Brand Management

The scope of a brand manager's function varies from company to company, but the core job function is to search for the most productive way to build long-term profitability for a product. How you reach this goal can vary widely between consumable and durable goods. Traditional brand management focuses on consumable goods with a short repeat purchase cycle, in which sales respond rapidly to changes in price, product, packaging, distribution and promotion. The typical career path for an MBA is to enter as an assistant product manager and move up to brand manager after three to five years.

A brand management team shares the ultimate responsibility for a particular product. Brand management involves developing a strategic direction for a brand based on what consumers want. It is not just about lowering price or creating commercials, although they are elements of a strategic plan. Rather, managing a brand means finding a way to deliver value to consumers. Brand managers lead cross-functional teams to achieve the goals outlined in annual brand plans. Whether it's managing a spending budget or convincing upper management through numeric analysis to "size-up" a package size to boost sales, everything you do funnels towards the goal of selling more units, thus making more profit for the company and putting smiles on shareholders' faces.

Although the needs of a particular brand and product often dictate the level of exposure you have to different issues, one thing all brand managers have in common is a fast-paced schedule. Seldom does a day go by where you won't be running from meeting to meeting and visiting employees from Legal, Packaging, Finance, Market Research, Consumer Affairs, Operations, Public Relations, and Research and Development, among others. Given the broad exposure to so many aspects of business and the supply chain, these positions