Demand for Top-notch Brand Managers Is High
Brand identity is fundamental to business success. If your company doesn’t approach its brand positioning with strategic intent, customers (or competitors) will define the brand for you, and seldom in ways that support long-term growth. According to the Gartner Marketing and Narrative Impact Survey released in 2024, 84% of business leaders and employees believe that achieving their business objectives will require significant reshaping of their brand identity. Skilled brand managers are fundamental to the success of branding initiatives, ensuring that your company can develop a brand identity that differentiates your products or services in crowded markets and inspires positive perceptions among consumers.
Brand managers are responsible for developing a brand strategy and ensuring that it is successfully implemented. To accomplish this, they must have a big-picture view of the competitive landscape and continuously hone their understanding of customer desires and needs through research. They shape these insights into an actionable strategy that addresses all touch points of the customer journey. For instance, customers must experience a consistent, inspiring brand character across advertising campaigns and packaging in both digital and physical spaces. As such, the best brand managers must be cross-functional leaders, sophisticated storytellers, customer-focused strategists, and analytical, data-backed decision-makers. This combination of skills should be demonstrated through a proven track record of successful branding campaigns.
This guide will help you navigate the challenges of finding the right brand management expert for your business. In the sections that follow, we will delve into the core concepts essential for successfully hiring a brand manager, including required skills, job description tips, interview questions, and other evaluation criteria.
What Attributes Distinguish Quality Brand Managers From Others?
Brand managers are essential for helping your company develop and maintain a positive reputation in the marketplace. They can evaluate your current brand positioning and develop strategies for improving that reputation. Or they can create new strategies, whether you are launching a startup, preparing to release a brand new product, or expanding into an unfamiliar market. Regardless of your particular use case, look for exceptional brand managers who possess the following characteristics:
Strategic Vision — Expert brand managers must understand the broader market landscape and be proactive rather than reactive to market shifts and changing consumer trends. They must understand how to evaluate granular data from customer research, digital marketing campaigns, and other sources, and spin those insights into big-picture plans that are actionable and inspire ongoing customer engagement.
Consumer-centric Focus — In order to earn customer retention and loyalty, brand managers must be active listeners who develop strategies that cater to the real-world attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of your brand’s target audience. They should have extensive experience conducting customer research in a variety of formats, such as focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and online surveys, and know how to create customer profiles, so that hard-earned customer insights aren’t ignored or forgotten.
Creativity — Brand managers must be savvy storytellers capable of developing engaging brand narratives and marketing campaigns that resonate with the target audience. Generally, the brand manager’s creativity sets the parameters that others on your team will follow. The strategy they develop should include messaging guidelines for all stages of the customer journey, so that content marketers, social media marketers, sales representatives, and others on your team are capable of delivering cohesive messaging that reinforces your brand character.
Data Analysis Skills — Branding efforts produce large amounts of data, whether from customer research or the subsequent brand marketing campaigns. While product development team members may be adept at interpreting customer research and performance marketers live and breathe in the realm of marketing metrics, brand managers must inhabit both worlds—and others—and understand what the numbers about the overall success of branding initiatives mean, and what steps should be taken to improve the customer experience to expand the company’s market share.
Leadership — Brand managers are responsible for aligning cross-functional teams around a unified brand strategy. To do so, they must be exceptional communicators who can develop guidelines and creative briefs that teams across the organization—such as marketing, sales, customer support, and product development—can understand and follow. Moreover, they must be confident decision-makers, capable of troubleshooting when branding initiatives are not working, and able to redirect team efforts in response to new research or performance data.
Complementary Skills and Experiences
Brand managers must collaborate with teams across the organization to ensure that messaging on all channels and campaigns supports the overall brand positioning. Therefore, look for brand managers who have experience collaborating with teams in the following domains.
Content Marketing — Brand identity is often communicated through expert-level content creation on channels like blogs, social media platforms, and paid advertising campaigns. Therefore, brand managers must have considerable aptitude for creating branding guidelines that ensure content creation supports the brand narrative and positions the brand effectively through written content, videos, and any other formats. They should also be capable of evaluating and optimizing content to ensure it will reach and engage current and potential customers.
