Banter Without Borders

The Death of the Brand Manger

In the October 12, 2009 edition of Advertising Age, Jack Neff posted a column entitled "Why It's Time to Do Away with the Brand Manager." http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=139593. I was shocked...yes, shocked! How could this be? Having grown up in the golden age of "brand management," it was universally accepted that a centralized manager was needed to oversee all aspects of the brand including: a point of consensus, how initiatives were executed and overall accountability. This was the central core of consumer marketing; the hub of the wheel, if you will.

Through all this, the "gold standard" in brand management was and has been Procter & Gamble. Impervious to change over the decades, P&G has been the stalwart of maintaining the status quo, at least in the concept of brand management and its function. And so how does Neff's opening sentence begin? "Managing a brand has always been a slightly odd concept, given that consumers are the real arbiters of brand meaning, and it's become increasingly outmoded in today's two-way world." What? What is a two-way world? What does P&G think of this, or Unilever or other global marketers? Well, as it turns out, they're embracing it...yes really. They're embracing the new concept of "brand advocate" as opposed to the historical concept of "brand manager". So what does this mean? Have I been wrong all my working life, or at least most of it? The answer is "no," but going forward it's "yes," I guess. What's changed?

What's changed is "Digital." In a report issued by Forrester Research entitled:  "Adaptive Brand Marketing: Rethinking Your Approach to Branding in the Digital Age," Forrester suggests... strongly suggests...that the brand manager of today will need to become much more consumer-centric, more nimble and more real-time focused. Digital now has allowed marketers to get to the "Holy Grail"...one-on-one marketing and an opportunity to create a direct dialogue with the consumer. And, that requires different skill sets and a different marketing organization set-up.

From the perspective of the global marketing director, (i.e., the super brand manager), this presents a paradox...more interaction with the consumer in local markets and rapid adaptation of local marketing initiatives by local marketing teams to better adapt to the consumer's needs. Rapid-fire analysis and immediate execution becomes the norm. But, this will have to be balanced with the need to control global brand equity and strategy. Global team building will take on new dimensions and the communications process between the global marketing director and team members will need to be streamlined; think virtual communication. Welcome to the digital world, and congratulations, you are no longer a brand manager; you're now a brand advocate.