International Retailing Buying Process – Overview
The job of a Merchandiser in International Retail Company is one of the most challenging and rewarding career options for one to consider. The job of a Merchandiser entails strategizing and executing the strategies for procurement and supplier management on behalf of the Company. An experienced Merchandiser brings a lot of value and contributes to […]
Integrated Marketing Communication Tools
Integrated Marketing Communication tools refer to integrating various marketing tools such as advertising, online marketing, public relation activities, direct marketing, sales campaigns to promote brands so that similar message reaches a wider audience. Products and services are promoted by effectively integrating various brand communication tools. To implement integrated marketing communication, it is essential for the […]
Service Product Management: An Oxymoron or a Reality?
Till now, we have considered how product management is done in companies that have different product lines and brands. Now, in this article, we would consider whether the term service product management or the process of managing the entire lifecycle of services is an oxymoron or is indeed a concept that is realistic and feasible. […]
Solution Based Approach for Profits and Revenue
Sustaining success in business is a big challenge for organizations. In order to continue to be successful and sustain leadership position, the organizations have got to keep re-inventing their service offer and the value proposition to their customers. This calls for continuous investments into R&D, creating new products and services, increasing the value proposition of […]
Product Leadership and Organizations
Any management student will certainly be interested in knowing what it is that makes organizations like Apple, Sony, Microsoft & Google etc stand apart from the rest and be counted as the market leaders. From an organizational perspective, these companies stand apart from the rest in their approach to product development that enables the organizations […]
Often, people get confused with the concepts of brand management versus product management. They tend to think that both are the same since they deal with a specific product being marketed and hence managed from incubation to sales. However, there are crucial differences in the way product managers and brand managers operate. For instance, brand management is all about creating a mind space for the product whereas product management is concerned with features and specifications as well.
Further, brand management is often done in consumer product companies that have more products and product lines and hence the overall emphasis on the brand image is more. On the other hand, product managers operate in environments where they have to take care of a single product and hence bringing it to the market is their brief and so they tend to concentrate on the big picture.
Moreover, brand management is associated with consumer product companies whereas product management is associated with software companies. This is because consumer product companies need a top of the mind recall for their products and brands since they mass market them.
In other words, consumer product companies reach out to a larger audience and wider customer base whereas software companies typically have lesser numbers of customers to contend with. Further, brand managers have to “sell” the product by creating an overall image for the brand that consists of creating a value proposition based on the perceived value that the product or the brand offers. Product managers on the other hand (in software companies) have to concentrate on the value proposition that features and technology deliver.
Apart from these differences, brand managers have to plan for brand obsolescence which means that they need to bring in newer products to keep the product line replenished. Product managers on the other hand need to concentrate on upgrades and versions of the same product instead of trying to launch an entirely different product.
There is also the aspect of the lengthy product lifecycle from conceptualizing to bringing to market in case of software products whereas brand managers typically deal with shorter lifecycles. This makes the task of a brand manager harder in some cases where the urgency is more whereas the product manager has some more time.
In other cases, the brand manager can relax after the product launch since sales drive the brand management rather than the marketing and branding exercises that would have been completed by then.
Product managers on the other hand have to be edge after the rollout since they have to be on the lookout for glitches and bugs in the software that might derail the project the delay the customer experience.
In conclusion, brand management is more about perception and the perceived value whereas product management is more about tangible and measurable value propositions. This is expressed in the customer satisfaction surveys where brand users of consumer products rate the brand according to the perceived levels of satisfaction whereas product users in software rate the product according to the specific and measurable benefits that it brings to them.
Finally, brand management is a high stakes game because brands fail at an alarming rate and any consumer company with some seed capital can enter the market. In the case of software products, the products are launched only when the companies have deep pockets and can stay the course. Of course, the dotcom boom and the subsequent bust was all about software companies trying to market themselves like brands and the reason for the bust was that they forgot the basic rules of product management. More on this in later articles.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
