Brand Management – 5 Simple and Effective Principles

[Nipa Sarker]

Leverage Your Unique Selling Proposition
Your unique selling proposition (USP) sets you apart from competitors. A timeless example is M&M's "melts in your mouth, not in your hand". This USP turned slogan distinguishes M&M's from other candies. This brand differentiation has been key to the success of M&M's.

To create your unique selling proposition, you must understand where your product and company fit into the market. What makes the product different from its competition? Is it more durable or cost-effective? And how is your company different? Is it more innovative or stable? Whatever it is, define it. And write it down. For example: "Our company is the most creative and the product is the most stylish".

Once you've defined your USP, leverage it by turning it into a sexy key message. Use this as the backbone of your marketing activities, you'll be surprised at how often it pops up.
Get creative and innovate a key message that incorporates your USPs.

Use Marcom to Push Brand Awareness
Take your USP-powered key messaging and use it to promote your brand. Every marketing activity – implicitly or explicitly – should promote brand awareness. This is true across every channel and essential for brand management. Ensure the brand is marketed effectively and efficiently by measuring performance of these marketing activities.

Optimally market your brand by choosing the appropriate medium and means. If your brand is innovative and fresh, promote your brand through content marketing. Become a technological innovation thought-leader and use your brand as the 'calling card' in your key messaging. And be subtle. For example, a short message in your byline with the brand position is a great strategy.

Develop Your Brand Internally
It's critical to collaboratively ideate and evolve your brand from the inside. Get buy-in from other departments and external stakeholders. This helps you incorporate other views into the brand, which you may have overlooked. For example, the Product team knows how customers use your product and you can facilitate continuity throughout the buying process if you incorporate this information into the brand.

Entice Influencers to Circulate Your Brand
A great way to market your brand is have someone else do it. And who better to do it than an influencer the target market already trusts. This is called the third-person effect. The theory is simple, someone who doesn't have a vested interest is more trustworthy and believable.

Establishing and maintaining a relationship with an influencer is challenging but with the right touch you can sustain a mutually beneficial partnership. Engagement is key here. Just like any other relationship, you need to communicate. This is most commonly done over social media but there are other important venues like live events or webinars. And when you engage with your influencers, be sure to respect their impartiality.

Utilize Brand Management Software
People come and go, processes and products change, but your brand is the rock. Steady brand evolution is important, but the core brand never changes. Facilitate brand progress by managing the visual elements that represent the brand. Color schemes and logos should be stored in your branding software to transform organization's brand.

The most comprehensive brand management system on the market is digital asset management (DAM). A DAM allows you to easily store digital assets like images, videos, presentations, logos, design files, documents and other brand elements with rich metadata for better search and share capabilities. If you're using Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or another cloud file storage system then you've probably already outgrown them and need to move to an advanced brand management solution.

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