Duties and responsibilities of a brand manager

Brand managers may either work for several brands or a particular brand. Being a brand manager is more than a marketing job.

They will be responsible for the complete performance of their products including managing and development of their brands and profit and loss of the company.

• They are responsible for understanding the customers by conducting market research understand and formulate effective strategies to make sure that their brands receive maximum quality and perform better results than that of competitors.
• They usually work with advertising professionals and involve in coordinating events, marketing projects, and advertising campaigns to keep themselves updated with the latest market trends.
• Brand managers are responsible for providing marketing results to the engineering team who work on the development of the product on the basis of the results provided.
• They are responsible for checking engineering team to see if the decided path is being implemented or not.
• They need to get completely involved in the in depth analysis of the consumers to determine the demand for the company’s product and act as mediator to provide required information to the marketing team to create promotional tactics to boost company’s brand image.
• They need to monitor assistant brand managers to make sure that strategies they developed are executed properly.
• They also need to keep themselves updated with the ongoing technological advances which take place in the market.
• After the product is developed they must test the product and from the results of these tests they will determine to see if the product is able to achieve the desired results or not and go for marketing strategies to target group of customers to which the product will be directed.
• Brand managers need to work with several departments in the organization to determine the pricing of the product which is a very important factor and leads to several strategies.
• They need to determine the promotional methods of introducing product to the customers either by advertising strategies, can use mass media, or any other technique depending on the budget allotted to them or launch the product in the market.
• Once the product is launched into the market they need to frequently monitor the sales and need to change some strategies or techniques according to the sales in marketing, advertising, or promotion methods to get maximum success.
• They need to keep on planning the future of the product in the course of time for continued success and bring about any changes in the product from time to time thereby getting the products accepted by the customers.

Who is brand manager what is their job?

Brand managers are the important persons for any marketing organization who wish to develop their brand. These brand managers have the idea regarding market trends; they produce, document and impose the visual identity of the brand or product for preserving the consistency of the brand so that it can be recognized and have an effective image in branded products. They plan accordingly and market directly for the brand by conducting market research, research and development, package development, finance, purchasing, production, advertising, promotion, sales and distribution.

They are the key persons for the success of any brand or product. They are expected to give profitable returns to the company and shareholders by improving the value of the company’sbrand.Their main job is to concentrate on the marketing activities of their company’s brand to increase the popularity among target consumers along with gaining market share. The main function of brand manager is to take company’s products and concentrate on building a favorable positive image in the eyes of the customers. In today’s world markets have become very competitive in order to serve as an important force brand managers use creative marketing techniques in differentiating a company from those of the competition.

They usually work with advertising and media professionals, contractors, and sales agents along with their own internal marketing team members. Brand managers job is considered very challenging as they need to take the responsibility of entire products success. They are expected to have leadership qualities, good communication and social skills and able to multitask in some situations. They are related to all the aspects including planning, buying, selling, and marketing,pricing, dispatching and also ordering. These brand managers are also called as product managers or product development managers.

Educational requirements for a brand manager

As a brand manager they need to take the complete responsibility of the consumer product industry and they need to keep track of all the important aspects from pricing to packaging.  They define and maintain company’s public image through perfect brand design and placement.

• They need to take marketing as their major subjects in undergraduate degree .they need to gather data from the right demographics and analyze it to find out which consumer goods will sell best.
• They need to search for internship immediately after graduation to extend their opportunities in marketing industry.
• As a marketing intern they will have chance to design market research, implement them and use the gathered data to make market appraisals.
• After becoming brand manager they will mostly depend on this kind of analysis for supporting company’s brand.
• In the entry level of internship they can work in advertising field to get good experience in consumer communication techniques to understand the different ways to advertise consumer goods.
• This knowledge will help in promoting best ways for their company’s brands.
• They need to learn the packaging strategies which may require course work in commercial design which may include hands on design experience in creating and marketing a brand through its packaging to become more marketable manager.
• They need to learn about consumer goods business practices right from budgeting to forecasting and product development.
• As most of the fast moving consumer goods corporations operate both domestically and overseas a brand manager need tobe good at more than one language which will allow them for transition more easily in this particular role.
• These days many business schools or institutions offer online degree courses which will allow working students to pursue their education on part-time basis.
• They can even go for business program as a part of multi-disciplinary where they will have chance to cover subjects like finance, accounting, statistics, management including market subjects like market research, consumer behavior and marketing theories and practices.

