Strategic Brand Management

Business Context

In this event, we explore the nature and meaning of brands and examine the role of global brand management in driving profitable growth and contributing towards stakeholder value, including consumers, channel partners, employees, suppliers, investors etc.

Product per se has evolved into Value Proposition which, along with effective Marketing Communications, provides the foundations of Strategic global brand management.

The principles of branding are well understood and thoroughly documented in the academic and practitioner literature. However, in many cases, the practice of brand management is often poorly executed. To address this, we introduce and demonstrate the frameworks, methodologies, processes and tools which underpin world-class brand management competencies and organizational capability.

The impact of the internet and digital technologies on traditional brand management practice is evolving in many ways, some pretty much predictable, others less so. For example, consider the extent to which social media and ‘digital marketing platforms’ such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp are influencing traditional brand and marketing communications strategies. Innovative, ‘disruptive’ technology business models such as those of Amazon, Just Eat, Alibaba, Airbnb and Uber should be examined from a perspective that is commonly described as born global brands.

The exciting potential of new concepts in marketing communications such as viral marketing, guerrilla marketing, ambush marketing, social media influencers etc. are explored alongside an assessment of the potential pitfalls and dangers they bring from a more traditional global brand management perspective.

We also explore the increasing influence of countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, Taiwan, South Korea etc… on global brand perceptions. So, for example, what effect does ‘Made in China’ have on perceived quality. The world’s number 1 brand, Apple, hedges its bets on this topic: ‘Designed in California. Made in China’.

Brands themselves are fragile: difficult to build, easy to destroy; think of Blackberry, Nokia, Yahoo, Kodak and Toys ‘R’ Us for contemporary examples. The recent fall from grace of the mighty VW in the ‘dirty emissions’ scandal and Boeing’s 737 Max crash disasters are guaranteed to be featured amongst the all-time classic case studies of brand destruction, particularly with regard to reputational damage and failures in crisis management. Crucially, though, from a financial perspective brands are amongst the most important assets a company can own.

We can summarise the above themes as the Paradox of Brands: brands are both extremely strong yet delicately fragile. Their strength lies in customer satisfaction and loyalty, employee engagement, channel support and shareholder value. Their fragility is rooted in poor management. While it takes a long time to build a strong brand based on trust (which is what brand loyalty reflects) it takes no time at all to destroy one. As the ancient adage reminds us, “trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair”. Well-managed strong brands, coupled with the creation and launch of new value propositions and global brand concepts, provide the perfect balance between generating current cash flows and securing long term profitable income and capital growth.

Indicative Content

    • The product and the brand: definitions and clarifications
    • Key issues in global brand management
    • The central principles of global brand management
    • Market segmentation, target market selection and global brand positioning
    • The value proposition, integrated marketing communications and the global brand
    • Building and maintaining strong global brands
    • Brand architecture, essence and personality
    • Social media, digital marketing platforms and their impact on traditional approaches to global brand management
    • Integrated global brand communications: route to mind
    • Trade (channel) marketing strategies: route to market
    • Pricing strategies: route to shareholder value
    • Financial aspects of product and brand management
    • Organization for effective global brand management

Learning Outcomes

After participating in this event participants will:

    • Understand the evolution of product management towards the creation of effective value propositions and integrated marketing communications strategies to create ‘the brand’: Brand Foundations
    • Build upon their knowledge of market segmentation and competitive positioning principles: Brand Context
    • Be able to undertake a comprehensive competitor and differential advantage analysis: Brand Audit
    • Be able to analyse and close brand performance gaps: Brand Bridge
    • Have the ability to create and manage successful global brand propositions
    • Understand the components of global brand strategy and planning
    • Have the ability to drive brand profitability through effective market analysis and global brand positioning strategies
    • Apply the principles of global brand management using proven frameworks, methodologies, processes and tools

 

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All content © Colin Edward Egan, 2022