For every brand, someone has to serve as the brand manager. It’s a difficult but necessary job. If you run your own company by yourself, naturally you’ll fill this role.

It’s hard to define exactly what a brand manager does on a daily basis because there are so many different tasks. It’s also difficult because every brand makes its own demands on its manager. A brand manager oversees everything related to the brand and takes responsibility for its success and failure. This includes promotions, sales, image management, communicating, networking, studying analytics and more.

A good brand manager takes ownership of the brand. They become a resource for your business for all things branding. They have to know the brand through and through. They need to understand the brand, the products, the company, its target market, the industry and current trends both in the industry and in all industries that relate to it. They need to understand market shares, sales figures, advocacy numbers and so on, and watch these trends constantly in real-time.

He or she needs to have a strong vision for the brand and come up with strategies for achieving that vision. They are the brand’s owner, not just a helper. They must be able to stay on track working toward the attainment of this vision. One of their main roles is to constantly come up with ideas for furthering the brand.

Brand managers have to operate on instinct. There is no textbook for brand management and there are no tried and true methods since all brands are different. So, he or she needs to have good intuition and to know when to follow their gut and make decisions spontaneously.

Communication is one of a brand manager’s most important skills. They need to communicate and collaborate well since they are the link in many of the tasks that hold your brand strategy together. They need to work well with different teams.

Finally, a brand manager needs to be able to work well under pressure. There is a great deal of pressure on them to perform and if their strategies fail, it’s all on their shoulders.

In most large companies, brand managers have assistant brand managers, to whom they can delegate tasks. This is a great help but it requires the manager to communicate with and train his or her team well.