Digital Marketing — In today’s business landscape, the online customer experience is essential. Even if your business primarily relies on a robust brick-and-mortar presence, odds are that the customers will first encounter your brand narrative and messaging online. Moreover, online marketing channels are necessary for cultivating ongoing engagement and promoting loyal return customers. Brand managers must collaborate with digital marketers to develop marketing plans and creative briefs that ensure branding standards are maintained across campaigns. Brand managers should understand essential marketing strategies and techniques pertaining to search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising (e.g., Google Ads), social media marketing campaigns, email marketing campaigns, and more.
Product Development — Customer research is fundamental to both brand and product development. Ideally, these efforts should be unified, so that the same customer insights that guide product design also shape the overarching brand narrative and identity. While some companies may think of branding as an add-on that is applied just before a new product launch, this is a grave mistake. Ongoing collaboration throughout the development process ensures the brand character and values are integrated throughout the product.
Graphic Design — A brand’s visual identity relies on eye-catching and memorable graphic elements. Therefore, brand managers should understand graphic design best practices, allowing them to better collaborate with the company’s designers in developing resonant marketing materials. Also, a working knowledge of design software, such as Adobe Creative Suite, can be highly beneficial.
Public Relations — Brand managers often deal with public relations teams to manage the brand’s image and reputation. Media relation skills, crisis communication, and press release writing are essential for maintaining a positive public presence.
Sales — An understanding of sales processes and strategies can help brand managers align marketing and branding efforts with sales goals. This alignment ensures that branding initiatives effectively support the company’s revenue objectives.
How Can You Identify the Ideal Brand Manager for You?
Hiring the right brand manager is a critical decision that can significantly impact your brand’s ability to engage and retain customers. To begin the hiring process, clarify which problems the new hire will help your business solve. Are you launching a new product or expanding into a new market? Does your current brand identity need a refresh? Once you’ve outlined your intentions for the brand manager and the projects this new individual will oversee, it’s time to consider which candidates are best suited for your needs. Here are factors to consider:
Previous Work — Look for brand managers with a proven track record of developing innovative brand strategies and campaigns that are aligned with your use case and that demonstrate quantifiable achievements. A portfolio will reveal the candidate’s core skills in the realms of creativity and strategic thinking, and it should showcase their ability to orient teams around a shared vision for the brand. The candidate should also be able to describe how the strategies they developed and implemented led to meaningful data-backed wins in the form of improved customer engagement, conversion, and retention.
Industry Knowledge — You may also want to focus on candidates with previous experience working in similar industries to your brand. For instance, if your company is a B2C e-commerce company, consider looking for a brand manager who has worked with other e-commerce or B2C companies. Their familiarity with the industry will help them understand the types of branding initiatives that will be most effective for driving online sales and encouraging repeat customers. While industry knowledge isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, candidates with the right background will be able to leverage their understanding of the competitive landscape to set realistic benchmarks and identify opportunities for differentiation.
Adaptability — While a brand manager may come with seasoned expertise in your industry, it’s equally important for them to demonstrate flexibility, quick thinking, and an enthusiasm for learning. They must always keep the customer front and center, listen closely to their needs and desires, and never assume that methods that have been working will continue to resonate into the future. Brand managers must be capable of responding to new data and market trends in real time.
Cultural Fit — An effective brand manager should be one of your brand’s strongest representatives. After all, if you want your customers to continue coming back and promoting the brand through word-of-mouth and advocacy, you need a brand manager who understands your unique value proposition. As such, look for brand managers who are aligned with your company’s core values and mission. They should also demonstrate a passion for fostering collaborative and positive team dynamics.
It’s also important to consider which level of brand management talent your project or use case requires:
Junior brand managers will have one to three years of experience and demonstrate foundational knowledge of customer research, developing branding guidelines for existing brands, and ensuring campaigns are successfully deployed across channels and platforms. They are most suited for supporting roles or small projects with limited budgets and low complexity, as they will often lack the strategic experience needed to lead brand activations for new companies or products.
Mid-level brand managers typically possess three to seven years of experience and are capable of handling more complex projects, including new product launches or rebranding campaigns. They should demonstrate a proven track record of successfully developing, executing, and optimizing brand strategies with cross-functional teams. Mid-level brand managers are often ideal for businesses looking for a mix of affordability and expertise.
Senior brand managers should boast at least eight years of extensive experience and demonstrate exceptional strategic vision, leadership, and innovative thinking. These individuals will have led major branding initiatives and achieved significant data-backed results. These experienced brand managers are especially suited for high-stakes projects or when the business needs to undergo significant branding transformations.
