How To Become A Brand Manager - Brand Management Career Guide

Are you interested in becoming a Brand Manager? Do you see yourself designing go to market strategies for brands, doing market research, and managing a brand's reputation and social media networks at the same time? Because that's what we deconstruct in this article. Find out how you can become a brand manager, and read about the different skills you have need and careers that you have access to in this domain! Netflix, Amazon, Nike, Flipkart, Nestle, Maggi, what do these have in common? You guessed it. They’re brands that we know and love. We interact with brands from the moment our day begins. From the cellphone you pick up when you wake to the coffee you drink to the papers and app you browse through - every brand is one you recall and utilize daily.  It’s pretty interesting to know that there is someone working behind the scenes to make sure that the brands we know and love stay that way. I am referring of course to the duties of a brand manager.  Besides, did you know that according to a recent survey, 92% of people rely on recommendations they read online? This increases the need and scope of brand management.

So is what is Brand Management really?

Brand management is the process of identifying and managing marketing techniques for a particular service or product to increase its market value, and popularity among the customers. It also involves managing the tangible and intangible elements of a brand such as a cost, customer satisfaction, in-store presentation and competition. Most companies appoint a brand manager to manage and sustain their brands according to market trends. 

What does a Brand Manager do?

A Brand Manager is a person who identifies a brand that will cater to consumers and work out marketing strategies to establish brands in the market. They plan, develop and direct the marketing efforts for a particular brand or product. Brand managers may deal with various kinds of brands in the market, such as premium brand, economy brand, fighting brand, corporate brand, family brand, individual brand, brand extension, private branding etc. and they should know.

What are the key responsibilities of a Brand Manager?

Brand Managers are responsible for an array of brand-related tasks and duties. The success of the image of the brand is ultimately up to their planning and execution. As such, the three key areas of responsibility include: Brand Management: This includes:

• Implementing various brand management strategies available for building brand equity and value
• Continually assessing the alignment of a brand to the organisations’ strategic objectives
• Recognising which digital marketing communication tools will be most effective in portraying a unique value proposition for your brand

Digital marketing strategy: This includes:

• Setting online brand management strategies and marketing tactics that utilise all tools and channels, including emails, social media and paid media
• Investigating campaigns of competitors from a brand perspective and understanding best practices to inform online marketing benchmarks
• Identifying branding opportunities to use digital technology to enhance their overall marketing strategy

Public relations

• Ensuring the brand is accessible to the public
• Boosting the image of the organisation to prospective customers and making the product or service as attractive as possible
• Learning from their successes and failures, as well as determining ways in which their brand can be differentiated from others

It’s predicted the job opportunities for someone interested in a brand management career will grow by 14% by 2020, as more organisations turn to dedicated professionals to ensure advantageous representations of their brand online. You may also be interested in reading - All You Need To Know About Being A Consultant After An MBA

Brand Management - Career Pathways And Roles

Assistant Brand Manager This is a more junior position that allows you to develop experience in the field. You’ll be focusing on developing brand strategies and aiming to maximise the sales of a specific brand. Marketing Analyst This is one role you can consider getting involved in as a starting point for brand management. You’ll be required to assess the performance of brand campaigns in determining their success and feeding that information back to the relevant parties. Senior Brand Manager This role puts a lot of emphasis on strategic thinking and leadership. You’ll be responsible for the work of Assistant Brand Managers as well as implementing major changes within a specific brand. Marketing Director A successful Brand Manager could find themselves working their way up to the position of Marketing Director where responsibilities would shift from the effectiveness of a particular brand to the overall marketing operations of an organisation.

How can I become a Brand Manager?

• If you are doing MBA in marketing from a decent institute you will get an opportunity through campus placements. Try to select companies offering brand management and marketing profiles. If a company offers you a business development role, discuss with them future prospects in brand management before choosing the same.
• Generally, freshers are taken as MT or management trainees. Freshers remain MT for a period of 6 months to 1 year, before being promoted to brand or product manager.
• During this period 6 months - 1 year, an MT gets to learn various functions of the organisation, especially sales operations. It is the best time to get an overview of different operations related to sales and marketing.
• Many companies give specific projects to MTs. These projects are either based on primary research and data collection for analysis or collecting key customer insights so that MTs get a fair idea about the company's marketing and sales operations. MTs also work with different product managers to get on the job experience.
• Once you become a product manager/brand manager you will be assigned a portfolio to handle! Know that a brand manager is responsible for planning marketing strategies and campaigns for the portfolio assigned to him/her.

There are a few good books on marketing that we recommend you to read, to develop your understanding of brand management. “ Positioning: Battle Of Mind Share” by Alrise and Jack Trout, “22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing” by Alrise and Jack Trout and ”Kellogg on Marketing.” Do you also want to make a career working with brands? Do you want to work with luxury brands, everyday brands, digital brands, offline ones, FMCG ones? The best way to become a brand manager? Do your research, figure out which domain interests you the most and learn everything you can about how brands are marketed in that domain.  Best of luck! If you liked this, you will also love:

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