Examples of Brand Management Done Right

When you do it right, and are able to create consistent branding across all platforms and mediums, using the brand as a profit-driving tool is totally possible! In fact, a well-managed brand is a key piece of driving revenue. According to the State of Brand Consistency 2019, 69 percent of respondents said that maintaining a strong and consistent brand is critical for generating leads, while 65 percent noted the importance of doing so to nurture leads and 63 percent agreeing this is critical for closing sales.

What’s more, according to the same survey, respondents estimated a 33 percent increase in revenue growth if they maintain brand consistency and 25.7 percent reported that consistent branding substantially contributed to revenue growth.

Use these examples of brand management in real-life to see a well-managed brand can be profitable.

Leverage On-Brand Influencers

iHeartRaves currently grosses approximately $30M annually, and they’ve been featured in the Inc. 5000 six years in a row. Their CEO, Brian Lim, was also featured on NBC’s Shark Tank, and accepted deals from Mark Cuban and Daymond John—they must be doing something right! One of those things they’re doing right is brand management, leveraging on-brand influencers in their space.

Managing the Brand: Finding the Right Influencers

Lim explains, “We’ve amassed over 515K followers on our iHeartRaves Instagram page and we like to use influencers as part of our digital marketing strategy. Our target audience includes fashion oriented people who attend music festivals and enjoy electronic dance music.” With this brand clarity, they’re able to connect with influencers in a number of ways.

Based on a pre-set criteria, they select influencers and in many cases, this results in sending product to an influencer in exchange for an honest review. “In the case of Instagram, this leads to a ton of new followers for us, as well as sales,” says Lim.

This is where profitability comes into play:

“We measure our return on investment based on the number of new followers we receive, the number of impressions we receive, how much referral traffic we get, and of course, how many sales come as a result of the campaign.”

Managing the Brand: Embracing Every Aspect

Their influencer strategy is so successful, iHeartRaves also created an influencer group, called Unicorn Crew, which represents their company at music festivals across the United States. This allows them to bring in another aspect of their brand that leads to new customer acquisition: a mission to inspire self-expression, creativity and empower individuals. Brandon Chopp, Digital Manager, says:

“We are strong proponents of body positivity, no matter a person’s size or shape. We feel that it’s important for people to express themselves and have the ability to wear whatever they want, without judgment from others or society in general.”

To make sure their brand is accurately represented, they have an application process, allowing them to select people from all over the country in addition to some of their own employees. The final group becomes “The Unicorn Crew” and attends the festivals together, wearing matching iHeartRaves outfits.

At this point, some of their brand management goes into the hands of the Unicorn Crew, who’s job is to interact with attendees while promoting positive rave culture. They also provide coverage of the festival to the iHeartRaves social media networks. As Cobb says, “It’s a great way to spread information about our brand, but also about the lifestyle."

Stay True to Your USP

You know your USP, but do you stay true to it in your branding efforts? In the information you share and the way you talk to your customers? This is one aspect of brand management that can’t be overlooked because this is the main pillar of brand consistency, something Tim Grinsdale, Owner and Founder of TOAD Diaries, has focused on from day one.

“We ensured that the company had a strong USP, that you can design your own diary on our website, which has helped us grow because there’s far less competition.”

In addition to nailing down their initial brand value, they used eBay and Amazon to drive sales as a way to grow revenue so they could focus on branding:

“Regular sales allowed us to grow our brand awareness and brand loyalty.”

Managing the Brand: Connecting With Your Audience

TOAD has a number of brand management strategies that ensures they stay true to their USP while driving sales and developing relationships.

These strategies include:

1. Influencer outreach within their niche. They look for 'stationery addicts' and time-management and productivity bloggers, which drives traffic and warm leads in the process.
2. TOAD sends out 'newsletters,’ as opposed to marketing emails, packed with useful information that they know their particular niche of customers care about most, like the importance of writing by hand.

At the end of the day, these brand management strategies achieve one important goal, suggests Grinsdale:

“This shows we care about the needs of our customers, which in turn leads to greater brand loyalty.”

With brand loyalty comes sales, and thus the cycle begins again.

Brand Management Drives Profit

Both the data and the stories prove one thing is true: if you can get brand management right, and develop a consistent brand experience, you can contribute to revenue. Consider the inconsistencies in your brand and how you can use brand management as a profit-driving tool.