What do HARIBO, Dior and the Kardashians all have in common? They are all global brands that leave consumers craving for more of whatever they are selling.
A Brand Manager is immersed in all areas of the development, journey, and evolution of a brand. In an overwhelming, competitive marketplace, a brand manager makes sure products, services and even people also relate to the brand, an essential component.
Here is a quick guide to brand management, explaining why it is so effective and how to create the best branding for your company, in order to drive revenue and boost engagement.
What Is Your Brand?
Essentially, branding is your business’ personality. Its’ aim is to continuously develop a positive perception amongst your target audience about your company. Every aspect of the marketing and content strategy must be aligned with your brand and what it has to offer.
Just in the same way that people often use colour to convey their personality, colour can be used to shape a brand. In fact, using a signature colour can increase your brand recognition by 80%.
The advantage with business branding is that you can control, to a certain degree, what your business’ personality is. You can use your logo, content and company reviews to ensure that your audiences get a clear sense of exactly what your brand is about.
For example, what do you think of when you think of Dior? Some people may have positive feelings towards them thinking of beautiful clothes, elegant accessories and a skincare brand to die for.
For many others, a luxury brand could create negative feelings of status quo, overpriced goods and animal testing.
Some brands craft their whole identity, adverts, models and products around a luxury, expensive lifestyle. Brand management spans a wide area and focuses heavily on customer perception.
Why Should You Brand Your Business?
Brand Consistency
Did you know the consistent appearance of a brand can potentially increase revenue by 33%?
Consumers want to know your business, and one of the best ways to do this is through branding. By keeping a consistent brand image, it helps customers position you as a reputable business and makes it easier for them to remember you or associate a product with your brand.
Similarly, by having a strong brand presence you will not only improve your chances of converting visitors to consumers but also increase employee motivation and create an appealing company culture for potential new hires.
By keeping your voice consistent across all channels, audiences will remember how you made them feel and what to expect on their consumer journey. In the long run, you create a relatable identity.
Examine you branding closely. Are your brand values, images and messaging across all channels consistent?
Customer Loyalty
Typically, customers tend to stick to a brand they know and trust.
While your marketing team can push your brand to your target audience, brand loyalty can only be accomplished when you can be trusted to deliver the same customer experience each time.
Entrepreneur estimates a third of consumes rank “trust in brand” as a top 3 reason other than price to shop at a particular retailer.
Over time, increasingly brand loyalty will turn your customers into brand ambassadors who not only return but also praise your excellence, values and are representatives of your company to their peers and on social media. 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising and that is a powerful brand tool alone.
Maximises Product Launches
An enormous benefit to strong branding is that it helps promote new products and services. People will automatically become interested because they are already so familiar and dedicated with your brand.
A recent study from OneSpot, found that 92% of consumers want brands to make their advertisements feel like stories. Audiences want to be able to relate to the company they are ordering from.
The global sweet brand, HARIBO has focused heavily on brand as part of their multi-million-pound marketing campaign. They have created light-hearted and humorous adverts showcasing their top-selling sweets, Starmix, Tangfastics and Supermix. Haribo have achieved a huge amount of success and brand awareness after their “Kids’ Voices” theme designed adverts, with the message designed to build on the emotional promise of the brand, to bring out the “Inner Child” in you. An impressive, memorable brand campaign with a sweet aftertaste!
Uniqueness
Bring something different to the market. If you have a strong, branded presence that differentiates yourself from all your other competitors, then you are going to lead the pack, attract and in the long run, attain your ideal audience.
Brand management doesn’t have to be about following the trend, it can offer an opportunity to develop something unique, recognisable and to impact with feelings of trust and comfort.
HubSpot state the first five seconds of page-load time has the highest impact on conversion rates.
When a customer comes back for their second or third brand experience, your team should be continue sparking customers delight with differences to competitors and also being able to fulfill the same brand promise again, improving each time.
Why Should I Hire a Brand Manager?
A Brand Manager’s mission is to build a unique brand and ensure it reaches your companies target audience. They act as brand champions, building strategies around brand positioning, promotion and growing influence and awareness in your highly competitive industry. Brand Managers act as the guiding hand for your company as well as your employees and partners, making sure all communication aligns with the company brand.
Spotlight have been recruiting within the marketing, digital and communications space across London and the UK since 2008. We are a consultative agency made up of Ex-Marketers who use deep insight to represent exceptional Brand Management candidates, working with a diverse range of organisations from software, medical, retail, online platforms, consumer goods and start-ups using insight and innovation to deliver results.
A cohesive and professional brand experience will allow you to stand out from the crowd and be in the forefront of your audience’s mind. Not only will it encourage them to visit and stay on your site but when they see your brand again, they are more likely to click through and continue the customer journey. From a business perspective the trust and loyalty of your customers can lead to increased visibility in your marketing, brand engagement and ultimately, more sales.
NICOLA MONGON is the MD of Spotlight Recruitment, the leading marketing recruitment agency in the UK since 2008. Read our 5* Google reviews from candidates and clients to find our more. If you would like to discuss recruitment, you can reach Spotlight on 020 3008 4254 or info@spotlightrecruitment.com
