Beware the new Brand Manager:

One of the undisputed laws of advertising is that the new Brand Manager will change the advertising (or change the advertising agency) on his way to mortally wounding the brand.

If not mortally wounding it, at least giving it a fierce and crippling kick in the orchestras.

What's a Brand Manager? Normally a young marketing graduate who's had a few years' experience in business and is given the job of overseeing the marketing and advertising of a particular product or line of products in a company. Usually a large company.

He's building a career and is impatient to move up the food chain as fast as he can. Stagnation equals death, so he wants to make his mark quickly. (Since they forgot to invent a personal pronoun in our language that covers both sexes, I'll go with he, him and his for speed.)

They're not all horror stories, but it's amazing how many times the introduction of a new Brand Manager leads to chaos. He could sit back for a while, watch closely and learn the business, and then gently push people by giving them challenges and rewarding effort. He could, but they rarely do.

If this sounds familiar, it's only because it's still happening every day all over the world. The only way these people can be stopped is to wait for the right phase of the moon and then drive a wooden stake through their heart.

The new Brand Manager strikes: He's been to the incumbent advertising agency and looked at the work they've been doing for the brand. He's new, they're friendly and helpful, but he doesn't know any of them. They're strangers, and meeting strangers is difficult.

At his old job he had a bit to do with another advertising agency and he felt at ease there. There was always a heavy dose of sycophancy that made him feel warm inside. These new people however, are obviously complacent and trapped in the past.

He decides to conduct a review'. No reason, just to see if there are any other options out there and keep everyone on the ball. So they call for submissions from other agencies.

Even though the brand is doing very well (perhaps it's the market leader) the other agencies aren't going to submit more of the same. No way. Whatever advertising strategy and ideas they present will be radically different to what's gone before. Otherwise, why are they there?

Meanwhile the incumbent agency is caught in the middle. To totally dispense with the strategy they've been following (which seems to be working) would

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