Digital Brand Management: A Company and Consumer Perspective

Abstract

The branding of a business is increasingly done through digital channels, mainly social media. In this paper, Digital Brand Management is explored from a company and consumer perspective and analyzed based on five case studies. The data was collected in November 2015 by Arcada´s International Business Management master students on a study trip in three Nordic countries. The identified learning points indicate that creating or rebuilding the brand story is critical for successful brand management. Managerially this story should be communicated on multiple digital platforms with different complementing content to create a buzz and engage loyal followers. As an ultimate goal the story can lead to fans that share their brand experiences with other fans or potential fans. This requires high managerial competence in social media. Finally, we learned that everything needs to be measured in real time and brand management decisions should be data driven as opposed to gut instinct decision making.