Brand Management:
Building up Strength from Within

Strong brands are like light­hous­es, and this goes for the real estate busi­ness as well. They provide orien­ta­tion and build trust for clients, stake­hold­ers, and staff alike. The consis­tent and compelling presen­ta­tion of a brand will yield a posi­tive effect both on your busi­ness volume and your work­force. In other words, consis­tent brand­ing is a neces­si­ty. As other B2B sectors have shown, commu­ni­cat­ing mere facts is no longer suffi­cient. In our Valdivia News­room, we have present­ed you with a number of object-relat­ed approach­es, such as Farm­ing 2.0. This Expert Tip, deal­ing with thought-provok­ing impuls­es for those reson­si­ble for brand manage­ment, comple­ments the approach.

Approach­es to Better Brand Management

The Deutsche Marken­mon­i­tor (German brand moni­tor) regu­lar­ly outlines current trends and success factors in brand manage­ment – just like they did in their latest 2023 issue¹. Accord­ing to this study, most enter­pris­es may be well aware of the impor­tance of their own brand. Howev­er, there are deficits with regard to imple­ment­ing their brand contents in the real world. Corpo­rate design, for instance, which repre­sents the brand visu­al­ly, is often non-exis­tent. This is espe­cial­ly predom­i­nant in the way they present them­selves in the inter­net: incon­sis­ten­cy both in their visu­al presen­ta­tion and in their content strat­e­gy. Other areas with ‘room for improve­ment’ include engage­ment of the work­force and   KPI moni­tor­ing in brand aware­ness, brand pref­er­ence, and brand loyalty.

The Crown of Your Brand Iden­ti­ty: the Corpo­rate Book

Lots of time, money and thought have gone into your brand­ing? Why not have some­one, prefer­ably a profes­sion­al writer who knows how to put a dry matter into engag­ing words, write it all down?

A print­ed and bound corpo­rate book is a unique way to present your brand – from your core values to case stud­ies of your work. Further options include an enter­tain­ing histo­ry of your enter­prise, a brief outline of the respon­si­bilites of your differ­ent depart­ments, or client and staff state­ments and inter­views. It would also provide a very suit­able frame­work for show­cas­ing your outstand­ing achieve­ments or projects.

Such an image book would truly make your enter­prise stand out! It is an ideal present to give away at inter­nal as well as exter­nal occa­sions – and will also effec­tive­ly support in the reten­tion of your skilled work­force: The shere exis­tence of such a book will strength­en the bond with your enterprise.

Five Tips to Make Your Brand Stronger

In addi­tion to the above-mentioned key aspects, the Marken­mon­i­tor study also lists a number of concrete recom­men­da­tions for improv­ing your enter­prise brand’s effect:

• Strength­en brand awareness
  Every­one in the enter­prise needs to under­stand the impor­tane of a strong brand; clear regu­la­tions for the respon­si­bil­i­ty for brand manage­ment need to be in place.
• Make your brand perceptible
  You enter­prise’s each and every single state­ment and presen­ta­tion need to be in line with the brand. This involves its visu­al repre­sen­ta­tion just as much as its lingo and contents. The differ­ent touch­points in digi­tal media or consis­tent employ­er brand­ing are two of the areas in which to put this into practice.
• Involve your workforce
  Well-informed, enthu­si­as­tic employ­ees are key brand embas­sadors – most of all when in contact with your clients. Whoev­er backs their enter­prise brand will also strength­en moti­va­tion among colleagues and will speak well about you in their private commu­ni­ty as well.
• Incor­po­rate your services
  Strength­en your profile and compet­i­tive­ness by always portray­ing your port­fo­lio in the context of your brand values – plan­ning a resi­den­tial build­ing in a fami­ly-friend­ly way, for instance, can demon­strate your sense of social respon­si­bil­i­ty. This way, a brand comes to life and leads to inno­v­a­tive impuls­es for your service and prop­er­ty portfolio.
• Protect your online brand
  Protect­ing brands in the digi­tal sphere is becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant with copy­ing and manip­u­lat­ing being so very easy. This begins with regis­ter­ing your digi­tal brand presen­ta­tion as a multi­me­dia brand. Nowa­days, AI-driven apps are avail­able for web moni­tor­ing, which provides addi­tion­al safety.

In the back­ground, it is always the same prin­ci­ple that is govern­ing every­thing: Strong and sustain­ably success­ful brands will constant­ly renew them­selves from with­in. They will never be stat­ic but always be adap­tive, yet never lose touch with their core features. So, yes, absolute­ly, courage and inven­tive­ness are possi­ble, even desir­able in brand manage­ment — as long as the core’s struc­ture is ’earth­quake-proof’.

¹ „Deutsch­er Marken­mon­i­tor 2023/2024 – Entschei­der­studie zu Trends und Erfol­gs­fak­toren der Marken­führung“, Befra­gung von 336 Manager:innen mit Verant­wor­tung für die strate­gis­che Führung einer oder mehrerer Marken; Hrsg. Rat für Formge­bung, gmk Marken­ber­atung, German Brand Insti­tute 07/2023 (German brand moni­tor 2023/2024 – a deci­sion-maker study on trends and success factors in brand manage­ment, survey with 336 managers respon­si­ble for the strate­gic manage­ment of one or more brands)

(Image source:new office GmbH)