The definition of the brand itself is the stable part. Most of the daily work is operational: a growing number of people create material for the brand, and each of them needs the current rules and files.
What brand management covers
| Area | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Definition | Positioning, values, the audience, the name and visual identity |
| Rules | Brand guidelines for logo, colour, type, imagery and voice |
| Assets | The approved logos, templates, photography and documents, kept current |
| Distribution | Getting the right files to agencies, partners, sales and regional teams |
| Review | Checking material against the rules before or after it is published |
| Measurement | Awareness, perception and consistency, through surveys, search data and usage figures |
For brand valuation and evaluation there are international standards: ISO 10668 sets requirements for monetary brand valuation, and ISO 20671-1:2021 gives principles for evaluating a brand's strength. Most marketing teams never apply them formally, but they are a useful checklist of what "brand performance" can mean.
What a brand manager does day to day
In a B2B company, the brand lead's week is often less about campaigns than about requests:
- Sales asks for the current customer case study and the logo of a customer that just renewed.
- A partner needs the co-marketing kit for an event next month.
- An agency delivers 40 product photos that need checking before they go on the website.
- A regional team wants to translate a one-pager and asks which template to use.
- Someone finds a slide deck with last year's logo and asks whether it is still allowed.
Each of these is a brand management decision, made under time pressure. Consistency comes less from the guidelines document than from how easy it is to find and use the right file. When the current file is the easiest one to find, people use it.
Brand management and related terms
- Brand marketing promotes the brand to an audience. Brand management decides what is promoted and keeps it consistent.
- Brand asset management is the part of brand management that deals with the files: storing, approving, distributing and retiring brand assets. Software for it is usually a DAM with a brand portal.
- Brand governance is the set of rules and approvals: who can publish what, who decides on exceptions.
- Strategic brand management is used for the long-term side: portfolio decisions, brand architecture, extensions into new markets.
Brand management in Freedam
Freedam covers the operational side for marketing teams:
- A brand guide with logos, colours and typefaces next to the downloadable files.
- Brand portals that give partners, agencies and sales the approved files without an account, with access control per audience.
- Brand compliance checks that compare each upload with your written rules and record the reviewer's decision.
- Usage rights and expiry dates on each asset, so an image whose licence has ended leaves every portal on time.
- Usage figures on every asset: the most downloaded files, what people search for and do not find, and files nobody uses.
See brand asset management for how these work together.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main goal of brand management?
To make the brand recognisable and trusted by keeping everything published in its name consistent with what it promises. Consistency over time is what builds recognition.
What skills does a brand manager need?
Judgement about the brand, writing and visual literacy, and enough organisation to run approvals and keep files current. In smaller teams the brand manager is also the person who maintains the asset library.
What is brand management software?
Software that stores the approved brand files with their rules and distributes them to the people who need them. It is usually a DAM with a brand guide and a brand portal, sometimes with approval workflows and automated compliance checks.
Related terms
See brand management from the brand lead's side
Sign in to the demo as Nordi's administrator: the brand guide, the approved product imagery, the partner portals and the usage figures that show which files people actually take.
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