Concert Calendar New Releases Artist of the Week Classic Hits Links Listen Now Join the Workforce Promotions JC & the U-Man All Around Town Singles Connection Air Personalities Contact Info Advertise With Us Half Price Deals Great Outdoors Clubs / Venues St. Louis Attractions Career Channel Autoworld Traffic		Brand Management The Products You Know and Buy! Career Overview A formal definition of brand management is tough to pin down because the actual job description varies widely across the vast universe of consumer products companies. Many consumer products companies have at least one thing in common, though: They're part of huge conglomerates that produce many name-brand products. Size gives them economies of scale, and a diversity of products gives them protection against down cycles. Which is not to say that cute little mail-order pickle-and-jam companies don't crop up every now and then and make a serious go of it. They do. These places aren't where the majority of the jobs are, however-at least not until Unilever or Nestle takes them over. The basic analogy for brand management is that brands are treated like businesses within the company and brand managers are essentially small-business owners. The job involves monitoring the competitive landscape in the category within which your brand competes; developing strategies to exploit market opportunities; executing those strategies with the help of a cross-functional team; and delivering the sales volume, market share, and profit projections for the business. Brand managers craft elegant business plans and submit them to senior management. Then, when the price of the key ingredient in their product goes through the roof because of locust plagues, they rewrite the business plan from scratch with many more contingencies. They focus on the minutiae of a daily sales volume report, and they dream big dreams when it's time to update the vision for the brand. They approach upper-level management for capital to fund a new product launch or a line extension in much the same way that small business owners go to venture capitalists or banks to fund expansion. If you're interested in developing your leadership skills, brand management is the place to be. Sure, there may be layers of decision makers above you, but how many other settings allow a 30-year-old to own and operate a $60 million business after 5 years of work experience and an MBA? For many aspiring entrepreneurs, brand management looks like the perfect training ground. In the words of one insider, "Brand management is a great way to learn to run a business, and with zero risk." Sound too good to be true? It is. Brand management offers you an opportunity to run a business, but not your business. You inherit the brand's history and the last brand manager's strategy for moving the brand forward. By the time you have executed the old strategy and devised your own, it may be time to move on to another assignment. This is not Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurs build empires from garages by following their personal vision. This is big-time corporate America, where managers add value to existing businesses, then move on to the next assignment. « Return to Previous Page Career Content ©2003 The Employment Channel		What do you like the best about St. Louis? • KHIT's 96 • The Pot Holes • Gus's Pretzels MO Power Ball:  16, 18, 26, 39, 48, Powerball: 22, Power Play: 5 IL Mega Millions:  9, 10, 17, 41, 52, Mega: 19 results posted by 9am following day Saint Louis, MO Sunny 78°F MORE→
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