10 Principles of Brand Management

Dave Wakeman

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Feb 15, 2022

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent some time thinking about the core ideas and the principles that guide my work in strategy, branding, marketing, and revenue generation.

As I thought through these things, I thought about the Tom Roach piece on “marketing philosophy” and wanted to make some of the ideas more explicit for people to read and think of in their own right.

Last week, I wrote about the 10 Principles that guide my strategy thinking.

This week, I want to expand on those principles by sharing the 10 Principles that guide my work with brands on brand management.

1. All Brands Are Unique: If a brand wasn’t unique, it would be a commodity. So the foundation of my brand thinking is that if you aren’t making a brand stand out and be unique, what are you doing exactly?
2. Each brand manager needs to create their own definition of brand: My definition of a brand is the accumulation of all interactions your market has with you, positive or negative, over time…recognizing that the good stuff adds up much more slowly than the bad stuff tears your brand down.
3. You have a chance to stamp 2 or 3 ideas in your market’s mind: A while back, I did some brand work around my consulting work. I wanted to make sure that I came through as focused, effective, and profitable. Which stood in opposition to the work of a lot of others that might be about “the hustle”, “the grind”, and “100 pieces of content a day” to get your brand “out there.”
4. A good brand plan or brand management effort needs time: In the Mini MBA in Brand Management, Mark Ritson walks the class through the diagnosis phase of the process and how the one thing you can’t really avoid is that the process takes time to get the diagnosis right. He talks about 90 days and my work has proven that 90 days is the point when things click. And, out of the fog comes understanding and clarity. Fight for that time.
5. I believe in the power of the “long and short” of brand and marketing: If you have a chance to read or pick up a copy of Les Binet and Peter Fields research on brand building, you’ll come away with the knowledge that in most cases brands aren’t getting nearly enough attention and that you need to spend advertising budget on doing long-term brand…