Marketing Career Focus: Brand Management
Each of these Marketing Career Focus posts will cover a specific track or specialty track within the MS in Marketing degree program that can lead to the acquisition of many, if not all, the skills needed to successfully enter the career under discussion. In our Advertising and Branding track, students must complete 15 credit hours of our program core classes, then 21 credit hours within this track in courses in consumer behavior, branding, advertising, and promotional strategy. There is a wide range of electives including digital ad courses.
Indeed.com is a good job search site because at a glance, it shows average salaries, years of experience for many mid-level positions, the quantity of available jobs, as well as locations. I looked at 10 to 15 job descriptions from major companies and the skills most frequently mentioned at such employers as Colgate-Palmolive, The Richards Group, YUM! Brands, AT& T, Citibank, and others. However, there is NO substitute for your doing your own searches and analyses.
Learn more by visiting the MS Marketing Brand Management specialty track page.
What does a brand manager do?
According to Mediabistro.com:
A brand manager is responsible for the overall image of a product or person. Key elements of the job are researching the marketplace to determine where the product or client fits in (i.e., analyzing competitive positioning, products, brands and spending); developing marketing and advertising strategies and managing those budgets; helping create designs and layouts for print and digital advertising concepts signage and collateral; overseeing promotional activities; analyzing pricing and sales; and (re)evaluating how the brand can appear to a wider consumer base
Average years of experience & salary average
(Note: students requiring visa sponsorship tend to receive less money. There are not many sponsorship opportunities in brand management for international students.)
Brand managers can work on the advertising/marketing agency side or for a corporation, managing one of the portfolio brands. Agency brand managers with three years of experience tend to have salaries on the lower side: $40,000 to $65,000.For a corporate brand manager with three years of experience, salaries range from $85,000 to $125,000.
If “brand manager” is used in a search on Indeed.com or Glassdoor.com, then some 1436 open positions in USA are returned. “Brand management” yields far fewer: only 74 open positions.
Typical brand manager job description (Source: Indeed)
Key Responsibilities:
- Accountable for managing a variety of marketing initiatives that drive brand awareness, trial and distribution.
- Assist in the development of annual, long and short-term marketing strategy and plans.
- Be the brand lead across all other marketing functions – both in brand strategy, promotion and creative. Provide brand review for all marketing content and ensure it is in line with overall brand positioning and voice.
- Collaborate and support the sales team to provide best-in-class retailer specific merchandising and shopper marketing materials as needed for new and existing distribution growth opportunities.
- Coordinate and lead cross-functional teams (Operations, Sales, Finance) to ensure successful and on-time execution of marketing initiatives.
- Provide leadership across all new product launches for commercialization in a cross-functional manner.
- Oversee coordination of external agency partners on the development, design and production of creative assets.
- Manage the marketing budget, through accurate tracking and forecasting of marketing spend.
- Actively gather, analyze and present brand, competitor and health & wellness food category insights, trends and data.
- Lead and manage Assistant Brand Manager
- Assist Head of Marketing as the Brand Liaison to parent, Hershey Company.
- Responsible for creating and supporting a positive, professional, team-oriented, harassment-free work environment by understanding and complying with the Company’s policies, by demonstrating the Company’s values, and being a role model for the Company Brand.
Other Skills:
- A self-starter with a can-do attitude and extremely strong attention to detail
- Exemplary writing, listening, communication and presentation skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Office
Education and/or Experience:
- BS/BA Degree or Masters(Business/Marketing preferred)
- 3-5 years of experience in marketing (consumer packaged goods marketing preferred)
- Experience with both traditional and innovative communications and marketing techniques, including customer-specific/shopper marketing programs.
- Knowledge of project management principles; discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals
- S/he will have a collaborative approach with great customer service, both, internal and external, such as interfacing with cross-functional teams and external partners.
Able to represent the voice of the customer
Deep understanding of marketing fundamentals
MKT 6310 Consumer Behavior Science and Practice
Take brand ownership
MKT 6330 Brand Management
Monitor market trends and research consumer markets
MKT 6309 Marketing Data Analysis and Research
Strategy development skills
MKT 6350 Competitive Marketing Strategy & Game Theory Framework
Strong analytical skills
OPRE 6301 Statistics and Data Analysis
Typical advertising and branding job titles
- Advertising manager
- Account executive
- Account supervisor or manager
- Media planner/buyer
- Account planner
- Brand manager, director or vice president
Typical responsibilities for a brand manager
- Manage relationships with the Go-To-Market team and Customer Development team to execute successful new-product launches and identify and recommend the right mix of exclusive opportunities for strategic customers.
- Perform detailed category analysis (including consumer, competitive, culture, and financial) to identify marketing opportunities and formulate strategic business action plans, identifying white space for innovation
- Lead the development of product or service positioning and uncover relevant consumer insights to drive consumer communication
Popular books on brand management
Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People, by Marc Gobé (New York: Allworth Press, 2010)
How Cool Brands Stay Hot: Branding to Generations Y and Z, by Joeri Van Den Bergh and Mattias Behrer (London: Kogan Page, 2016
Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, by David A. Aaker (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011
Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution, by David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler (New York: Free Press, 2000)
Sticky Branding: 12.5 Principles to Stand Out, Attract Customers, and Grow an Incredible Brand, by Jeremy Miller (Toronto, Canada: Dundurn, 2015)
What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest, by Denise Lee Yohn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014)
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, by Al Ries and Laura Ries (New York: HarperBusiness, 2002)
Associations and Meetup
- The Association of International Product Marketing and Management(AIPMM). This is the world’s largest professional association of product managers, brand managers, and other related fields.
- Dallas Brand Marketers + Agency Professionals Meetup
Major Professional Certifications
There is no major industry-wide accepted certification.
The AIPMM has a brand manager certification program for members.
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