Brand Management and Brand Marketing

The terms brand management and brand marketing are often used interchangeably. Even within the marketing circles, there is some confusion regarding them. That said, there is a very distinctive difference between the two.

While brand management deals with creating the brand itself, brand marketing is involved with handling campaigns that help promote the brand and generate engagement. Forming your brand precedes marketing it in the natural order of things. 

The delineation here is necessary as businesses require both functions to work in tandem. Both are crucial cogs in the wheel for the survival of any business. In that respect, they have a symbiotic relationship with each other. 

In this blog, we cover the concepts of brand management and brand marketing and share examples to shed light on both in greater detail and how best to leverage these two activities to promote a company’s agenda.

Now let’s back up a bit. Before getting into the nitty-gritty of brand management and brand marketing, we need to get clear on the concept of brands.

How do you define a brand?

Simply put, your brand is the overall impression as perceived by people regardless of whether they are your customers or not. It’s what they associate your brand with and how they talk and think about you.

brand marketing

Your brand identity is also represented visually through elements such as the color palette and the fonts chosen for your logo. Aside from these visual elements, the crucial factor affecting your brand awareness is the overall experience you provide your customers.  

Brand Management Defined

Brand management is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the continuous pursuit of working to maintain a consistent brand identity. It has to ensure that all content, products, events, sub-brands, communication, and stylized elements are all in tone with what you are trying to convey.   

To put it differently, brand management functions as the blueprint for creating substantial brand equity. It helps the many departments and teams across your organization work in sync to research and develop strategies that help in effectively building rapport with the customers. 

Done properly, it ensures that all aspects of brand management, from digital collateral to physical products and human interactions, are spot on and collate with the aims of the business.

Brand Marketing Defined

Brand Marketing deals with the practice of promoting and selling products or services. It incorporates various disciplines, including market research, advertising, and sales. Brand Marketing involves formulating proactive strategies to connect with the targeted audience and grow your business by leveraging their loyalty. 

Differences Between Brand Management & Brand Marketing

  1. Marketing is a great way to grab a customer’s attention; branding is a great way to keep that attention. There is always competition to be had for the customer’s attention. And to get that attention, brand marketing is imperative. 

Getting your customer’s attention is half the battle won. When you are looking to keep that attention, that’s where branding plays a role. People get behind brands they believe in – while brand marketing can help you with breaking through the clutter, building a brand that people connect with is equally important. 

In a nutshell, the appropriate brand marketing and brand management strategies will work to set your brand apart from the competition and even foster a long-term relationship with your customer. 

  1. Brand management fosters recognition and loyalty, while marketing boosts sales. Most marketing strategies at their core, be it SEO, advertising, or content marketing, are carried out with the aim of increasing sales. 
  2. Brand management takes a different and a more long-term approach to encouraging sales. Building brand recognition, fostering positive brand sentiment, and customer loyalty are just as important as marketing. Managing it well will have a lasting impact on the ability to drive sales.

When it comes to sales, brand marketing is akin to a short sprint, while brand management is more like a marathon.

  1. Brand Management comes first; marketing is second. This is a business version of the classic chicken and egg situation. In the natural order of things, branding would always come before marketing. There is a good reason for that. Without having a brand in place, what would you market?

So, before drawing up a marketing strategy, you need to ask yourself the following questions.  What are your brand’s core values? What can you bring to the table? And finally, how are you going to communicate your brand value to your potential customers?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you could proceed to work on having a marketing strategy in place. Only when the branding process has been taken care of will you have a clear understanding of your customer demographic, the best ways to reach out to those customers, and build a marketing strategy that does just that. 

  1. Brand marketing strategies evolve according to the need of the hour –  but branding, that’s forever. 

As long as you are trying to maintain and grow your business, actively pursuing brand marketing strategies is of paramount importance. What is clear is, the marketing strategies you develop are going to reach their logical conclusion, after which they become redundant.   

