NEWS & UPDATES

October 11, 2007 In Archives By Advent

Guidelines for Good Brand Management

In Brands and Brand­ing (2003 Clifton Sim­mons, et. al.), a series of authors and experts offer their insights on brand­ing.  In the sec­tion “What is a Brand?” Tom Black­ett offers the fol­low­ing guide­lines for effec­tive brand management:

1. Pro­tect your brand: Black­ett reminds us that trade­marks and copy­rights can legally pro­tect the brand, but I would add that one must also work to pro­tect the brand from dilu­tion, incon­sis­ten­cies, or improper positioning.
2. Honor your stake­hold­ers: “Your cus­tomers expect attrac­tive, well-differentiated prod­ucts and ser­vices that will live up to their expec­ta­tions and are well priced,” Black­ett says. He fur­ther sug­gests you high­light the value of your brand to employ­ees, share­hold­ers, ven­dors and trade part­ners, and opin­ion lead­ers. 
3. Treat your brand as an invest­ment not a cost: Among cor­po­rate assets, brands can be more valu­able that any other piece of cap­i­tal on the bal­ance sheet.  Their value will increase with invest­ments in mar­ket­ing and development.
4. Exploit the finan­cial poten­tial of your brand: In addi­tion to prod­uct and ser­vice devel­op­ment under the brand, com­pa­nies should con­sider oppor­tu­ni­ties for co-branding, licens­ing, and franchising.
5. Under­stand that suc­cess­ful brand man­age­ment is a com­plex task: It’s more than mar­ket­ing skill; it requires aware­ness that a brand can become a corporation’s most valu­able asset.

Authored By Advent

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