How to Write a Brand Manager Job Description for Your Project
Writing a comprehensible and well-structured brand manager job description is essential for attracting candidates suited for your business needs. Start with a clear and specific title, such as “Brand Manager,” “Digital Brand Manager,” or “Global Brand Manager.” Then write an engaging overview highlighting the role’s significance and impact on the company. Be sure to mention the industry, the scope of projects, and the company culture, so that potential candidates have a clear understanding of whether they are a good match for the organization. Also mention whether the job is full time or freelance, in-office or remote.
Then outline the core responsibilities for the brand management role. You will want to include tasks such as conducting market research, developing innovative brand strategies, managing campaigns, collaborating with cross-functional teams on campaign rollouts, and ensuring brand consistency. Clearly articulate the goals and challenges the brand manager will address. For instance, you might aim to reposition your brand in a competitive market or develop a new brand identity to attract a younger demographic.
You should then list the necessary qualifications. This might include a bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or a related field, along with relevant years of experience in brand management. Mention any specific skills or knowledge, such as digital marketing experience (e.g., social media marketing or email marketing) or knowledge of particular markets (e.g., B2B SaaS). Don’t forget to include essential attributes, such as strategic and creative thinking, excellent written and verbal communication skills, leadership experience, industry knowledge, and ability to anticipate and adapt to changing market trends or consumer preferences.
What Are the Most Important Brand Manager Interview Questions?
Once you’ve identified the top candidates for your brand manager role, schedule an interview with each candidate. It’s best practice to ask each person the same questions and take notes as you go. Consider adapting the following questions for the interviews:
How do you approach developing a brand strategy? How do you integrate market and consumer insights and ensure alignment with overall business objectives?
This question gives the candidate an opportunity to describe a strategic planning process for effective brand management. They should talk about how they conduct customer research through focus groups, online surveys, or individual interviews. Their process may also involve coordinating with product development teams on customer research. They should then describe how they integrate this information with the brand’s business priorities to develop a brand value proposition that articulates how the brand stands out vis-a-vis competitors. The candidate should also describe how they involve senior stakeholders in the process to ensure the brand strategy supports the company’s long-term goals and priorities.
Can you walk me through the process of running a branding campaign, from initial concept to post-campaign analysis, highlighting real-world examples of challenges you have faced along the way?
A brand campaign is a focused, tactical marketing initiative designed to accomplish priorities articulated in a brand strategy. Here, the candidate should describe how they work with other team members to plan marketing efforts that maintain the brand’s tone and personality. They should describe how they develop guidelines and creative briefs that inform content development for social media marketing, email marketing, search-optimized websites, and other campaigns and formats. They should talk about setting clear, measurable goals and mention which tools and data they use to analyze the ultimate performance of the campaign. By asking the candidate to describe specific challenges, you should also expect to hear them describe their ability to pivot and adapt based on real-time data.
Can you give an example of how you have used data analytics to inform and optimize a brand campaign? What tools did you use, and what were the outcomes?
While the candidate should have mentioned data analysis practices in their previous response, it may be valuable to ask them to speak specifically about how they set clear objectives and which tools they use to evaluate outcomes. For instance, the candidate may mention how they use Google Analytics to track website traffic or HubSpot to monitor the click-through rate of email marketing campaigns. Most importantly, they should talk about how they interpret the data and make decisions about campaign optimizations.
Why do you want to work with our brand?
Given that brand managers are essential brand advocates, the ideal candidate should express genuine passion and appreciation for your company’s values and market position. This simple question can be exceptionally illuminating, allowing you to distinguish between two or more highly qualified candidates.
Why Do Companies Hire Brand Managers?
Brand managers help companies address a fundamental question: Why should consumers choose your products or services over your competitors? Brand managers identify what customers value and need and then develop a brand strategy that highlights how your company is the best choice for them. They develop creative brand narratives that authentically reflect the brand positioning, and then work with stakeholders across the organization to ensure a consistent brand message is clearly communicated at all stages of the customer journey in written, visual, and multimedia formats.
Branding is not a once-and-done operation. It’s not just about developing a strong and memorable logo or a catchy tagline. Rather, it requires vigilant attention to customers and industry trends. Brand managers use data-driven techniques to measure the ongoing effectiveness of branding efforts, refine strategies, and make significant, measurable impacts on brand performance. By hiring a brand manager, business owners invest in a role that directly contributes to building and sustaining a strong, influential brand that can drive long-term growth and customer loyalty.
