What is brand management?

Now that you have a clear vision of your brand and what it should look like, being intentional about presenting those things in every interaction with your customers is crucial. As with most things in life, communication is key. It doesn’t matter what you decided if no one knows that you’ve decided it. With branding, that communication happens every single time your customer interacts with your brand. So, every interaction must present the right message in order to build positive brand equity.

The forgotten brand ambassadors.

Maintaining your brand to your internal audience is just as important. Your employees are your greatest asset and they are your brand ambassadors to your clients, but also to their friends, family and everyone they meet. How they represent your brand matters. Employees love getting branded merchandise and promotional items just as much as your customers do. It inspires pride, commitment and increases loyalty in addition to building some positive brand equity. For your brand to reach its tur potential, and engaged and loyal internal team that will be positive representatives for your brand is vital. They bring your brand to life. If your employees are connected to your brand, then your customers will be.

The most common loss of brand control.

There should be a document that lays out brand guidelines – how and when the logo is used, the acceptable colors and sizes, when to use a tag line or description and exactly what it should say – across all touchpoints. For the most part, your marketing team will be the ones using the logo and messaging, and they will take care to use it correctly, but the most common place a brand derails is when teams outside of marketing want to use branded products for events, employee rewards or customer gifts. Many companies allow department heads to order their own gifts and promo items. It’s really surprising how many of them don’t even know that brand guidelines exist. So, when Wanda in Customer Success wants to send her clients a welcome gift she resizes the logo, makes it white and puts it on a blue t-shirt when the guidelines say that it should only go on black or white and the reverse color is grey. Now Pete in Tech Support sees her t-shirts and orders USB drives for his team in a different blue with the same white logo and it says “They break it, we fix it.” That great idea spreads and you suddenly have a dozen departments all doing their own thing. Welcome to the world of brand confusion.

The best brand management solution.

You don’t have to resort to making everyone go through the marketing team. Although I have seen that work, it doesn’t usually work well. It typically adds to an already overworked team and delays the arrival of products because marketing has other priorities. I’ve seen companies distribute the guidelines and emphasize the importance of branding. There is still much room for error, and that’s assuming that Wanda actually reads and understands it. The best solution is a branded online company store (like our Ridgeline Store) with pre-selected items in each category and the brand versions already loaded. This way, a blue shirt with a white logo is not an option, but a black shirt with a grey one is. Wanda in customer success has what she needs with no delays and your brand stays intact.

Does your company have multiple brands? Management just got exponentially more difficult. Look for a company that will offer a free demo. It’s a simple solution that could save something more valuable than time or money – reputation.