Brand vs. Product Management
Running a business has its ups and downs. Being an owner or working for a brand can be quite challenging but rewarding at the same time. No company can function without its brand and product/services offered. Brand and product management might seem to be the same concept but they are quite different.
The Brand
No matter what your company has to offer, you need to define your brand. Design a combination of attributes that makes your company stand apart from others. The logo, brand name, slogan, mission and goals, positioning, values, culture and identity, all come together to define your brand. The more unified is the message you transmit, the more original and stronger your brand becomes. Finding the best way to send the right message to the right consumer it’s not an easy task. However, knowing your target audience before designing the brand is always recommended. Keep in mind that your brand is created to reach your consumers, not the other way around.
The Products
A brand’s products can be defined as anything a company has to offer to its consumers such as goods and services of any type. Similar to the brand’s attributes, the products need to be promoted among a certain target audience. In the end, the company needs to go where its consumers are. Consumers have certain needs and a product must fulfill a need. If you create a product without a previous need is more difficult to succeed because you will have to “create” a need too. Doing business the other way around is risky as the concept “spray and pray” is time and money consuming and the outcome is not always the one desired.
The Relationship
The brand and its products are in a continuous love-hate relationship and usually constructed to support each other. The relationship between the brand and products can be defined as interdependent. There are moments when the brand/product duo receives positive feedback as a whole, but there are times when products might fail the brand or the other way around. There are cases when well-known brands can go through a crisis because one of the products disappointed the consumers. On the other side, there are examples when even if the products were amazing, the brand didn’t do its job in promoting and placing the products the right way. Therefore, brand and product management must work together and thrive in achieving a common goal. As I described in my previous posts, conducting a brand awareness campaign or a product awareness campaign are different things, with different goals and different outcomes.
Learn more about what campaign you need to conduct to increase your sales by reading my previous articles about brand and product management on www.flaviaantonescu.com.