Brand Management
Branding is the foundation of marketing and is inseparable from business strategy. It is therefore more than putting a label on a fancy product. Nowadays a corporation, law firm, country, university, museum, hospital, celebrity and even you in your career can be considered as a brand. As such a brand is a combination of attributes, communicated through a name or a symbol that influences a thought-process in the mind of an audience and creates value.

As branding is deeply anchored in psycho-sociology, it takes into account both tangible and intangible attributes.For example functional and emotional benefits. Therefore those attributes compose the beliefs that the brand's audience recalls when they think about the brand in its context.

The value of a brand resides for the audience in the promise that the product or service will deliver. Clearly a brand can recall memories of a bad experience. The value for the audience then would be to avoid purchasing that brand.

From the perspective of the brand's owner, the value of the brand often lies in the security of higher future earnings but may also be assessed in terms of votes for a politician, career for an executive, foreign direct investments (FDI) for a country, etc.

In conclusion, branding is the blend of art and science that manages associations between a brand and memories in the mind of the brand's audience. It involves focusing resources on selected tangible and intangible attributes to differentiate the brand in an attractive, meaningful and compelling way for the targeted audience.

Brand management then becomes the organizational framework that systematically manages those customer-centric processes. It aims at gathering intelligence, allocating resources, and consistently delivering the brand promise over time at each contact-point with the customer.

For example Coca-Cola has become a cliché of brand management. Before branding or even management emerged as disciplines, the Atlanta-based company was already spending over US$ 11,000 on a mass advertising campaign as early as 1892. Its trademark was officially filed in the US that year and has consistently been displayed with the same script to this day. Over time it also associated its brand with a bright red color, the hour-glass shaped bottle (1915) and the ribbon logo (1970). Together these aspects contribute to differentiating Coke from rivals such as Pepsi-Cola, which has applied a competitive pressure since 1898.

Brand Management Career and Job Description
In this type of structure every brand name or product owned by the firm is managed separately as a unique business with each product or brand name competing individually against competitors. Such brand independence allows firms to aggressively advertise individual products-sometimes competing with other products owned and produced by the firm.

With the exception of the top levels of corporate managers employees forming the brand team are the only workers in the firm who are involved in every part of the firm’s business related to the brand in question. Brand managers are responsible for planning, developing and directing the marketing mix associated with the given product or brand name. They do general work, co-ordinating the efforts and responsibilities with workers who carry out specific functions related to production, sales, advertising, promotion, R&D, marketing research, purchasing, distribution, package development, and finance.

Employees working in brand/product management positions will be given various responsibilities from the get go allowing them to speed up the learning process and make contributions from the beginning to the brand or product assignment they are given.

Brand Management Job and Employment Opportunities
Almost every consumer goods corporation employs this kind of organizational structure. Many companies specializing in industrial goods also employ similar brand/product management. One of the best methods to train to become a high level corporate employee is by gaining experience in brand management of a consumer goods firm.

In a consumer goods firm most beginners start as brand assistants. Typically new employees are hired as brand assistants and must pass through a training program consisting of sales training provided through company courses and seminars, lasting anywhere from one to four months. Traditionally such jobs are offered to MBA’s, but some companies do recruit and hire undergraduate students.

Brand Management Training and Job Qualifications
The best brand managers focus on the results They have high levels of creativity, very analytical, good communicators and have entrepreneurial tendencies.To be a brand manager one must have a strong foundation based on the core aspects of marketing. These core aspects are advertising, research, consumer behavior, and strategy. Additionally one must be analytically sound and begin preparation for this through courses in finance and accounting. For the most part applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree to become a brand manager although an MBA is preferable.