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Brand management: What do you need it for?

Written by Primedocs | 27. August 2024

In this article, we will show you why brand management is important for your company and how automation in brand management can reduce the workload of your specialists in day-to-day business.

You can also find out which software solution is best suited to sustainably improving the efficiency and consistency of your brand communication.

Brand management is a comprehensive process that involves

  • the development
  • the introduction and
  • continuous maintenance and
  • strategic further development 

of a brand.

The aim is to sustainably maintain, strengthen and successfully position the brand value and brand image through targeted measures.

A strong brand concentrates a large amount of marketing resources and the resulting trust represents an intangible asset for the company that is of inestimable value.

It is therefore of the utmost importance to protect this valuable capital.

Strong brand management makes sense and gives your company significant competitive advantages:

  • A strong brand creates trust and customer loyalty
  • Brands with a high reputation allow higher pricing and therefore better margins
  • A well-positioned brand is more easily recognized and preferred
  • Brand strength can serve as a competitive differentiator and raise barriers to market entry
  • Established brands make it easier to introduce new products and services

Brand-oriented companies are demonstrably more successful

As the PwC study shows, companies with a strong brand focus achieve significantly better financial results and higher operating profits.

In addition, a study by McKinsey shows that companies with strong brands generate almost twice as much value as the market average in times of crisis.

This underlines the strategic importance of brand management as a key driver of sustainable corporate success and resilience in challenging market conditions.

Source: https://www.pwc.de/de/consulting/markenstudie-2019-pwc.pdf

All areas of brand management

There is no doubt that brand management is a key success factor for companies. But what are the core areas of brand management?

Corporate Identity (CI)

Corporate identity is far more than just a logo or slogan. It forms the heart of a company and has a significant influence on how it is perceived both internally and externally.

The company management defines the fundamental values, goals and visions and records these in the corporate mission statement.

To be credible and effective, the corporate identity should be clearly understandable and authentic to the corporate culture.

Brand communication

Brand communication ensures that the corporate identity is communicated consistently. All forms of communication must make a uniform impression and clearly communicate the corporate values. This ensures that the brand presents a strong, uniform image both internally and externally.

Corporate Design (CD)

Corporate design includes all visual elements such as logos, colors and fonts that contribute to the recognizability and consistency of your brand. It designs business stationery, packaging, advertising materials and the company website. A strong CD ensures that the brand is visually consistent and memorable.

Brand messages in communication

Brand messages are central elements of brand communication that are conveyed by employees. These messages must be clear, consistent and aligned with the corporate identity.

Brand strategy

The brand strategy defines the long-term goals and guidelines for brand development. It takes into account the needs of the target groups, the competitive environment and the corporate identity.

A clear strategy forms the basis for all further brand management measures. It helps to position the brand in the market and differentiate it from the competition.

Brand Control

Brand control ensures the consistent and uniform communication of your brand. It includes the monitoring and control of all brand-related activities and compliance with the defined guidelines. Regular audits and feedback loops help to quickly identify and correct deviations. Effective brand control protects the brand image and strengthens brand integrity.

How to automate important processes to work as efficiently as possible

Template software is a powerful brand management tool that allows you to spread your brand message efficiently and consistently across all channels.

primedocs template management saves you a lot of time and critical resources by centralizing brand materials and automating digital workflows.

The brand guidelines define how brand management ensures compliance with the CI/CD.

But what is the most efficient way to ensure that these brand guidelines are followed in day-to-day corporate communications?

Automated conformity with the brand guidelines

With primedocs template software, you can ensure that your brand guidelines are automatically and consistently adhered to in all Microsoft documents.

  • You and your employees can create flawless, attractive and corporate design-compliant company documents with just a few clicks.
  • After editing these Microsoft documents, you can ensure that the brand guidelines are adhered to with a simple click by automatically converting all non-design content into the corporate design (CI/CD).
  • With a brand management workflow, you can ensure a consistent brand image at all times and automate compliance with brand guidelines in corporate communications.

Employees in your marketing and brand departments are familiar with the brand guidelines and try to adhere to them correctly.

However, experience shows that key professionals from other departments spend an unnecessary amount of time searching across departments for the right templates for company documents and usually put considerable effort into applying the brand guidelines correctly.

