brands and prevent the brand from being tarnished, companies are increasingly preventing cheats from using their established brands from misleading unsuspecting customers and ruining a perfectly good brand image.
Brand management can be described as the activity of the company management to instill confidence in their customer base, promote a line of products and improve sales turnover of the company. It is a very important part of marketing that can, if managed well, yield great returns for the business.
