Strategic Brand Management Process

Strategic brand management involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity (Keller, 2013).

In this lesson, we will make an introduction to branding strategy. We will learn about:

• what are branding plans

• what are brand marketing programs
• what is brand performance

The strategic brand management process

The strategic brand management process has four steps (Keller, 2013): 

• Identifying and developing brand plans 
• Designing and implementing brand marketing programs 
• Measuring and interpreting brand performance 
• Growing and sustaining brand equity (Keller, 2013)

1. Brand plans

First, we should Determine the brand plan. The process of strategic brand management begins with understanding what a brand is and how it should be positioned. Brand planning uses three models (Keller, 2013):

• A brand positioning model that guides us through the marketing process with the aim of increasing competitive advantage.
• The resonant model tells us how to create active loyal relationships with our customers.
• The brand value chain follows the process of creating value for brands, in order to better understand the financial impact of costs and investments in brand marketing.

Source: Pexels

2. Brand marketing programs

Creating a brand requires, above all, positioning the brand in the mind of the user and achieving the greatest possible resonance (Keller, 2013).

This process depends on three factors:

• Selection of brand elements, which we have already talked about, their fitting and combining.
• Marketing activities and accompanying marketing program, as well as the way in which the brand is integrated into them.
• Entities associated with or relying on a brand (such as a company, country of origin, distribution channel, or other brands).

The best way to test what users think of a brand is to ask those users who have not had experience with that brand. Based on the name or the logo, they will guess what the brand is doing and what it provides, even though they have not been in contact with it. Although the choice of brand elements is important, a much more important role for the brand is played by brand-related marketing activities. Of these activities, the most depend on the marketing program and the activities you will carry out. Take advantage of additional associations. A brand can be associated with certain resources, companies, geographical regions (German beer), other brands (McDonald's and Coca-Cola), sports and cultural events (through sponsorships), or something else.

3. Brand performance

As with everything else in the business world, a measurement system for brand capital must be created and implemented. In this way, marketers get accurate information that helps them create the best short-term tactics and the best long-term strategy. In order to implement such a system, three important steps must be followed: 

- conducting brand audits - helps us to position the brand

- data tracking for the brand - collect information from consumers over time

- establishing a brand capital management system - helps to understand and use the brand equity concept in the company.

Conclusions

Marketing strategies are demanding and they form the basis that drives everything we have created related to the brand.

Here you have the contents of the lesson in PDF: