Welcome to our comprehensive collection of marketing and brand management resources, tailor-made for brand managers who aim to excel in their careers. As a brand manager, you’re responsible for driving the success and growth of your brand. To help you achieve your goals, we’ve curated an extensive selection of articles that cover key topics in marketing, brand management, and brand strategy.
Everything you need to know about Marketing
Why the fundamentals of marketing matter
Undoubtedly, our purpose at Beloved Brands is to support ambitious brand managers striving to enhance their marketing and brand management skills. Our primary goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to unlock your full career potential. You’ll gain insights into strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand planning, marketing execution, and marketing analytics.
Additionally, we offer a comprehensive suite of marketing tools and templates to streamline your work, structured processes to follow, and thought-provoking ideas to stimulate your creativity in brand management and marketing.
Beloved Brands Marketing Training
Our Beloved Brands marketing training programs cover different streams to suit the type of marketer you are. For instance, our marketing training covers consumer marketing, B2B marketing, and Healthcare marketing.
Our marketing training programs are not just about theory. We equip ambitious marketers with practical skills in strategic thinking, brand positioning, marketing execution, and more.
Importantly, investing in our marketing training program will help your team gain the marketing skills they need to succeed. You will undoubtedly see your people make smarter decisions and produce exceptional work that drives business growth.
Beloved Brands video
Importantly, Brand leaders need to know how to think, define, plan, execute and analyze with the best of them. Moreover, while the brand leaders don’t really know how to do anything, they are looked upon to make every decision. Have a look at our five minute video on everything a marketer must know. To read more, click on this link: Everything.
Find it our Beloved Brands website
Beloved Brands Marketing Training
I wrote our Beloved Brands playbook to help you build a brand your consumers will love. If you are a B2B marketer, try our B2B Brands playbook. If you are a healthcare marketer, try our Healthcare Brands playbook.
How to figure out your Brand Positioning Statement
Trust our step-by-step process for how to figure out your brand positioning statement.
Uncover the perfect brand positioning statement by identifying the most compelling and unique space for your brand. Our process begins by defining your target consumer and identifying the emotional and functional benefits that set your brand apart. We then solidify your brand’s distinctiveness by utilizing support points to differentiate it from competitors.
How to write a Marketing Plan that your boss will approve
Learn from our step-by-step process for how to write a marketing plan everyone can follow.
Align your entire team, from senior management to agency partners, with a comprehensive marketing plan. Our plan ensures that everyone is working towards the same vision, key issues, strategies and tactics. In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of creating a marketing plan, including many marketing plan examples and a template available for purchase. We have a 20 page PowerPoint presentation and a one-page Marketing Plan template.
A Brand Strategy Roadmap to steer your brand’s future
Build up your marketing skills by learning how to write a brand strategy roadmap.
Establish a clear direction for your brand with our Brand Strategy Roadmap, outlining the vision, purpose, values, key issues, strategies, and tactics. Furthermore, our roadmap includes the brand idea to ensure consistency across all five consumer touchpoints.
Write unique Brand Concepts that move consumers to purchase
Writing brand concepts is a fundamental skill that every marketer must know.
Only a fool would start writing a brand concept without doing the necessary homework. Avoid costly mistakes by thoroughly researching and understanding your brand before creating a concept. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to effectively craft a brand concept using the brand idea, consumer insights, functional and emotional benefits, and support points. Our process can also be applied to product concepts. Additionally, we will provide examples of successful brand concepts. Consider your brand concept as a concise and impactful message, similar to a 30-second TV ad or digital billboard, and stay focused on your key messages. A haphazard approach will lead to little chance of success.
Find it our Beloved Brands website
Dissecting the good and bad of the Creative Brief
Build your marketing skills as we go through line-by-line of the creative brief.
The creative brief is a vital tool for brand leaders to guide strategy while allowing creative experts the freedom to execute. Too often, marketers prioritize creative control over strategic guidance, resulting in a cluttered and restrictive brief. We will demonstrate how to effectively communicate your brand’s strategy and goals through our creative brief template.
Marketing Funnels are the smartest way to assess your brand’s health
Learn how to use marketing funnels to assess your brand and build into your plan.
A classic marketing funnel tracks progress through the stages of awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, repeat, and loyalty. Utilize this data to gain insight on where your brand stands and where it can improve. Analyze these metrics in relation to the Brand Love Curve, which consists of five stages: unknown, indifferent, like it, love it, and beloved status.
How to use a Brand Key Model to display your brand’s unique selling proposition
A Brand Key model is a tool from consumer marketing that allows marketers to lay out the unique selling proposition (USP) elements of their brand on one page. Essentially, this article will go through the Brand Key model explained with nine elements that build the USP. And, with each element, we will show you the work you need to do. Moreover, we will leave you with plenty of Brand Key examples so that you can see how it will work on a brand like yours. This is a tool that originated out of the Unilever brand teams.
Marketing Finance 101: How to assess the P&L
Managing the brand profitability is an essential skill for brand management.
Failure to effectively manage the profitability of your brand will impede your success in the long run. Great marketers not only manage brands and marketing efforts, but also drive profits through tactics such as setting premium prices, targeting different consumer segments, reducing product costs, optimizing marketing expenses, acquiring competitors’ customers, increasing usage among current customers, expanding into new markets, and developing new uses for the brand.
Manage your marketing career from entry-level ABM up to CMO
Engage your career with our 5-point success factors at each level of marketing.
A traditional marketing team typically includes four key roles: Assistant Brand Manager, Brand Manager, Marketing Director, and VP/CMO. To advance to the next level in your career, you need to demonstrate five success factors to your boss. These factors build upon each other, so as you progress through the roles, you should continue to develop and improve upon the skills you’ve already acquired. At the beginning of your career, it’s important to be willing to try new tasks and learn from your experiences. As you move up the ladder, focus on making small improvements and perfecting your skills. If you are looking to build your marketing career, explore our Mini MBA.
Find it our Beloved Brands website
You will love our one-page Brand Plan
Without question, creating a brand plan presentation is a powerful way to earn the trust of your leadership team. However, it’s unlikely anyone will read it a second time. Our one-page Brand Plan will keep everyone aligned with your brand strategy. Our streamlined one-page brand plan template ensures everyone involved is aligned and informed. It captures the vision, delves into analytics, addresses key issues, outlines strategies and goals, and marketing execution plans. We provide clear brand plan definitions to enhance your understanding and fluency.
Have you gone through an assessment of the marketing skills of your team? Take a look below:
M A R K E T I N G B O O K
beloved brands
the playbook for how to create a brand your consumers will love
Covering every aspect of brand management, it is no wonder that our readers reach for Beloved Brands multiple times each week to guide them through the challenges of day-to-day brand management.
Get ready for a mind-bending journey as we take you on a deep dive into your brand strategy. We’ll challenge you with thought-provoking questions designed to shake up your thinking and help you see your brand in a whole new light. And our unique process for defining your brand positioning will leave you with fresh ideas and new possibilities for how to differentiate your brand.
But we won’t just leave you with ideas – we’ll show you how to turn them into action. Learn how to write a brand plan that everyone can follow, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and contributing to your brand’s success. We’ll walk you through the creative execution process, from writing an inspiring brief to making smart and breakthrough decisions.
And when it comes tao analyzing your brand’s performance, we’ve got you covered. Our innovative methods will help you dive deep and uncover insights you never knew existed, giving you the knowledge you need to make the best decisions for your brand’s future.
But don’t just take our word for it – our Amazon reviews speak for themselves.
With over 85% of our customers giving us a glowing five-star rating and an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5.0, we know we’re doing something right. And with numerous weeks as the #1 bestseller in brand management, you can trust that we have the experience and expertise to help you achieve success.
