A brand manager is responsible for a single brand within a company, who is given the authority to operate independently in coordinating marketing activities for one brand. The goal for a brand manager is to focus on implementing marketing plan for a brand. The advantage of this system is that each brand manager has more freedom when coordinating the brand's marketing plans and activities based on their own objectives. They think in terms of their brand names; in other words, each of them focuses on their own target culture, market, society, and benefits. The disadvantage of this structure is that brand managers may compete with each other on their performances and the utilization of marketing resources in the company, which may hurt the long-term profitability of the company as a whole.
A product line manager manages all of the brands and products within a product category. The advantage is that the product line managers can tailor a more specific marketing mix and develop a better target market profile to different product line when there are different varieties of products within one brand, which means better specialization in marketing.
Deutsch: Klassischer Marketing-Mix Franzika eines ...
English: Representation of a Marketing-Mix with th...
Relationship between trade marks and brandHowever, the product line managers have some limitations because each manager also has to work with other product line managers to ensure that their marketing activities reflect the same brand image. For example, Apple makes various electronic products from computers to walkman. Yet, they all emphasize on the brand image of innovativeness and unique design. All of Apple's product line conveys high quality instead of mixing up with some cheap and durable products. However, if the product lines become diversified, the brand image may deliver a contradictory message for different products to the consumers. For example, RJR-Nabisco used to produce both cigarette and cookies, which are two very distinct products under...