Enzo Woo's Blog

As a keenly interested marketing student with a particular interest in Brand Management, I was doing some personal research. Through this informal investigation, I was able to come up with a laundry list of a Brand Manager’s duties, which included dealing with: finances, advertising agencies, media agencies, promotions agencies, PR agencies, design agencies, legal staff, R&D, market researchers, supply chain & logistics technicians, and trade marketing specialists. Clearly, this is an enormous breadth of employees, but a spread required of any successful brand. As much as it struck me how many faces there needed to be for a brand to be held on its highest possible pedestal, it amazed me what commonality was linking all of these very different divisions.

Coke & Pepsi did NOT get this far dilly-dallying with MIS

My classmate and friend David Huynh asserts the importance of Management Information Systems, which can be seen in detail in his eloquently written blog, but in a nutshell his declarations are absolutely founded. Information systems are the lifeblood of brand management, and it always struck me how underrated, for the lack of a better term, properly maintained networks were. I could go through every single facet of a successful brand; using 7-Up as an example, how can we expect clear finances, accurate agency recommendations and briefs, relevant legal consul, product innovation, market surveys, and punctual logistics to be provided without up-to-the-second information systems?

Why don't we see 7-Up marketed like this anymore? MIS serves as a lifeblood for innovation.

It is simply impossible for a company to take the proper steps and appeal to the right people at the right time without ample information telling them how to do just that; with the lack of a nearly completely transparent information flow, the cogs cannot work with each other to provide a well-oiled, fluid machine. (Watch the video in the link!)

All those parts need serious oiling

And here we were, thinking marketing was all about flashy graphics and design. That school of thought, best reserved for a time long in the past, is completely contradicted by the realities of the modern brand manager. Many seek jobs that give them an opportunity to uphold and stimulate a high-functioning brand, but without impeccable management information systems, a brand is no better than the paper its printed on – and that is a hyperbole that may not be as far-fetched as you think.

Brand managers do not want to be left in the 50s; that's where MIS comes in

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