Skills needed for a brand manager

Brand managers represent the company’s products and try to develop the brand with their skills and abilities. The main and important skills required by brand manager are as follows:

• Communication skills: Having an excellent communication is very important for brand managers as they need to communicate the results of conducted market research to the engineers who develop the product and get the output as desired.

• Written skills: They should also have good written skills not just plain writing but a writing which interests the readers and digs deep into the vocabulary and the ability to understand the business plans they write.

• Analytical skills: Brand managers should be able to visualize, formulate, and solve complex problems and concepts and based on the available information they need to take appropriate decisions. They must gather and analyze information which is available and design solutions for the problem and test and develop plans which improve their brand name.

• Computer skills: Brand managers are expected to know using advanced computer skills like Microsoft Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint as these are the basic skills which are necessary to operate in the company. As computers have become part of everybody’s life.knowing computers play very important role for making their own presentations etc…

• Outgoing and optimistic skills: Brand managers work environment should be comfortable and have sense of humor while talking to co-workers as work should be productive along with enjoying. They should always be optimistic in the work they perform and be excited about their job. They are always expected to have confidence about the future or successful outcome for the company they are working.

• Management skills: They are expected to know how to do, what to do and when to do. These are very important for being a brand manager. As management in the company is the act of getting people together to attain goals and objectives of the company. They main duty is to plan, organize, staff, direct and controlling the organization.

• Multitasking skills: Brand managers will have to deal with more than one task at a time. They need to manage people i.e. staff and also manage marketing department for the products etc.

Certifications for brand managers

• The Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM) offers certification programs for professionals who want to improve their credibility and competitive edge in the brand management industry.

• There is actually no need for certifications to become brand managers.

• If the candidate has a bachelor’s degree with four years of prior experience in brand management then normally employers would hire such candidates who can exhibit proper management skills.

• Many graduates start their career as brand assistants in brand management and go for on the job training and company in house training for learning the requirements of the job for a period of time.

• According to their performance in the job they can be promoted as brand managers or product managers.

• Brand managers usually to keep themselves updated with latest trends join professional organizations that provide networking opportunities and keep brand managers informed through conferences and publications.

• The main things they are expected to have are the strong creativity skills, analytical skills.

Salary and remuneration for a brand manager

Depending on various factors like years of experience, geographical location the salary of brand managers differs according to rules and regulations of each state.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics many companies employ brand managers who have minimum bachelor’s degree though master’s degree is preferred.

• The median average annual income of brand managers is $108,580 per annum.

• The starting salary of brand managers who is with less than one year of experience is between $48,300 and $77,700 per annum

• Brand managers who are with one to four years of experience earned an average salary of $67,645and $78,764 per annum.

• Brand managers with five to nine years of experience earned between $72,800 and $90,800 per annum.

• The income of brand managers who are with ten to nineteen years of experience in the field earn between $80,268 and $101,500 per annum.

• Brand managers with more than twenty years of experience will get an average income of $85,420 and $109,754 per annum.

The type of employer they work also plays an important role in determining salaries as it mostly depends on the company size and the industry type

Salaries according to employer type and industries

• Brand managers working for general companies earn an average income of $59,200and $99,600per annum.
• Brand managers working forprivate practices earn an average income of $33,000 and $99,800 per annum.
• Brand managers working fornonprofit organizations earn an average income of $42,900 and $76,300 per annum.

Salaries according to industry type:

• Brand managers working forfast moving consumer goods earn an average income of $88,500 and $129,800 per annum.
• Brand managers working for beauty, skin care products or cosmetics earn an average income of $62,500 and $98,400 per annum.
• Brand managers working in apparel earn an average income of $54,900 and $73,700 per annum.