Brand management is a newly evolved specialised function which involves creating and nurturing a brand with the objective of enhancing its image, recall and longevity in a competitive environment Brand Bollywood, brand India, brand Vajpayee, brand Sonia Gandhi. Increasingly products, places and people are being branded. Hardly surprising given that global brands like Adidas, Nike, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Versace, Fosters, Kelloggs, Omega, Titan, Kingfisher among others, are more highly valued than the companies which own them. Not surprisingly again, brand development and management is a fast-track career option which provides a host of advancement opportunities. Brand management is a newly evolved specialised function which involves creating and nurturing a successful brand (or set of brands) with the objective of enhancing its image, recall and longevity in a fiercely competitive environment influenced by innumerable environmental and non-environmental variables. Hitherto brands were managed by marketers designated product managers. But with incremental brand awareness in corporate India, product managers have morphed into brand managers, responsible for brand development to improve its visibility, market share and market value. As such, brand managers are required to focus their attention upon market research and development, packaging, manufacturing, sales and distribution, communications and forecasting. In particular forecasting involves keeping track of sales trends, anticipating response to marketing campaigns and competitive brands, new launches etc. Brand management jobs are available aplenty, particularly in FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies marketing foods, soaps, soft drinks, tobacco, drugs, cosmetics and liquor. Moreover latterly service sector businesses like banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, television channels and newspaper organisations too, are employing brand managers who usually rise to the very top rungs of the executive ladder. A more recent development is that management consultancy firms have begun hiring marketing managers to develop clients’ brands. They are increasingly recruiting marketing professionals with expertise in branding, market research, public relations, pricing and business-to-business marketing expertise. The usual route for entry-level positions in industry or service sector firms is a Master’s degree or postgraduate diploma in business administration (MBA), preferably from an IIM. Some firms do hire fresh graduates depending upon their aptitude and flair. The other route to enter the brand management business is by acquiring communications/ advertising experience. The skill sets required are creativity, communication and marketing savvy. Business study programmes with specialisation in brand marketing are offered by more than 50 universities across the country. Among the premier institutes/ universities for management and marketing studies (including brand management) are: Indian Institutes of Management (at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode) and the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai; Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi; Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar; BHU Faculty of Management Studies, Varanasi; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune and S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. “Brand management in the United Breweries group of companies has evolved into a scientific process of identifying consumers, evaluating their needs and fulfilling them. This requires paying special attention to the component functions of marketing, especially market research, media planning, advertising, sales and distribution,” says Gurpreet Singh, group product manager, UB Ltd who manages the…
