What Is a Brand Manager?

A brand manager is the mastermind behind unforgettable brands that you come across, or don’t, in your day-to-day life.

They craft and nurture the brand identity. Think of them as an artist as well as a scientist behind the brand image – they help mix creativity and analytics to make sure the brand is not only attractive but stays relevant at the same time.

In short, brand managers create a memory that sticks with you till the end. Hence, the next time you recognize a brand without actually recognizing it, you know who to thank!

What Is a Brand Manager?

Definition– A brand manager is a person who is responsible for structuring and maintaining a company’s brand identity.

They’re the ones behind the scenes who make sure that your brand’s message, image and values remain the same throughout and reach the correct target audience.

Marketing, Sales and Product teams work closely with the Brand Manager to create campaigns. The responsibility doesn’t end there – brand managers monitor market trends and also respond to consumer feedback with prompt solutions.

Building a strong brand loyalty is the ultimate goal here – brand managers make sure this is achieved at every touchpoint.

Brand Managers are held accountable for making sure the brand is known to be trustworthy and recognizable in the competitive landscape.

To sum it up, they make sure the brand attracts positive attention and create a lasting memory in the customer’s mind.

What Does a Brand Manager Do?

You might be wondering how a brand manager shapes the experience so that the target audience can view the brand as an attractive one.

Here are some key responsibilities to make that happen:

Defining Brand Identity and Strategy:

The first and foremost responsibility of the brand manager is to set a strong foundation for the brand’s identity.

It’s important to steer the brand’s voice, core message and tone to make it stand out in the competitive market. This is done through a strong positioning and strategy.

Thus, the brand manager is responsible for laying out the essentials with respect to how a brand should communicate with the target audience.

Exploring Market Insights:

Recognizing market trends and how your target audience reacts to it is very important. Brand managers do through homework on customer behavior, trends, and competitor analysis to beat the competition.

The knowledge gained through research helps them spot opportunities and differentiate them from the risks associated to make sure the brand stays relevant.

Planning and Launching Marketing Initiatives:

After the brand managers have a strategy in place, they get into designing and implementing marketing campaigns to strengthen the brand’s image.

They supervise the development through events, media and digital channels to make sure that every element is reflecting the brand’s identity and purpose correctly.

Evaluating Campaign Performance:

Running these campaigns is not enough. A brand manager should also assess the impact to truly understand what’s working and what’s not.

They analyze relevant metrics to check whether the campaign helped achieve their goals. This data collected is further studied to adjust strategy and improve tactics.

Hence, continuous evaluation helps the brand to improve without any breaks.

Collaborating with External Partners

A brand manager works with various advertising agencies, design experts and other partners to bring these campaigns to life.

The necessary collaboration makes sure that these agency partners are aligned with the brand’s strategy in order to deliver consistent and premium content.

How To Become a Brand Manager?

The roles and responsibilities of a brand manager sounds interesting, right? To become one, you’ll need a mix of relevant education, experience as well as a good skill set. Here’s how you can do it:

Get a Relevant Degree:

A brand manager needs to have at least a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing or communications to begin with.

These relevant degrees help an individual understand advertising, strategy, consumer behavior and fundamentals of business. All of these are strong knowledge requirements for brand management.

A master’s degree in marketing or an MBA with a stronghold in Marketing can definitely make you stand out.

Gain Practical Marketing Experience:

The best way to get into brand management is by getting hands-on experience. Getting into beginner roles such as marketing assistant, sales associate or even social media coordinator can help you gain relevant experience in brand-building.

In-fact, an internship in the core-marketing department can also give you a competitive edge as it helps build practical skills.

Build a Strong Skill Set:

A variety of skills are required to become a successful brand manager. These include:

1. Creativity for campaign development
2. Analytical skills for recognizing market trends
3. Communication skills for creating brand messages.

One should also cultivate project management skills. This is important because being a brand manager means you’ll have to oversee multiple campaigns and teams at once.

Gaining certifications in data analysis and digital marketing tools is definitely a plus point too.

Network and Stay Updated

Staying in touch with marketing professionals definitely polishes your knowledge. It helps you gain valuable insights and also explore career opportunities.

You need to constantly attend industry events, and stay up to date on latest marketing trends by joining different marketing associations.

This makes sure you’re always learning continuously apart form dabbling in online courses, certifications and workshops alone.

Hence, after completing your education, gaining relevant experience and skill you can begin hunting for brand manager roles.

Remember to always highlight your past achievements. Also, showcase your understanding of the brand management realm in your resume to be seen as a pro.

What Is the Salary of a Brand Manager?

The salary of a brand manager differs according to experience, size of the company, and location.

In the US, entry level-brand managers can make around $60,000 annually. With a bit more experience and taking on more responsibilities, the earning potential increases. 

The average base salary is estimated to be around $91,049. Whereas, at the top-level, you can make up to $140000 per year.

Conclusion

A brand manager is considered to be the glue that holds the various elements of brand image together. 

They make sure the brand stays relevant and keeps the target audience interested.  A business without a brand manager would lose its power to steer the voice and personality of the brand.

With great power comes great responsibility – should be the tagline of a Brand Manage. 

Hence, if you ever feel loyal to a brand, you should know it was the brand manager who pulled the strings to make it happen!