by Jamie Bessett

Created on: August 21, 2008

Understanding brand development and management is not an option if you want your business and concept to be successful in todays competitive world. One of the cores in distinguishing your company from another is brand development. Brand management includes protecting the brand and streamlining the brand through consistency in advertising, production, and sales.

Some of the more popular brands include anywhere from Nike and Adidas to McDonalds and Burger King. The key to the success of these multi-million dollar companies is how they developed and managed their brand.

Brand development takes place is stages:

1. Formulation: What are the core values and mission statement of your brand. What does your company stand for and how is this managed through the brand.

2. What are the components of your brand. What makes up the brand. For example, Nike founder, Bill Bowerman simply stated, "If you have a body, you are an athlete." From that point, Nike developed and managed their brand to become one of the most respected athletic footwear company around the globe. Their mission was how to develop and create athletic shoes to continuously improve the performance of athletes.

3. Another important component of brand development is making sure that your brand is in the forefront of consumer's minds when they are making a choice to purchase a product. This type of accomplishment can be made through tag lines associated with your brand or "characters" associated with your brand such as "Just Do It" or the Aflac Duck.

This type of process in brand development is the beginning in distinguishing your brand from any other competitor. However, consistency is the ultimate key to maintaining brand awareness in the consumer market. Companies such as McDonalds have been in business and successful for years because of their consistency. Any brand would be at risk if the tag lines or advertising mascots were continuously changing. The brand would be in jeopardy if people no longer had a way to associate their own life with a particular brand.

Finally, once a brand is developed and the supporting company makes a promise such as "our product will help you reach your athletic potential";the company better follow through with that promise. Nothing will diminish a brand more quickly than not fulfilling what the brand is associated with. That is why brand management plays such an essential role in the success of a brand. Management must be committed to the brand, stand behind the brand, and promote the brand in a way that distiguishes it from any other competitor.

I am a true believer in brand awareness and protecting the brand. As a franchise owner, I am always aware of other franchisees in the area and making sure that our product is consistent at all locations and any other franchisee is doing their best to protect the brand by strictly following our core beliefs and values.

In conclusion, the development or idea of a brand might be the easiest step. However, brand awareness, protection of the brand, and management of the brand tend to be the more difficult issues to deal with in order to allow the brand to rise above the rest. With proper management and commitment, a brand can easily be successful in the marketplace.

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