What is Strategic Brand Management? A Detailed Guide for Building Successful Brands

Strategic brand management is the process of proactively managing a brand to grow its reputation and equity over time. It involves carefully crafting and coordinating brand messaging, visual identity, customer experience and more to shape how the brand is perceived.

Done right, strategic brand management is crucial for building successful brands that stand out from the competition This comprehensive guide will explain what strategic brand management entails and how to implement it effectively

What Does “Strategic Brand Management” Mean?

Simply put, strategic brand management refers to the planned, proactive oversight of internal and external brand activities to strengthen the brand in the market. The goal is to intentionally shape brand perception by coordinating brand touchpoints to convey a consistent, compelling brand story.

It is an ongoing process of analyzing the brand landscape, setting brand objectives, executing branded strategies across channels, and monitoring performance to guide brand growth. This level of intentional brand control from the inside out is what sets strategic brand management apart from generic “brand management”.

Kevin Lane Keller, a thought leader in branding, defines strategic brand management as “designing and implementing branding programs and activities to build measure, and manage brand equity.”

Brand equity refers to the value of a brand in the market based on consumer perception and loyalty. Strong brand equity allows a company to command higher prices, lower marketing costs, attract top talent, and build meaningful customer relationships.

The Importance of Strategic Brand Management

In today’s crowded and competitive marketplace, strategic brand management is more important than ever for business success. Here are some key reasons it matters:

• Creates brand differentiation: By coordinating branding strategies across touchpoints, companies can shape unique brand personalities that connect emotionally with their target consumers. This differentiation is crucial for standing out.

• Drives brand consistency: Strategic brand management ensures branding elements like messaging, visuals and tone stay aligned. This consistency strengthens brand recognition and trust in the market.

• Maximizes opportunities: Proactively managing brand strategies allows companies to pivot faster, capitalize on trends and reach consumers through the right channels.

• Builds brand equity: McKinsey reports that strong brands hold 3-7x the brand equity of weak brands. Strategic brand management is essential for cultivating high brand equity.

• Fuels business growth: Companies with disciplined brand management benefit from increased customer loyalty, willingness to pay premium prices, and resilience against competition.

Without strategic brand oversight, brands lack cohesion. They become fragmented, diluted and vulnerable. But with proactive management, brands can thrive.

The Strategic Brand Management Process

So what does the strategic brand management process actually look like? Here is an overview of key steps:

Set Brand Objectives

Like any strategic process, start by defining business objectives and KPIs to guide branding success. Common brand-focused goals include growing brand awareness, shaping brand perceptions, boosting customer retention or increasing market share.

Conduct Brand Research

Next, research is needed to analyze the current brand landscape. This can involve market research, competitive analysis, brand audits, consumer surveys and more. Key questions to investigate:

• How do consumers currently perceive our brand?
• What are our competitors doing?
• What branding touchpoints matter most to our audience?
• What trends or forces could impact our brand?

Define Target Audience

A critical piece of strategic brand management is nailing down your brand’s target audience. Define audience demographics, psychographics, needs, values and other characteristics that impact branding strategy. Creating detailed buyer personas can help guide brand positioning.

Develop Brand Strategy

With research insights, develop an overarching brand strategy that maps out brand identity, positioning, personality, promise and other elements. This guides branding decisions across departments.

Create Brand Assets & Guidelines

Design logos, slogans, imagery, packaging, branded environments and other visual assets to bring the brand identity to life. Compile brand guidelines to maintain consistency in look, feel and messaging.

Align Internal Branding

Rally internal teams behind the brand strategy through training, brand guides, and culture initiatives. Engaged employees become brand ambassadors.

Integrate Branded Touchpoints

Orchestrate branded touchpoints—like website, social, ads, sales materials, signage, packaging, events and more—to convey a consistent brand experience.

Amplify Through Marketing

Leverage marketing strategies across paid, owned, earned and shared media to amplify branded messaging and engage consumers. Adjust campaigns based on performance.

