 |
|
Home > Product Marketing > Managing a Product's Brand
Managing a product means managing the product's brand, its perception in the world, and the emotions that it evokes. With a new software product that has never been seen or tried before, the sky is wide open, and there is no history of the product or its brand for the Product Manager to call on. The Product Manager must use his or her creativity in developing the brand and ensuring its consistent application.
Managing a Product's Brand
In companies where the brand is the company's #1 asset (think Consumer Packaged Goods firms), the title Brand Manager is reserved for the role that is equivalent to Product Manager in a technology software company. Nevertheless, the software Product Manager is also a Brand Manager for his/her products, regardless of whether the word "brand" is ever explicitly used to describe what the software Product Manager is managing.Managing a product means managing the product's brand, its perception in the world, and the emotions that it evokes. With a new software product that has never been seen or tried before, the sky is wide open, and there is no history of the product or its brand for the Product Manager to call on. The Product Manager must use his or her creativity in developing the brand and ensuring its consistent application.
Mind Mapping
A great exercise for branding a new product is Mind Mapping. Here's how it works:- Grab an empty wall and write the name of the product in big letters on a single sheet of paper. Tape the paper in the middle of the wall.
- Brainstorm all the emotional words or phrases describing the product that you wish to convey as part of its brand. Terms like "empowering," "refreshing," and "humble" are examples of words that convey a lot of emotion. Write each one down on a sticky note and then stick them anywhere on the wall. (A thesaurus is a handy tool for this step of the exercise!) You may need go away and come back over a couple of days, because each time you re-approach the wall you will find that some words trigger new associations that you didn't think of the day before. Open up this exercise to others in your company, and keep a pad of sticky notes and a marker handy so that everyone can write down new terms.
- When you've exhausted all these ideas, start sorting all the sticky notes into related bundles, based on the type of emotion they evoke. Maybe "fresh" and "enlightening" belong together, for example.
- Finally, synthesize your themes into concise statements about your product. Each statement should say something unique about your product. Once you can write three or four statements on a fresh piece of paper, you'll have a first definition of your product's brand.
