Module 3: Who Will Manage Your Brand?
What Does a Brand Manager Do?
A brand manager oversees everything related to the brand and takes responsibility for its success and failure. This includes promotions, sales, image management, communicating, networking, studying analytics and more.
Anatomy of a Good Brand Manager
They need to understand the brand, the products, the company, its target market, the industry and current trends both in the industry and in all industries that relate to it.
They need to understand market shares, sales figures, advocacy numbers and so on, and watch these trends constantly in real-time.
He or she needs to have a strong vision for the brand and come up with strategies for achieving that vision. They are the brand’s owner, not just a helper. They must be able to stay on track working toward the attainment of this vision.
One of their main roles is to constantly come up with ideas for furthering the brand.
A Good Manager Needs to Have Certain Skills
Communication is one of a brand manager’s most important skills. They need to communicate and collaborate well since they are the link in many of the tasks that hold your brand strategy together. They need to work well with different teams.
Finally, a brand manager needs to be able to work well under pressure. There is a great deal of pressure on them to perform and if their strategies fail, it’s all on their shoulders.
In most large companies, brand managers have assistant brand managers, to whom they can delegate tasks. This is a great help but it requires the manager to communicate with and train his or her team well.
Action Steps
Todd McCall
I help practices who are marketing professional services get the attention they deserve by developing an online presence that converts visitors into clients.