Monitor Brand Metrics

Track brand KPIs around awareness, perception, engagement, growth and other targets. Continuously monitor competitive activity as well. Use insights to refine strategies.

Evolve Brand Strategies

Tweak strategies based on feedback, results and market forces. The brand management process is ongoing. Consistency with flexibility is key.

With each of these strategic steps, brands can elevate their positioning and connection with consumers. It takes cross-functional coordination and proactive oversight, but the payoff can be game-changing.

Key Responsibilities of a Strategic Brand Manager

Who actually leads and oversees the strategic brand management process? In most companies, this falls to an executive-level Brand Manager.

While they don’t execute all branding tasks directly, Brand Managers oversee the end-to-end brand management process. Typical responsibilities include:

• Developing brand strategies and guiding brand identity
• Directing the creation of brand assets and guidelines
• Ensuring brand consistency across departments and touchpoints
• Facilitating employee brand training and internal branding
• Overseeing communications and campaign messaging
• Monitoring brand metrics and fine-tuning based on insights
• Staying on top of market trends and evolving brand positioning accordingly

The Brand Manager role requires both strategic leadership and hands-on execution. They serve as the brand’s champion and steward throughout the company.

6 Steps to Build a Strategic Brand Management Process

Ready to level up your brand management? Here are six steps to build a more strategic, coordinated approach:

1. Audit your current brand identity and strategies.

Start by honestly assessing where your brand stands today in terms of market positioning, brand recognition, visual identity, messaging, customer perceptions and business impact. Look at strengths to leverage and gaps to address.

2. Conduct market research on your industry.

Dive into detailed research on your competitors, industry trends and disruptions, technology shifts, and customer needs, preferences and values. Identify potential threats and opportunities.

3. Define your target buyer personas.

Get ultra-clear on who your brand serves. Map out detailed buyer personas with insights into demographics, psychographics, challenges, motivations and brand expectations.

4. Develop a core brand strategy statement.

Synthesize research learnings into a single brand strategy statement—one simple sentence summarizing your brand identity, essence and differentiating promise to customers.

5. Create brand guidelines and spread consistency.

Develop comprehensive brand guidelines to codify look, feel, voice and messaging standards. Socialize these guides across internal teams and external partners.

6. Institutionalize strategic brand management processes.

Build cross-functional systems to enable ongoing brand research, strategy optimization, asset creation, campaign activation and performance analysis.

While strategic brand management requires dedicated resources and oversight, the long-term gains make it a smart investment. Brands become more visible, consistent, valued and competitive.

Tips for Effective Strategic Brand Management

Here are a few top tips to help sharpen your brand management efforts:

• Rally leadership support: Gaining executive buy-in is key for driving brand alignment across the organization.

• Centralize guidelines and assets: Maintain one source of truth for brand assets and rules through a digital asset management system.

• Communicate brand strategy: Conduct internal training to educate employees on brand pillars and optimal messaging.

• Map high-impact touchpoints: Identify the branded experiences that matter most to customers and focus efforts there.

• Measure meaningful metrics: Gauge branding success through metrics like brand awareness lifts, sentiment, engagement and growth.

• Stay nimble: Continuously track market changes and fine-tune strategies accordingly. Consistency with flexibility is vital.

Strategic Brand Management Drives Success

In our fragmented media landscape where consumers are bombarded with choice, brands cannot afford to be passive. Proactively managing brand strategies across channels and touchpoints is essential for cutting through noise, connecting emotionally and driving preference.

While branding has always been important, disciplined strategic brand management matters now more than ever. Companies that invest in coordinated brand oversight will gain an enduring competitive advantage.

So sharpen your brand management approach. Conduct rigorous brand research. Develop cohesive strategies. Rally your team behind brand alignment. And monitor performance to guideongoing enhancements. With focus and discipline, your brand will win hearts, minds and market share.