With full IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) in swing, contact point analysis at its threshold, the internet a fact of marketing life, CRM old-hat, and PR now taking its rightful place in brand building, what's Left? Brand managers and strategists are asking themselves "besides the exceptions of tweaks to the mix (vis-a-vis "vehicles like Twitter, Utube, Facebook) what' s the next power tool for brand marketing and brand management? What is the frontier element of the constantly-evolvong Marketing Mix?"
The fact is, that most new developments are simply "tools" or extensions of existing tools as opposed to full, new Marketing Mix elements. For example, Twitter is a tool for online Marcoms, not a new marketing element like PR or the Channel. Little baby steps... not blue oceans. For brand managers what is the next step they need for brad management and taking brands to their next level? Most likely, it lies not in a new tool or communications platform (as "un-brand" as that sounds). I believe it lies in better knowledge in managing the "current package." In other words, the next element in the Marketing Mix has to be "System Management." We now have every possible element and tool to marketing and building brands effectively; the next challenge is to understand their optimum and efficient usage. Brand managers will have to be trained and experienced in "discovery"--in generating a toolkit and skill-sets that "discover" maximum impact and management of their brands and marketing mix elements. For example, knowing the key sources of brand equity, the mechanisms that build and manage them best, and the synergistic and strategic usage of such equity for both short and long-term success.
With even emerging markets rapidly experiencing the same problems with both brand and message "clutter," and the continued increase in costs to propagate and manage brands effectively on an hourly basis, brand managers desperately require a toolkit that identifies and takes control of brand equity build and proactive management. Most importantly, brand management requires a mandate driven by expert skill-sets as opposed to relying on agency ideas and intervention. At the end of the day, would you let an artist or copywriter run marketing and/or brand planning for GE? What would shareholders say? Unthinkable. Brand management has the final and definitive authority over the brand, brand operations, resources, and strategic planning, because they are ultimately accountable for the brand's success and failure. Thus, brand management must pioneer toolkits that pro-actively identify, generate and manage the brand's equity... including strategic and operational (day to day resource management). The biggest revelation and challenge for effective brand management is knowing what encompassed function exists, its parameters, cause and effect, and the management of this encompassed, living package...
The next generation of brand management looks very interesting. And here in the USA, especially the Midwest home of global industrial corporations, the time couldn't be more crucial or vital to re-master brand management locally, nationally, and worldwide.
-Stefan Paul Jaworski (St. Louis, MO, March 2011)
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