For large enterprises and organizations, brand management and brand image is among the top priorities. The brand is everywhere, from the website, landing pages and social media, to print advertising, email signatures, menus, flyers, and other collateral and paraphernalia. How customers perceive and experience the brand at every level impacts their relationship with the brand, and ultimately determines whether they purchase from the brand.
The Importance and Impact of Successful Brand Management
Companies that manage their brand effectively, provide a consistent brand experience across every customer interaction. By leveraging the brand consistently, the brand image increases with every one of those interactions, and influences the associations their market and customers have with the brand.
On the flip side, when companies fail to manage their brand effectively, they are not building on the same, consistent brand image, and leveraging the brand to increase customer associations. Worse yet, by providing an inconsistent brand experience, they can hinder the brand experience within the market and their customers.
Two great examples of brand management and the impact it can have on brand image, brand equity, and ultimately revenue, are Nike and Apple.
What is Brand Association?
When you hear Nike, what comes to mind? It’s likely that the first thing that comes to mind is their signature “swoosh” logo, and after that, their slogan, “Just Do It.” These are two pivotal elements of the Nike brand, and the fact that they are synonymous with the Nike name is a testament to Nike’s superb branding. Every Nike product, ad and campaign remains consistent, leveraging their logo and slogan along with their brand voice and values. The Nike “swoosh” on a product has come to be synonymous with quality. Whether it’s a pair of basketball shoes or an NFL jersey, customers associate the brand with quality and sports authority.
When consumers recognize a brand, and then associate it with the brand voice and values, they knowingly patronize the brand. Consumers choose a brand they know and trust over other brands they are less familiar with.
What is Brand Loyalty?
Near the end of 2016, Apple released brand-new wireless Bluetooth earbuds called “Air pods”. While wireless Bluetooth earbuds have existed long before Air pods (and for significantly lower price points); Apple has built one of the strongest brands, and Air pods quickly trumped their competition in sales and popularity. With a strong, managed brand and loyal customer base, it is much easier and less costly to introduce a new product to the market.
How Can You Manage Your Brand To Increase Positive Brand Image?
To effectively manage a brand, the brand needs to create positive user associations with the brand. By creating those associations consistently, consumers develop recognition for the brand. Simple, right?
The challenge that brands face is that they are juggling hundreds or thousands of locations, either franchises, agents, distributors, dealers, or other partners. Every. single. campaign across every. single. partner. must remain consistent across branding; including copy, images and voice. To add to the complexity, every location has some level of customization, whether it's the address, agent name, pricing or menu option.
The first step in managing the brand consistently, is leveraging a single platform for all brand assets. Rather than a combination of systems and processes for storing and sharing assets, a single platform brings all the data together, empowering brand managers, marketers, designers and other to easily update and share on-brand content. Second is seamlessly updating that content for each location within brand standards, to ensure the appropriate imagery, promotions, contact information or other information is added to the content.
Increase Brand Value With Brand Management Software
Brand management software provides a centralized location for managing all brand assets (hint: if you’re using SharePoint, Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack and email to manage brand assets, this is for you!). All content can easily be designed, uploaded, updated and distributed using the platform to ensure every location has the latest and greatest relevant on-brand materials.
The CampaignDrive platform is brand management software that integrates with brand data sources, importing all kinds of data important to the company and the brand, including agent names, titles and locations, menu items, pricing, photography from individual locations, and a host of other important data. By importing all the data into a single platform, it’s available to the designers to utilize in all sorts of on-brand campaigns including print, digital, social and others. With role-based permissions, marketers can seamlessly update or localize collateral, while franchise owners and others can quickly download the latest on-brand materials and activate them locally.
To see how the CampaignDrive platform can strengthen your brand, request a demo today!
