Strategic Brand Management - The Beginner's Guide

Branding as a process is more than just designing a logo and having a catchy brand name. A branding strategy in most cases can make or break your business. Your branding strategy should involve steps to find differentiating factors between your product's promise and its advantages over that of your competitors.   It involves creating a brand message which is not only the Holy Bible for the company, but also involves communicating this message across to your consumers through advertising and promotions. Having a successful branding strategy ensures a steady growth in loyal customers and thereby translates into growth in financial returns in the long run. Below are some tips at how to formulate a good branding strategy, being a start-up. 1.      Do an exhaustive preliminary research Before you get started on creating your branding strategy, you first need to research about your target market, your competitors, their market share and the pro...

Powerful brands don’t just get created overnight. They need careful long-term planning, assessment and execution of an up-to date branding strategy. A powerful branding strategy influences the way in which your consumers think and in turn respond to your brand. Here are ten tips on how to build and communicate a good branding strategy for your business: 1.   Identify and analyze the differentiators and advantages your brand has over your competitors . The first step for a business is to identify your key strengths. Then determine the potential competitors through various internal and external researches and target-market analysis. Then list and analyze their advantages and the key features over your products and services. This will help you to get an insight about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, how the target market perceives your competitor and the competitors’ relevance to your target segments. 2.      Evaluate yo...

I've selected this topic, since it's very important to understand the various aspects in the  PROCESS of strategic brand management. The process of strategic brand management basically involves 4 steps: 1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning. Brand Positioning is defined as the act of designing the company's offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer's mind. Key Concepts: Points of difference: convinces consumers about the advantages and differences over the competitors Mental Map : visual depiction of the various associations linked to the brand in the minds of the consumers Core Brand Associations : subset of associations i.e. both benefits and attributes  which best characterize the brand. Brand Mantra : that is the brand essence or the core brand promise  also known as the Brand DNA. 2. Planning and Implementation of Brand Marketing Programs Key Concepts: Choosing Brand Elements: Different brand el...