In the age of the digital workplace, cost-intensive and time-consuming template chaos should be a thing of the past, and primedocs makes it possible:

  • Your specialists can concentrate fully on their core tasks again, while the intelligent software significantly increases efficiency in handling Microsoft 365 documents.
  • By automating and simplifying numerous processes in brand management, the creation of professional company documents is significantly accelerated. Experience with customers shows a 50% increase in efficiency and massive cost savings.
  • With functions such as standardized text modules, you minimize the risk of incorrect content and at the same time strengthen compliance with your brand guidelines, which ensures greater legal certainty and consistency in brand communication.

What role do digital communication tools play in positioning the brand?

Digital media influence brand management in such a way that you can

  • address its own target groups more consistently digitally and
  • brand message more efficiently.

Standardized and consistent communication with personalized content

Digital media enable the personalization of content, allowing brands to send specific messages to different segments of their target group.

Solution

  1. The template software ensures that all communication materials created in Microsoft Office, such as emails, quotations or press releases, reflect a consistent brand message and corporate design. This helps to consistently strengthen the brand identity across all channels.
  2. With template management, companies can create personalized templates for different target groups. For example, the software can use dynamic placeholders to generate personalized documents or email messages based on the specific needs or interests of the recipients. This makes it easier to target different segments of the target group.

Real-time communication

Digital media enables companies to respond to customer inquiries, feedback or complaints in real time, which strengthens trust in the brand and promotes a closer relationship with customers.

Solution

  1. Template software can provide standardized responses in the form of text modules for frequently occurring customer inquiries or feedback that can be quickly adapted and sent. This helps companies to respond to customer feedback in real time and strengthen customer loyalty.

Content marketing support

Through blogs, videos, social media posts and other content, companies can tell their brand story and communicate the values, visions and missions of the brand.

Solution

  1. Templates can be used to create content, ensuring that all published materials reflect the brand story and the company's core values. This ensures consistent and effective communication of the brand message.

Efficient crisis management

Digital media has changed reputation management, as negative news or crises can quickly go viral. Brands must therefore be able to respond quickly and effectively to negative developments. The ability to manage a crisis on social media has become a crucial aspect of modern brand management.

Solution

  1. In the event of a crisis, template software can provide quick access to pre-approved communication templates that can be used for quick and consistent responses. This minimizes delays and allows the company to respond quickly and effectively to negative communication.

Brand management in e-mails: Efficient functions for corporate communication

Email marketing is an extremely powerful tool in brand management, and with the right software you can communicate your messages in a targeted and consistent way.

Our primedocs template software offers functions that provide crucial support:

Flexible campaign management for marketing and communication teams

This function of primedocs enables you to send the right message to your target group at the right time, significantly increasing the effectiveness of your brand communication. You can centrally control which messages are distributed in which time period and for which employees they should appear directly under the e-mail signature.

Video: How to work with Outlook campaigns in primedocs

Automatic signature detection

primedocs automatically recognizes whether an e-mail is sent internally or externally and adjusts the signature block accordingly. This function allows you to communicate flexibly and true to your brand without the need for manual adjustments.

Easy creation and global distribution of professional e-mail signatures

With primedocs, the creation and management of corporate design-compliant email signatures is not only simplified, but also centralized. Your administrators can update and distribute all signatures on one platform without any additional IT effort.

Video: Manage Outlook signature centrally in primedocs

Text blocks

primedocs offers you intuitive text blocks for Microsoft Outlook that can be easily inserted using drag & drop. You can save frequently used texts and insert them with just a few clicks. You can also share these text modules with your colleagues and assign different access rights.

Efficient brand management solutions for different industries

All primedocs functions are designed to support customers from various industries in implementing brand management professionally and efficiently.

All primedocs reference customers can be found on the References page.

Case study with PrimeSoft template software

Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB) has introduced automated workflows for its brand management by implementing PrimeSoft template software.

The PrimeSoft template software enables 1,000 employees to quickly and efficiently create corporate design-compliant company documents in PowerPoint, Word and Outlook.

The centralized and automated template management ensures that all documents are designed uniformly throughout the company and created in accordance with the corporate design guidelines.

The conversion of 2,000 existing PowerPoint slides has also helped to significantly reduce the workload of key specialists at BLKB by automating redundant and time-consuming tasks.

Benefits for BLKB's brand management:

  • Standardized documents in accordance with company guidelines
  • Significant time savings in layout design
  • Automated application of design guidelines
  • Strengthening of “brand control” and brand integrity