Examining the Evolution of Brand Management

Topic Paper #1
Examining the evolution of brand management
It has become almost impossible today to rely on the old tactics in brand management in the massively competitive business world. However, the shift from the old ways of managing brands has not been voluntary (Schrage, 2016). Firms have had to go back to the drawing boards numerously after it emerged that they could not survive and retain sustainability in modern industries if they did not adapt to contemporary business trends and needs. Technology has
mainly been at the forefront in forcing change in how companies manage their brands (Saura et al., 2019). Since the internet debuted in the late 1980s, it has found unprecedented relevance in almost all business functions. This has done a great deal to change how businesses do their dayto-day activities.
Marketing is one of the functions that has attained unprecedented relevance to businesses today and information technology has mainly made work easier for salespeople. Companies now do not over-rely on traditional marketing channels such as window displays and posters as they did (Ertimur & Coskuner-Balli, 2015). And when businesses had ignored some technological solutions such as social media platforms by dismissing them as places for idlers, they have found them almost indispensable to their marketing strategies. Brands are now on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter exchanging jokes with customers and interacting with a human face (Verhoef et al., 2016). About three decades ago, staff on the shop floors used to be gloomy and bored with little interest in impressing customers since the competition was not as stiff as it is today. Monopolies characterized the past, unlike the present and the future, where companies must be as friendly as possible to win customer trust and loyalty.
Big data analytics is the other IT aspect that has played one of the most significant roles in changing how companies manage their operations today and the advantages have been immense. Big data helps a company understand customer needs without necessarily consulting the customers (Sc...