Insight
The Stabilizing Force Behind Successful Brands: Brand Management
(Written by: Lee Kwok Wing / Honorary Advisor of Process Pro Brand Taiwan)
Good management keeps the clutter in check and the value of the brand name on the line!
Every time we help a company complete a 6-8 month branding project, we observe that the owner will breathe a sigh of relief and think, "Finally, we have the brand name, logo, and basic marketing applications! At this point, we always remind business owners that the completion of these projects is definitely a milestone to be celebrated, but it also means that the branding journey is just about to begin! The road ahead is a long one, and good brand management is the key to ensuring that your brand is on its way to a successful destination.
Three principles of successful brand management: simplicity, coherence and consistency.
But how do you get started with brand management? There are three principles that business owners are advised to follow:
1. Simplicity: Sharpen your brand image.
2. Continuity: Increase brand recognition.
3. Consistency: strengthening brand trust.
"Simplicity" refers to the fact that the brand positioning from the front end is aligned with the needs of the target group and has differentiated attributes from competing brands, and that the visual design can accurately present the brand spirit in the direction set by the brand strategy; "Coherence" refers to the fact that from the perspective of the time axis, whether or not the brand's launched products and services, as well as its disseminated messages are consistently aligned with the brand spirit in different points of time, such as this year, next year, and the year after next, etc.; and "Consistency" refers to the fact that from the spatial axis, whether domestic or overseas, online or offline, and various customer contact points, the brand must maintain a consistent appearance. Consistency" is from the spatial axis, whether the brand must maintain a consistent appearance in various customer contact points, such as domestic or overseas, online or offline.
Build brand advocates: Employees are the most important brand ambassadors.
With a clear set of three principles to guide us, we need someone to manage and maintain the brand. At the stage of building a brand blueprint, it is important to have a top-to-bottom, cross-departmental core group of senior executives; when it comes to external communication, gaining employee recognition, trust, support and promotion is the key to a strong brand.
Brand core group members, in addition to their daily work through lectures, meetings, and other means, can work with the human resources department to plan a "brand core values delivery camp", the original more abstract, literal core values, through experiential learning, in a relaxed, lively game-style activities to make colleagues deeply understand the meaning of the core values, which can be extended to the actual workplace, so that all decisions and actions are closely linked to the brand philosophy, and naturally realize the brand mission and convey the brand promise to customers. All decisions and actions are closely related to the brand concept, which naturally fulfills the brand mission and conveys the brand promise to customers.
In addition, employees are also one of the most important stakeholders in an enterprise. Therefore, after the overall brand strategy foundation and identification system are completed, we can further build an "employer brand" for employees; based on the needs of employees and potential talents, we can think about what key moments in the career experience can reduce pain points and increase benefits when employees are engaged in their work and develop employee value propositions, and similarly, we can ensure that the brand management philosophy is recognized by them through actions that are felt by employees. By doing the same, we ensure that the brand's business philosophy is recognized by employees, so that when their loyalty increases, they have a better chance of becoming the most effective brand ambassadors.
Brand Management Specification
When employees have fully understood and recognized, it is then possible to provide management tools: brand identity specification, in the form of paper, PDF electronic files, and now even more online platforms, such as: Frontify, so that all the evolution of the application over time can be preserved in full, and in the use of more flexible.
Generally speaking, internal staff associated with brand management compliance include: marketing, PR, customer service, IT, HR, design, and anyone who needs to apply brand identity. At the same time, corporate staff will also have the opportunity to work with external creative partners, including: design firms, advertising agencies, online marketing firms, copywriters, architects, and commercial space design firms, etc. Under the umbrella of brand compliance, internal and external partners can write the same text, drive the same train, and work together in the same way to continue to accumulate impressive brand equity.
It is also common for business owners to ask, "How do I measure the KPIs and effectiveness of my branding efforts?"
In addition to the qualitative results mentioned above, which are recognized by employees, and the growth of brand awareness, market share, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty observed through market surveys, ProVision also believes that they can be linked to various quantitative indicators of corporate operations. After formulating the brand vision, the enterprise can further develop the strategic direction to achieve the vision, as well as the corresponding action plan, which clearly lists out the program objectives, timeline, responsible departments/personnel, required resources, and key performance indicators, etc. In this way, the brand construction is not only within the scope of the brand/marketing department, but is the result of the joint efforts of all the departments in the enterprise.
In order to ensure that our corporate partners are familiar with brand management methods and actions, we provide one-year consulting services and tracking meetings after the completion of the brand building project, so that our corporate partners can have a strong and reliable backing when operating their brands, and the road to branding will be more stable and smooth.