Brand management mistakes

Brand management is a strategic area of ​​brand management. “At the center of the mechanism of this sphere are a number of fundamental principles that help avoid brand management errors” - the HelloMonaco team

1. Architecture and brand portfolio platform. Effective management of branded capital implies a systematic approach with a clear structure of the object of influence. Thus, one should form a clear idea of ​​how brand positions interact with each other, what is the role of each employee in the overall structure of the company. The easiest way to think and focus efforts, if the brand is created from zero. It is much more difficult to bring the brand portfolio in line with the company's strategy and the demands of the modern market, since in this case global intervention in the organizational structure and the implementation of transformation activities of the branded asset will be required. However, as a result of the measures taken, a logical chain of coordination and relationships within the brand portfolio is built, which is easy and simple to manage.

2. The principle of compliance. It manifests itself in several directions. On the one hand, each brand offer must correspond to the type of company and the associations associated with it. On the other hand, each tactical action, not to mention strategic planning, is based on an analysis of the relevance of the individuality of the brand position. Thus, a consistent image of the company itself and its brand portfolio is built, where each branded asset has a clear role and place.

3. Coordination Center. Each brand has a brand manager assigned to it, which provides tactical and strategic support to the asset. Therefore, every competent manager will try to get as many preferences and resources of the company as possible. Companies with a whole portfolio of brands are forced to find objective methods for identifying promising areas. The role of such a tool is played by a coordination center consisting of specialists from different areas. They are independent experts who are not driven by career interests and ambitions. The creation of such a body, located above the brand management system, allows you to systematize all the knowledge regarding individual brand positions, prevent duplication of brands within one portfolio and effectively redistribute company resources.
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4. Branding strategy. If a company does not have a brand asset development strategy, then it is difficult to rank it as brand-oriented. The development strategy should have a common portfolio, each group of interrelated brands and a separate brand position. Each subordinate unit of management specifies strategic planning, which is based on the postulate: consistency and synergy. In this case, it is very easy to track the achievement of results on a set of indicators and adjust tactical actions.

5. Integrated management. Brand portfolio management should be based not only on internal needs, goals and vision of the company, but also reflect the environmental conditions. Competitors, partners, market conditions, trends in the economy are a combination of factors, the consideration of which will allow you to build a balanced system of brand management. If a company focuses only on its goals, it ceases to be relevant to the environment.

However, it is not always possible to build brand management by all the rules and accurately. There is always a human factor, which makes its amendment to everything related to branding. In addition, a strong brand that sets quality standards in the product category attracts close attention from the media. Every mistake or mistake is immediately covered in the press. All brand management errors can be classified into several types.

The complexity of the brand portfolio. Excessive fragmentation and growth of the portfolio lead to a loss of control over the management unit. It can be difficult for people to make decisions while realizing the diversity of choices, which can often lead to making purchases of more holistic competitive mono-brands. At first, competent employees attempt to group brands to simplify the management structure, but this only provokes even greater negative consequences, in particular, blurring the line between individual brands. Only after some time in the organization come to the conclusion that the number of brands does not correspond to the real needs of the market and the capabilities of the company. But this moment of awareness often comes when the positions of many brands have already been shaken by the onslaught of competitors. There is an urgent need to reorganize the brand asset by merging, liquidating or updating brands.

Unification brand offer. In pursuit of cost minimization, some companies unknowingly remove barriers of differentiation. Goods (services) within one portfolio begin to look more and more like each other, copying common features and turning to the same platform. The individuality of each sentence is erased. The first plan in brand portfolio management is a mechanism to simplify and reduce the cost of the managerial apparatus with a constant number of positions. Companies make too visible the common areas that need to be veiled. As a result, the similarity of brands on store shelves has the effect of reducing perceived differences. The consumer does not find any difference in the proposed range and focuses on finding something new and original, i.e. goes to a competitor.

"Cannibalization" of the brand. This is the phenomenon of the absorption of one brand by another. Sales of one brand are suppressed under the pressure of another brand offer within a single portfolio with simultaneous movement of the customer base. This problem can be solved by repositioning: by price factor, level of service, consumer audience, as well as by reducing the number of brands. In order to initially prevent such an error, one should focus on a particular brand in the product group (category) in one segment. Companies should also analyze the implications of extending brand offerings. For example, targeting a new selling price attracts a narrower consumer segment and does not compete with an existing product. Conversely, if new products must completely replace products from the previous line, the lower selling price will help to redirect the customer base to it. But sometimes it is better to go for a conscious expansion, which may be followed by a slight cannibalization of the brand. However, in this case the competitor will not have the advantages that he would have had before the expansion. The basis of this tactical move is a protective mechanism aimed at the formation of additional barriers to preserve the value of the original brand.

"Vampire" brand. The situation when the brand begins to be perceived as the designation of the entire product group. For example, "Xerox" is a vampire brand for the category of copying equipment. This prevents subsequently expanding the competence of the brand, which is tightly tied to a specific product category. Any precedent for expanding the key association of the original brand offer to other markets ends with consumer resistance and a decline in sales in the traditional category. Thus, the company - the owner of such a brand gets a unique brand asset, which has a strong influence in a narrowly focused segment without the possibility of further diversification.

Blurring the image. The desire to cover many market segments designed for different types of customers erodes the brand image. Placing an offer for different groups of consumers under a single brand on one platform creates confusion and inconsistency of the image. The consumer will begin to doubt the veracity of the manufacturer's statements about the high quality, since it is impossible to be perfect in absolutely everything. All this turns into distrust of customers to the brand. It is necessary to concentrate efforts and resources on a limited number of areas or to separate non-traditional areas through the creation of other brands (subbranding).