What Are the Most Common Brand Management Challenges? [Survey Results]

No matter the industry, there are some common brand management challenges that marketers contend with these days. To get a clearer understanding of what those obstacles are and how they can be overcome, we recently developed and administered a survey for marketing pros. This poll included 18 questions, and it took about five to six minutes to complete.

Its purpose? To find out how marketers spend ― and occasionally waste ― their time, as well as what their day-to-day challenges are.

What We Expected

Some of this survey's results make total sense:

• Just about every organization has expanded its marketing channels beyond analog platforms, like print media and broadcast channels. (Hello, social video!)
  
  
• Virtually everyone in marketing understands the vital role of social media, especially in terms of reaching millennials and Generation Z.
  
  
• Most businesses are optimizing their digital marketing materials for mobile viewing. After all, people now consume approximately half of the world's content on mobile devices.

When Assets Go Missing

One of this survey's striking revelations is that many marketers struggle to locate company assets.

Some organizations collect terrific photos, videos, print ads and audio clips, only to misplace many of them. Properties often get lost when a company lacks a streamlined, unified digital asset management (DAM) system. Some outfits use multiple platforms, and others rely on free but inadequate tools. When assets are spread among several systems, though, content can easily disappear.

Worse yet, when you can't find the right assets to marry to your marketing message, your entire advertising campaign will be less effective. Thus, a fast, reliable, intuitive and easy-to-search DAM system is crucial.

Accentuating Access

Asset access is another tricky issue for many companies. Many business leaders are starting to realize that they don't have to give all of their employees access to all of their digital properties. A national or global team, for instance, might have permission to use every digital asset, but many departments only need to utilize certain items.

Why restrict access? If fewer people can handle a certain file, it's less likely that it'll be mislabeled, misfiled or altered in an undesirable way.

Data's All, Folks

Many companies are outstanding at collecting data; they possess long lists of customer names, addresses, phone numbers and other pieces of personal information.

At the same time, some organizations have trouble putting such data to efficient use. Keep in mind that data sets are especially valuable when they help you to target your marketing. When you know which groups take in which types of media, you can create effective print, broadcast, Facebook, Twitter and other campaigns, each of which addresses specific demographics.

In sum, an organization that invests the time, money and attention that are required to properly deploy data has major advantages over one that doesn't.