Lidia Lüttin and the team at Bynder help their clients build, manage and scale their brands globally through branding automation and marketing.
“Run as a Software as a Service model, Bynder is an integrated solution that enables brand managers to achieve end-to-end brand consistency,” the CMO says.
We recently checked in with Lidia to get her insight on the challenges facing companies today when it comes to managing their brands and why they should consider branding automation. Here’s what she had to say:
What sets Bynder apart from other workflow management software?
Bynder’s Creative Project Management, as we call it, targets the needs of brand managers and marketers who collaborate globally with other departments or agencies. Bynder simplifies time-intensive tasks such as the reviewing and approving of marketing materials. As opposed to other tools, Bynder does not solely focus on the creation of collateral itself, but on the entire content lifecycle. Thanks to smart integration with our other modules, such as Web-to-Print, marketers can establish effective control from the creation to the final distribution of branded content. Moreover, simplicity, intuitiveness, and user-friendliness are our main focus points when developing software. In other words, you don’t need an IT background to use our workflow!
Why is brand management so important in today’s business world?
In today’s fast-moving world, competitive advantage can only be achieved by creating relevant customer experiences and a unique brand image. As differences between products get smaller and smaller, product quality does not translate into success anymore. Companies, therefore, invest millions every year not only to develop their brand but also protect it from value loss through the inconsistent application of brand guidelines (e.g. wrong logo usage). Brand management brings a strategic approach to managing a brand and aims to control the whole branding lifecycle in order to increase the value of a company.
What companies do you think do it most effectively?
There are many brands that do it right. Successful brand management should be a long-term strategy rather than a job role. Think about the brands that you remember from your childhood. Brands like Coca Cola or LEGO have managed to be consistent in their branding throughout generations despite adapting and modernizing their branding over time. This is because they are strategic in their approach to brand management.
What is branding automation?
While brand managers take the enforcement of their brand guidelines very seriously, being 100 percent consistent in all marketing communication is very difficult in big organizations. Achieving brand consistency throughout all channels is a huge challenge. Branding automation is a software solution that helps brand managers to establish more effective control throughout all channels and ultimately helps them to achieve end-to-end brand consistency.
Why should companies consider branding automation?
Some of the major issues branding automation solutions can help with are:
inconsistent branding, expensive brand costs and long time to market. Branding automation helps marketers increase operational efficiency and focus on growing the brand value of the company sustainably.
Where do companies run into the biggest frustrations with brand management?
Millions are spent yearly on developing intangible branding elements such as logos, fonts, tone of voice and color schemes, to name a few. Brand specialists are struggling more and more to manage the potentially business-critical issues associated with the mismanagement of their brand. The current marketing ecosystem puts brand managers at risk of losing control of the content that needs to be edited and published by other departments that often ignore or misappropriate brand and stylistic guidelines. At the end of the day, incorrect usage of branding elements can damage a brand image.
What are the most common mistakes or oversights you see companies making?
Brand managers focus on correcting inconsistencies in branding. So they re-create branded collateral and hire PR agencies rather than tackling the problem at its source. What they should be doing is investing in solutions that help brand managers manage and control the entire content lifecycle.
What advice do you find yourself repeating over and over again to clients?
Brand managers should focus their efforts on creating a long-term strategy to build the foundation for a successful brand in the future, instead of simply focusing on short-term goals. This also involves creating new processes that promote consistent branding in the future.
What advice do you have for brands on making collaborative project management easier?
Brands should utilize available technology to improve collaboration on a global scale.
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