What is Brand Asset Management?

Brand asset management is an advertising and promotions function used for products and services. Brand managers oversee, develop and promote their company's products or services to consumers. Each company's brand of product or service is in some way marketed differently than competitor's brands.

For example, two companies marketing similar vegetable soup to the same target market could have very different branding strategies. One company may position an easy-open, canned product as a healthy, yet convenient food enjoyed by adults or children, while a competing firm may place the soup in jars and stress that the homemade taste is ideal for the whole family. Basically, brand asset management produces and promotes the assets, or valuable benefits, of a company's name-brand products.

The name of the product as well as its packaging, price and promotional strategy are developed by a corporate brand manager with the approval and input of senior level management. The product name used in brand asset management must be easily recognizable by the target market. This is why many best-selling products have rhyming or offbeat names designed to appeal to the targeted buyers.

For example, children's cereal often has fun-sounding names that are promoted in catchy songs, or jingles, to increase brand recognition and the message that the product is a fun treat for kids. If the product ends up not selling as well as expected, the brand asset management decisions would then try to address the reasons discovered thorough market research, such as high sugar content. The end result could be to re-brand the cereal as a fun treat that's better than candy because of all the B vitamins, riboflavin and other nutrients it contains.

Even once the product is selling well to the target market, constant brand asset management is still necessary to keep it fresh and relevant. Consumer attitudes change, often because of new health studies or information or as a result of economic shifts. For that reason, the price point of the product must always be managed effectively; it must appeal to consumers, yet offer a profitable return on brand investment (ROBI) for the company. In order to keep a brand powerful in relation to competitors' offerings as well as what consumers want and need, keeping up to date with market research is crucial.

Brand asset management takes place in the marketing department of a company. Brand managers who develop the assets of brands to best meet the market and ROBI typically have at least a bachelor's degree and four years of marketing experience. Brand asset managers must be creative and analytical as well as results-oriented.