Barbara George is at the forefront of innovative brand marketing and market share retainment. Diversifying products and campaigns is only a small portion of the job done. It’s here where media update’s Nicole van Wyk delves into the world of brand management.

What is brand management?

Brand management is a marketing function that, together with other functions, contributes to building trust within an organisation’s brands. It also improves consumers’ relationships with the company’s brands and, ultimately, communication with its stakeholders, influencing everything else it does. 

In summary, it’s about conceptualising and executing strategy to grow a brand and build long-term relationships and loyalty with consumers.

How do you maintain consistency in the public eye while running multiple marketing campaigns?

The most important thing is for the brand to maintain its essence. Regardless of the nature of a campaign, it’s important that a brand’s positioning remains clear; the identity of the brand cannot be tampered with and needs to stay true to the brand’s image.

A campaign is a tactical short-term initiative, but the finesse of the brand and what it is offering consumers [long-term] has to be intact beyond that, which then translates to consistency. It’s also essential that everyone within the team is clear about the key messaging and objectives of the campaign, ensuring consistency across the board.

Do you find that focusing on one medium gains maximum exposure for your brand or do you explore different platforms in order to reach more people?

Depending on the objective of a brand or campaign, one medium may work, but for others, mixed-media campaigns (when planned and executed well) are incredibly effective. 

Mixed campaigns require constant innovation from both a product perspective and a marketing perspective. They also require you to look at new ways to reach new consumers while retaining existing consumers at the same time. 

Does brand awareness always drive sales? 

Brand awareness is an important function for any brand. Its purpose is to ensure your brand is top of mind in terms of the product consumers are looking for in that particular category, thus driving them to purchase your product. 

How does brand innovation retain market shares? 

The retail landscape has changed dramatically in comparison to what it was 10 or even 20 years ago, with commoditisation, globalisation and competition increasing year on year; this makes innovation a key part of brand management

Innovation is about being at the forefront of creative, meaningful integrations that will add value to the lives of your customers and consumers. And by doing that, a brand will be sure to retain or even grow market share by addressing a consumer need.

How important is it for a brand to empower its ambassadors?

Incredibly [important], when done correctly. Gone are the days were marketers depended on programmatic delivery of brand messaging. Now, ambassadors offer brands access to social groups of consumers with a common brand enthusiasm that the brand would have not ordinarily been able to reach. 

Through ambassadors, a brand is able to have more meaningful dialogues with their consumers versus only telling and selling. Empowering ambassadors allows end consumers to experience other everyday people in the same voice and tone as their own, which has contributed to brands being more relevant and relatable

Does outsourcing a campaign to brand ambassadors make brand management easier? What are your thoughts? 

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If you are a brand manager, you should definitely check out our article, Content marketing versus brand marketing to make sure you reach the right audience in the right way.