admin Super brands are products of prolonged dedication and hard work. There are no shortcuts to achieving this coveted and revered ‘Super Brand’ title. Entrepreneurs have to work relentlessly to earn it as well as maintain its integrity. Apart from the other nuanced aspects of this journey, branding is an essential part of it. Brand management work tirelessly to make the brand a success in the market, ensuring that it doesn’t drown in the crowd of existing competitors.
Thus, brand managers play an important role in fostering a coherent and formidable brand image. They also contribute towards the development of a brand’s culture. This means they have to possess a set of diverse skills to ace in this arena. Listed below are some of the most notable skills brand managers can hone and polish to become better leaders for their brands.
- A Well-Balanced Managerial View
Much like any other leader, brand managers are required to have a broad spectrum managerial outlook. Brand managers who are able to strike an equilibrium between the tone of internal messaging as well as the external communications of a brand, succeed at achieving an enviable level of brand consistency. Leaders acting as brand managers have to work towards developing this skill as it does not come naturally to most. Treating customers and employees with the same level of integrity and respect is definitely a tough skill to master! However, once they’ve invested time and effort in building trust within the team as well as crafting healthy customer relations, brand awareness is well within their reach.
- Building a Company Culture
Brand managers help set the tone of the overall company repertoire that pervades the offices of the brand. They play a key role in fine-tuning the team to the extent that they start performing like a cohesive unit. Fostering inter-team discussions can help build rapport that outlasts the courteous, but often underwhelming conversations about projects. Moreover, such discussions and close-up assessments of the team members also help brand managers know the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals. This can be kept in mind for the future, sidelining unnecessary frustration when a task one is not good at is assigned to the individual because the brand manager doesn’t know the person well!
- Adaptable to Pressure
Since most managerial responsibilities involve a significant degree of pressure, brand managers must always be prepared to change themselves, when the situation gets tough. Adaptability is one of the greatest gifts of humankind. The fact that we can cognize alternative response strategies to any given situation is commendable. However, this is only possible and comes naturally to those who have imbibed this virtue as an essential part of their lives. Brand managers must be able to handle pressure and change strategies on short notices if at all the need arises. Moreover, since your team follows your lead, as a leader you must try to remain calm and composed when dealing with a high-pressure situation. If you panic, your team is bound to follow suit!
- Embody a Solution-Oriented Outlook
Another skill that’s linked to the previous one is that brand managers also need to be problem solvers. They do not have the luxury to sit back and complain about the way things have panned out. They must deal with the problems or issues that might have happened as a result of a branding campaign with the same gusto as the praise that follows a successful campaign. Looking for a solution even during the toughest of times is a sign of a true leader.
- Creative Thinkers
Brand managers have to tap into their creative side each time a new branding campaign for the brand goes up. However, they also have to embody a certain sense of perpetual creativity that guides the team throughout the year and not just during the campaign brainstorming days. As we all know, branding is no longer an annual activity, with festive campaigns being released twice a year, it is now more about what your brand holistically stands for. Thus, brand managers must constantly find creative ways of differentiating the brand and making its market presence as unique as possible.
- Media Savvy
Much like creativity, this is a core skill requirement for brand managers before they can assume such important leadership roles in a company. Brand managers have to be media experts and more importantly, people experts. They must be able to gauge the kind of response the brand will get from one media channel over the other. This response variance helps guide specific channel-oriented strategies. For instance, what works on social media may not work for print media. But at the same time, they must ensure overall uniformity in the message of the brand to ensure its success.
Brand managers play a seminal role in elevating brands to the ‘Super Brand’ level. Without their leadership contributions, brands would not be able to climb this ladder of growth and accolades. However, as humans, brand managers also need to brush up on their skill sets to ensure all-round excellence.
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