A strong brand management strategy is crucial for any business, owing to a modern business landscape that is fiercely competitive. Owing to its importance, top CRM and marketing automation providers also feature a dedicated component or module that helps companies execute their brand management process smoothly and efficiently.
Whether it’s making email marketing relevant or profiling customers for lead nurturing, brand management spans across all areas that play a role in taking your company and its products to the world, both visually and verbally. The best brand management strategy is a fine mix between verbal and non-verbal cues - just like human body language.
Making even the most minute of adjustments can subconsciously engage and motivate your customers to make lasting impacts, which can incline either towards the positive or negative. While avoiding social media pitfalls and dealing with PR nightmares are occurrences which seasoned brand management staff may have experienced at some point during their careers, the topic of when to think about brand management in the first place, is one that is sparingly discussed.
The Link Between Brand Management and Product Development
Although brand management exists across all facets that need to convey a clear and consistent message of what a business offers and stands for, product development is one area that might be overlooked. However, product development is more important than it seems; it needs to first be established, before any kind of brand management process is initiated. While it’s no news that a great product in itself can lead to successful word of mouth marketing, it can also pave the way towards determining what your brand management strategy should ideally entail.
Here’s a harsh truth about brand management: less customers care about it than you assume. Think about it, life is already tough for your customers, and they are fighting their own battles at home, work and school. In the midst of it all, do they have the emotional energy to invest in your digital ad or billboard that is part of a leading brand management campaign? Probably not. But what you can offer is a product they cannot refuse. A product that eases their burdens and adds value to their lives. A product that personally resonates with the typical buyer’s story.
This is why product development needs to precede your brand management process, including subsequent functions such as lead management. If not, what are the possible repercussions?
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The Importance of Timing in Your Brand Management Process
It’s not just about what constitutes a brand management strategy - but also about when it needs to be executed. Successful companies know that a stellar product is the key to building customer loyalty. Albeit being a fact that is simple yet deceptive owing to the sheer complexity involved in building an excellent product, companies that truly understand this are consistently able to set themselves apart from their competitors, even during unpredictable and challenging times.
Embarking on a comprehensive brand management process before having a solid product in place is akin to placing the proverbial cart before the horse; marketing a poor quality product shall only open more opportunities for negative reviews to accumulate for your business - something that can be avoided.
This can create a feedback loop that makes it difficult to handle customers effectively, due to the sheer volume of complaints. As general customer sentiment continues to move towards the negative, users begin to lose trust, and campaigns led by your brand management strategy eventually prove futile due to a lack of engagement - after they are refreshed off of users’ social feeds. This vicious cycle can be a precursor to bigger problems, which can eventually make or break your business.
However, it can be argued that customer complaints can be used to improve a product, thereby executing the most important qualities of customer service, while improving brand management at the same time. However, timing still matters here. Again, and in the interest of raising a more insightful question: when is the right time to start brand management, after developing a good product?
Putting Your Product Before Your Brand Management Strategy
Knowing the importance of conducting brand management after product development, and being aware of the risks if not done so, businesses need to build a model that determines the point at which a brand management process and a CX strategy can eventually be implemented. This is subject to the very first cut of your product that is ready for being introduced to your market of potential customers.
In other words, brand management can ideally begin shortly before the preliminary version of your product is deployed for use by customers. At this point, marketing and brand management efforts can focus on fundamentals such as digital advertising, social engagement, content marketing and classic B2B lead generation strategies. However, tasks such as logo design can be initiated much earlier, to ensure all stakeholders are satisfied with how the brand is aesthetically represented.
Of course, the timeline for every company’s brand management process will be unique, due to factors which include (but aren’t limited to) industry and business size. Apart from building a reliable brand management strategy, upgrading outdated software or integrating a contact center with AI are some out of many technicalities that can support the deployment of a reliable brand management process. Once all these capabilities are established, your product is now well on its way towards being confidently represented across every communication channel.
As product development teams use customer feedback, your brand management process needs to reflect a unique customer experience. This needs to go beyond preplanned user journeys and remarketing; resonating with customers to precisely understand their needs and meet them with the right combination of products and conversations is what will make your brand management efforts worthwhile.
Ultimately, brand management doesn’t need to be complex and overwhelming. By putting your product first, using customer-generated feedback to improve it, and then introducing a brand management strategy to complement the qualities of an otherwise already excellent product is what will distinguish your brand from the noise.