Ready to join the ranks of the Beloved Brands community? Order our book on Amazon, Rakuten Kobo, or Apple and start your journey towards brand success today.
Take a read through our sample chapter on strategic thinking
Search for any topic on our Beloved Brands website
Marketing Stories
Take a look through our other marketing stories
Sneak peek at the 2024 John Lewis Christmas ad plus all their past Ads
The new John Lewis Christmas Ad 2024 called “The Gifting Hour” tries to mix some magic of Narnia with the reality of buying a gift
How to define a winning brand positioning
If you are working on Brand Positioning for your brand, then you are in the right spot. What is a brand positioning strategy? A Brand
How to lead a SWOT analysis
Before planning where to go next, you must understand, “Where are we?” A deep-dive business review should take a 360-degree view to examine issues related
Why the Nike stock price fell – How the Nike DTC strategy failed miserably
Nike’s stock price has dropped 25% in 2024 and has been cut in half since its high in 2021, largely due to the company’s missteps
Starbucks Case Study 2024 – Rebalancing the Coffeehouse Experience
Starbucks, the global coffeehouse giant, is once again at a crossroads. Much like in 2008, when the brand faced an identity crisis and financial freefall,
Brand Differentiation: Fixing indifferent brands stuck in the clutter
In today’s crowded marketplace, standing out is a necessity. However, many brands remain lost in the noise, indistinguishable from competitors. These are indifferent brands—brands that
How to build marketing tactical plans to use in your marketing plans
When you are learning how to write a marketing plan, make sure that you create a separate marketing tactical plan for each significant investment to
How to organize your Marketing Strategy Statement to use in your Marketing Plan
The most important element of any plan is the marketing strategy statement. Every plan should start with a vision and key issues defining how to
How Skechers uses ‘comfort’ to stand out in the crowded shoe market
I am a big fan of the Skechers brand. I wear them all the time. And yes, I wear their slip-ins for walking the dog,
Everything that you need to know about Nvidia’s success
Nvidia, now one of the world’s largest market cap companies, feels like the company that so few know about. From its humble beginnings as a graphics
The 5 biggest mistakes I see with Marketing Plans
Are you in the middle of writing marketing plans? As someone who has been in your shoes, I can tell you that building compelling marketing
Brand Scorecard – The Brand Manager’s marketing dashboard
As a seasoned brand leader, I have always believed that brand management means business management. With everything that we do, whether it is brand positioning,
Brand Management is Business Management
The best in brand management run their business as general managers. They partner with sales to drive revenue growth. The marketer creates demand through a
Ozempic Case Study – The easiest victory over diabetes and weight
Ozempic is the brand name whispered quietly at the lunch table at work or at the family Bar-B-Q–followed by, “You look great.” Ozempic is loudly
Exploring the most common business models with iconic brand examples
In the dynamic arena of marketing and commerce, the blueprint for delivering value to customers—commonly known as a business model—serves as the foundation upon which
Brand Management Career Ladder – Success factors at each level
In the dynamic terrain of brand management, the journey from an eager entry-level Assistant Brand Manager rising up to a seasoned Chief Marketing Officer is
A simpler way to use brand strategy to help your brand win
I hate when marketers overly complicate brand strategy. They mistakenly consider strategy the more intellectual part of business, so they use big, vague words to
Brand Culture – You can’t run a brand without the people behind the brand
In today’s competitive market, the emphasis on “customer experience” and “customer journey” is not merely a trend but an essential business practice. Ensuring an impeccable
How to conduct a brand audit
It’s imperative to understand that every business should conduct a brand audit annually. This process uncovers key issues and sets up a strategic plan for
Viking Cruises – The secrets behind their comfortable exploration brand idea
Viking Cruises, founded in 1997, is known for its river and ocean cruises. Over the years, it has emerged as a leader in the cruise