Companies without efficient brand management gamble with their position on the market. A company’s brand is an emotional connection between a business and its customers. Every time a business uses its logo, color scheme, or trademark, it reminds stakeholders of the connection and unlocks new brand value and loyalty levels. Here are some keys to successful brand management.

Unique Identity

How can two companies develop similar products and still exist? A unique identity is why. Brand identity entails all the efforts a company fields to distinguish its new products or services on the market. For many professionals, a unique identity is where to begin the brand management journey. It helps to assess what makes your brand stand out. Elements like your values, philosophies, and culture can be essential in shaping your brand’s unique identity.

Integration

The uniqueness of your business will help when creating brand assets like your slogan, social media profiles, etc. But how to leverage these assets for brand awareness and effective brand management unlocks a new challenge. The utilization of a brand can take so many forms, from inserting your logo into social media posts to your product developers using different brand assets for your new product’s design.

A great brand like Nike has integrated its brand elements into its outputs. You can see all merchandise proudly spotting the swoosh. It can be integrated into its brand messaging to rope in the company’s existing and target audience. The company even uses its slogan internally to influence the creative, on-the-go, and results-based culture that the brand seeks to pass on from one staff generation to another.

However, note that other stakeholders can utilize your brand assets. For instance, another event you’re sponsoring decides to add your logo or brand name on its marketing material. Therefore, as you go big on utilizing and integrating your brand assets, creating brand guidelines or a creative brief that directs how best other stakeholders can use your brand can also be essential.

Consistency

Loyal customers don’t come easy. It takes consistent brand identity and other marketing efforts for customers to purchase products repetitively. Consistency in your brand can be visual. For example, McDonald’s has a big stylish “M” as a logo. It has presented that letter in the same shape, style, font, and color options throughout the company’s lifetime. Any sway from the usual, unless it’s for rebranding purposes, can alter the mental picture and perceived value of a product. Consistency builds recognition and trust, which are critical elements in transitioning potential customers into repeat patrons of a company’s product.

Evaluation

Successful brands have a good relationship with customers. It goes beyond all the complex visuals and poetic slogans. This relationship naturally grows over time, but analytics can be the only way to identify and appreciate this growth. Efficient brand managers use systems and strategies to harness consumer insights to measure brand trust over the years. Brand evaluation familiarizes your company with your brand’s evolution over time and what adjustments to steer it in the right direction.

Associations

Brands, like humans, are as good as the associations they keep. One of the key traits to look out for in your brand management efforts is your criteria for selecting brand ambassadors and partners. Any individual or partnering brand you associate with that doesn’t embody your company’s overall vision can appear to be a breach of trust in customers’ eyes. Successful brands are always on the side of their consumers as brand advocates. That is why you see companies like Nike and Procter and Gamble rallying behind several social causes in recent times.