"Everyone is in the business of brand management."

Dear reader, I wrote "Everyone is in the Business of Brand Management" in 2017 at the launch of THE BUSINESS OF BRAND MANAGEMENT. A topic that is still relevant today. In connection with the relaunch of our platform - the expanded structure, the expansion of the library and the design overhaul - we have therefore decided to confront you again with the article I wrote back then. We would be delighted if you still agree with the content of the article today and enjoy the expansion of tbobm.com.

Why did we make The Business of Brand Management? What were we thinking? And why now?

One thing at a time: as far as I can see, there is now a consensus in most companies that their success depends largely on the success of their brand. The brand organizes the company's communication with customers and other stakeholders and has become a primary growth driver. For these communication processes to work, they need to be managed. This is precisely the task of brand management.

One thing is clear: brand management is strategically and operationally crucial to success. What is equally clear: In today's communication landscape - online media, print media, social networks and mobile internet via smartphones and tablets - this is a complex matter. What is less clear: How can this complexity be managed? How do you set up effective and efficient brand management? I think there are many good approaches, but no patent remedy. That's why it makes sense to gather information on brand management, share experiences and discuss methods and tools. This is exactly what we want to achieve with The Business of Brand Management .

In addition, the pressure on companies to change is currently very high. More than ever before, companies are thinking about how they can best position themselves for the future. Of course, this has always been the case in recent decades - for example in the debates about re-engineering, synergy effects or kaizen. Nevertheless, there is a widespread feeling that we are currently living in a special era of upheaval. The first reason for this is digitalization and its impact on companies: Product development, manufacturing, logistics, service, finance, customer and employee communication. Companies are being confronted with a new, networked, digitalized reality and are faced with the question of how they can best adapt to it. We have a thesis on this that, as experience shows, does not necessarily open doors: Digital transformation should be the reason for a company to also think about the strategic realignment of its brand management and therefore its brand management. Many managers don't like to hear this - there are already enough construction sites in the company and they obviously don't want to take on any more work. We think this is the wrong way of looking at things, because in our view the brand and its management - keyword: brand orientation - can play a major role in the reorganization of a company. The arguments for this are numerous and plausible. For us, this was and is another reason to go public with our platform and put the role of the brand and its management up for discussion.

There's no doubt about it: brand management is a demanding task in times of digitalization of companies, markets and media. On the other hand, however, solving the associated tasks and challenges is essential for companies: they change or they go under. This is why the sentence: "Everyone is in the business of brand management" - which was published back in 2015 - is a statement that is as accurate as it is forward-looking. It also sums up our mission. With The Business of Brand Management , we want to address those responsible for brands in companies. And as things stand, these are not just the experts in marketing, branding, advertising and corporate communications. They are practically everyone who is committed to a company and its future.

" ... Everyone is in the business of brand management: artists, designers, businesses, celebrities, politicians, museums, universities, armies, nations. Branding is supposedly not about what something says, or what it means, but how it makes us feel. A brand is a promise. It's the putative guarantee of the emotional payoff on an investment in a particular product, place or individual. So the new handbag makes us feel chic and knowing; the laptop, savvy and contemporary; the vodka, suave and sophisticated; the museum, refined and sensitive. When we talk about a strong brand, what we mean is that it consistently delivers the emotion it promises. The most successful brands, or at least the ones everyone emulates, successfully use design to produce an emotional coherence that spans content to product to experience. Think Apple or BMW or Chanel. Not everything has to look alike, but it all has to feel alike. Whenever we encounter them we get that familiar brand sensation. That tingling tells you it's working ..."

Michael Rock, Human Emotion: The One Thing the Internet Can't Buy, The New York Times Style Magazine, Oct. 14, 2015