Blog PBL trigger 1 branding and marketing communications

Learning objectives and problem

How to understand brand management and the roles of the brand manager, the employees and external consultants?
(1) What is brand management?                                        
(2) What are the brand manager’s tasks and responsibilities?                             
(3) What are the steps in the brand definition process?                                        
(4) How does the brand manager work in cooperation with the company management, the employees and external consultants? (What are their roles?)     
(5) Analyse the brand management of a chosen company.

1.    What is brand management?

According to the online business dictionary, brand management can described as:

The process of maintaining, improving and upholding a brand so that the name is associated with positive results. Brand management involves a number of important aspects such as cost, customer satisfaction, in-store presentation, and competition. Brand management is built on a marketing foundation, but focuses directly on the brand and how that brand can remain favorable to customers. Proper brand management van result in higher sales of not only one product, but on other products associated with that brand. For example, if a customer loves Pillsbury biscuits and trust the brand, he or she is more likely to try other products offered by the company such as chocolate chip cookies.

Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-management.html

Investopedia gives another definition that explains more or less the same.

Brand management is a function of marketing that uses techniques to increase the perceived value of a product line or brand over time. Effective brand management enables the price of products to go up and builds loyal customers through positive brand associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand. Developing a strategic plan to maintain brand equity or gain brand value requires a comprehensive understanding of the brand, its target market and the company's overall vision.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brand-management.asp

2.    What are the brand manager’s tasks and responsibilities?

The job description of the position that the coca cola company offers describes some key responsibilities you will have as a brand manager at the coca cola company.

·         Work with the commercial and shopper teams to identify local growth opportunities: develop support plans accordingly & initiate business case for new product launches.

·         Develop the communication and innovation plan for the Stills portfolio, including consumer and stakeholder’s communication, collaborating with local agencies, internal specialists, PAC as well as IMC teams.

·         Implement community marketing plans in close collaboration with the other functions in the Franchise marketing team (Experiential/ sampling, Media, Asset, Digital).

·         Leverage partnerships to enlarge impact of the brand highlights while optimizing efficiency.

·         Support the development of the appropriate tools and methods to evaluate all programs and include learnings for future repeat in local market.

·         Lead Monthly Performance Tracking and Budget Tracking for brands by extracting, analyzing and interpreting data resources autonomously

·         Manage the communication process and routines to engage the bottler to support with strong execution.

·         Ensure P&L delivery and mitigation plan if needed in close collaboration with all stakeholders.

I think that what coca cola expects from their new brand manager is to be the connector between different stakeholders and internal teams. You have to work with different teams (shopper and commercial) to develop new strategies but you also need to contact local agencies and consumers in an efficient way.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/382691674/

3.    What are the steps in the brand definition process?

 Jim Joseph at entrepreneur.com describes three necessary steps you need to take in the brand definition process:

1. Make an inventory of your skills. List out what you are especially good at and what you want your customers to think of when your brand comes to mind. Your unique set of skills will form the basis of your brand definition.

2. What are your customers' needs? From your list of skills, identify those that your customers particularly need. Think through the kinds of things you do that your customers will come to you for. You should define your brand based on your ability to fulfill such demands.

3. Focus on what differentiates. It's important for your brand to be different than other similar options available to customers. Of course your brand experience will ultimately differentiate you, but being unique starts with deciding what attributes set you apart from others. Your goal is to be different and better than your competition.

4.    How does the brand manager work in cooperation with the company management, the employees and external consultants? (What are their roles?)

The job description on linkedin gave a good description of the cooperation between a brand manager and the management, employees and external consultants.

A brand manager has to communicate a lot with local agencies and breweries to identify local growth opportunities and how to use these opportunities. A brand manager needs the external contacts as they are the experts in the local area. Agencies can consult the brand manager on how to advertise the company and their products and the breweries can inform the brand manager about the production capacities in the local area.

A brand manager communicates a lot with its employees because the brand manager needs them to advise him or her on the strategies and plans that have to be written and they can do a lot of research for the brand manager

The strategies and plans that are developed need to be pitched to the company management and the brand manager is the connector between the employees and management as he or she needs to convince the management to execute the plans and strategies.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/382691674/

5.    Analyse the brand management of a chosen company.

The company that will be analyzed is Rituals. Rituals is a Dutch cosmetics brand that specializes in creating a nice home experience. They sell make-up, perfumes, home clothing and a product what they call “home-perfumes”. It’s a bottle with perfume with a refreshing smell for your house. You can put the bottle in your living room for example and it creates a nice harmony in your home. They advertise their perfumes as rituals from Asian cleansing rituals.

  The image above gives you an example of the image that they are trying to create for their company. A spiritual and mystical experience for you and your home.

Source: https://www.rituals.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Global-Site/en_NL/Page-Show?cid=%09about-rituals