Brand management, on the other hand, is all about defining your company, shaping how your target audience perceives the brand created and fostering a meaningful relationship with your customers.  While aspects of a firm’s branding strategies may change over time, its core values will remain unchanged, and that’s what resonates with its customers.

Brand management creates as much of an impact on your team as it has the predisposition to do on your customers. Brand marketing strategies that your team develops are purely a means to an end to propel sales for the business. They aren’t going to be impacted on any significant level by the strategies they come up with.

Brand marketing is an entirely different story. Your firm’s branding can have an equally profound impact on the team formulating the strategy, just as it does with your customers. Just as you need your customers to give credence to your brand so that they do business with you, it is the same for your employees. 

When you work to build a brand that your team forms an emotional connection with, they are going to focus on their work in a more passionate and committed fashion. They will push themselves to bring their best ideas to the fore, and the trade-off is a business that thrives.   

Goals of Brand Marketing

brand management

Brand marketing revolves around creating recognition, trust, and brand awareness. It is that aspect of marketing that is involved with developing and maintaining a brand’s reputation. 

How a brand may go around achieving its goals would be different, but a successful brand marketing strategy usually takes into consideration specific long-term goals, such as:

  1. Developing an image and brand identity: Every firm needs to work on creating a recognizable brand. This is done through visual elements such as symbols, logos, colors, packaging, etc
  2. Increase brand awareness: Facilitating brand recall and recognition of products among customers.
  3. Robust brand loyalty: Furthering brand loyalty among the customer base ensures consumers that will stick with the brand come what may. 
  4. Amassing brand ambassadors: Increasing the pool of customers who would recommend your product or service.
  5. Creating brand engagement: Encouraging customers to interact with the brand. This could be via the firm’s website, social media channels, etc. 

Goals of Brand Management

Brand management is all about a series of techniques employed that are being used to increase the perceived value of a product or service.  Effective brand management will succeed in building loyal customers through brand association which will positively impact your bottom line.

  1. Creating an Emotional Connect: Telling stories that resonate with your target audience will go a long way in creating an emotional connect with your brand. An interesting backstory sprinkled with a few anecdotes will help foster the emotional connection between the brand and the consumer that you are looking for.
  2. Be sure to differentiate your offering: Finding that one standout attribute that will help in determining how your product or service will separate you from the competition. Every business thrives on individuality. Be sure to find yours. 

If you are looking to carve a niche and stand out among the crowd with an unforgettable branding strategy, reach out to us at TRD Studios. Set up a call with us now!

  1. Creating trust and credibility: Creating credibility and trust is an elaborate process and requires a business to exude professionalism and appeal to potential clients. 

Having an online presence will help gain credibility in fair measure. These can be in the form of blogs, social media, and even a website. We at TRD Studios will work to ensure you maintain a consistent online presence filled with content relevant to your business goals.

    Common Brand Marketing & Brand Management Activities

Both brand marketing and brand management activities are essential for the enduring success of any business. Some of them are: 

Brand Management Activities

  • Brand Style Creation
  • Color Scheme Development
  • Establishing a Voice and Tone for Communication
  • Logo Design
  • Mission and Vision Statements
  • Core Values and Principles Development
  • Reputation Management

Brand Marketing Activities

  • Web Design and Development
  • SEO
  • Pay-per-Click & Digital Advertising
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Direct Mail Marketing
  • Graphic Design
  • Trade Show Marketing
  • Traditional Media Placement

Conclusion: Marketing And Brand Management

Both brand marketing and brand management play a vital role in the development of any brand. Though both responsibilities may overlap, it is always good to keep the work of the respective teams bifurcated. This will help both teams to create innovative and impactful campaigns. 

As the differences between brand marketing and brand management have been elucidated, you now have the tools to take your business to the next level. Now get out there, build your brand, and focus on the marketing strategies to get ahead of your customers. Better yet, give us at TRD Studios a call, and we will be glad to take the nitty-gritty of the planning off your hands.

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