Living brands tell a story. They capture and captivate consumers anytime, anywhere. This is more true than ever before as we are on the go and constantly connected. The customer chooses, what to search for, when to buy, where to buy, how to buy, or not to buy.
This shift inevitably means a change in how brands interact with consumers and vice versa. It also impacts the Brand and Digital marketing communities developing the communications. We need to re-think and re-design the strategy, process and content more often than every few years.
There have been ongoing and more recent debates about the role of the Brand Manager being dead. The fact is this job title has been institutionalised by FMCG companies. It still is in many places the official title, while in reality the role and the world around it has changed.
So, calling all Brand Managers…Brand Activists, Brand Evangelists, Brand Builders, Brand Advocates, Brand Advisors, Brand Aviators, Brand Strategists ….
New roles and job titles are being invented for now and the future. Why? because the way we work continues to change and so we need to adapt and change too. The Future of Work. How will technology impact how we work? Digital Transformation, AI Artificial Intelligence, IoT Internet of Things, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality…We need to futureproof ourselves.
So yes, one could indeed argue the traditional Brand Manager role is dead. I would agree with this statement, having lived through this era and experienced the shift from pure classical to digital marketing. Times have changed – many will remember allocating huge chunks of marketing budgets to developing new TVC, doing consumer home-visits, sitting in consumer focus groups, counting the number of visible displays in-store. While these are still important, the way we do things has evolved, technology both enables and demands change.
Yes we still need consumer insights…we should now also consider crowd-sourcing to get results and interviewing online. Yes we must still focus on the in-store experience! We most also focus on the online shopping experience and it needs to be consistent in terms of the brand equity and holistic communications.
Let’s use other more positive words to describe what’s happened – the traditional Brand Manager role has evolved, metamorphosised, grown. These people are humans afterall. So let’s talk about a process of self-renewal, self-education.
The Future is now – as we adapt, strategise, design – ourselves and technology. We are evolving and shaping the future of brand and product communications.
Brand Avatar springs to mind. So what does the Brand Avatar of the future (now) look like?
We love Brands. We live brands. We love technology. We are technical Product Experts. We are emotional and instill a brand purpose and values. We are communicators and collaborators. We are content creators and curators. We are influencers and educators.
We have evolved and are transforming, ourselves and the brands which we create and build.
Contact us to learn more on how we can help your transform your brands and providing a best in class Product eContent experience
This article was created and written by Jeannette Potts.
