It’s important for a company to manage their brand image in order to create loyal customers. After all, a brand’s value is limited to the extent that it can sell products.

A brand is so much more than a logo or tagline though. A brand is the personality of the company, and the feeling evoked in consumers when they hear its name.

Many financial advisors maintain that a company’s brand is its most important asset. In 2009, it is estimated that the Coca Cola brand was worth $68.73 billion, and has been the most valuable brand in the world since the rankings started in 2000.

The fact is, everybody needs to manage their brand. Nobody can get away without doing it in some way, shape or form.

Take the Sex Pistols for example. You would think the British 70’s punk band would be the last ones to practice any form of brand management. They were famous for their sneering, offensive “I don’t care” attitude. It’s because of their “I don’t care” attitude that you would think they didn’t care about their brand image.

However, in 1977 the band felt that their rebellious image was in danger after their bass player claimed that he was a huge fan of The Beatles. The band immediately fired him, opting to replace him with Sid Vicious.

Vicious was a terrible bass player. So terrible, in fact, that during concerts they had to turn his amplifier off and have someone backstage play his parts of the songs. Vicious was also impossible to work with, and often got in trouble with the law (more so than his band mates).

So why in the world would the Sex Pistols keep Vicious around if he was so hard to work with and had no musical talent whatsoever?

They kept him around to manage their brand image. Vicious was considered the epitome of the punk image, wearing ripped clothing, studded leather jackets, locks around his neck, and safety pins in his ears, mouth, and nose. The Sex Pistols saw this and wanted Vicious in the band to make their brand synonymous with the punk movement.

Even though the Internet wasn’t around when the Sex Pistols were managing their brand, you can bet they would have taken advantage of it if it had been.

It’s important to develop an online brand strategy for your company. Market research and social media marketing are both great tools for understanding what your customers want, pushing your content in front of them, and getting invaluable feedback.

If you’re interested in how musicians utilize online marketing strategies, you’ll definitely be interested in this post.

About the author

Alyssa Vincent

In her younger years, Alyssa spent hours on MySpace and dreamt about becoming the rock-band Green Day’s publicist. Now, Alyssa has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and specializes in strategic communications and social media marketing; so, it looks like all those hours spent on MySpace weren’t a complete waste of time. Alyssa discovered her knack for public relations during the golden years by organizing a blanket-making drive for her high school. She garnered a large amount of media attention around the event, and had she not been a student, the school might have gotten their hands on her as the new public relations coordinator. She continues to take initiative with the same ferocity for all our clients. When she isn’t geeking out over technology, Alyssa enjoys going to concerts, snowboarding, and reading on her Nook.