Your brand consists of many interconnected elements, such as visual elements like colors and typefaces as well as nuances like odors, sounds, and philosophical tenets. You invested a great deal into developing these components, which will solidify and support your brand identity. Hence, your main goal is to manage these brand assets proactively so that your employees can recognize and make use of them.

By gathering and managing all your company's assets in one location, Brand Asset Management (BAM) enables brands to provide a consistent consumer experience (CX).

For a brand to succeed, the customer experience must be consistent. It elevates a brand above competitors, develops loyalty, and increases trust. Positive brand interactions foster a feeling of dependability and professionalism, both of which are essential for boosting a company's reputation and attracting new customers. For businesses to succeed in the long run, brands must focus on providing a consistent CX.

By offering a consolidated platform for storing and distributing assets, brand asset management software supports consistent use and management of your assets. This guarantees that brand guidelines are applied across all platforms and customer touchpoints, resulting in a consistent brand identity and user experience.

This article discusses brand asset management software's definition and advantages, the significance of providing a consistent customer experience, and how brand asset management software may assist in achieving consistency. Additionally, it offers advice on how to use the software most efficiently.

What is Brand Asset Management Software?

Brand asset management (BAM) software uses the concepts of digital asset management to develop a method for more effectively managing all your brand assets. However, it differs from digital asset management in a few ways. It can store all the digital content and standards used by an organization, including logos, approved color schemes, preselected typefaces, and more.

All this data can be centralized using this program, making it accessible to everyone who needs to produce or evaluate content. These software systems provide a range of services, including asset planning and execution, asset review and approval, expedited asset development, and storage under one roof.

Features of a Brand Asset Management Software

Here are some of the notable features of brand asset management software.

1. Organization of brand assets

This software platform enables teams to upload and organize brand assets like logos, photos, videos, and documents. AI-assisted metadata tagging and search capabilities make it easy to locate certain brand assets fast. Users can also tag each item with descriptive tags such as the date generated, file type, or usage permissions, making it easier to filter and discover the assets later.

By enabling version control along with tagging, brand asset management software can also help with asset storage, versioning, and organization. This enables teams to publish the most recent version of an asset while also keeping track of previous versions. Version control also makes it easy to revert to a previous version if necessary. 

2. Access management

Access management features in brand asset management software typically ensure the security and controlled distribution of brand assets. Access management features can be broken down into the following:

• User Roles and Permissions: Administrators can define user roles and permissions with brand asset management software. This feature ensures that only authorized users have access to certain brand assets and can perform only authorized actions. Administrators, for example, can create a user role that only allows read-only access to the assets or a role that allows users to download, edit, or share the assets.
• Access Control: Only authorized users have access to specific brand assets. This feature aids in the prevention of unauthorized asset usage, distribution, or modification. The access control feature can be enabled at various levels, such as assets, folders, or projects.
• Workflow approval: Before brand assets are distributed, the software provides approval workflows that require specific team members to review and approve their use. Approval workflows can be tailored to an organization's specific requirements.
• Watermarking and sharing restrictions: Watermarking and download restrictions are provided by brand asset management software to control who can download assets and under what conditions. Assets can be watermarked to prevent unauthorized use or distribution. Download restrictions can be set up to restrict asset access to only authorized users and to control asset use outside of the software.
• Activity Logs and Audit Trails: Administrators can monitor who is accessing and modifying brand assets using activity logs and audit trails provided by brand asset management software. This feature allows for visibility into asset usage and ensures that any unauthorized activity is detected and addressed as soon as possible.

3. Brand asset sharing and distribution.

Organizations can use brand asset management platforms to distribute brand assets to external stakeholders such as partners, vendors, or agencies. This function ensures that external stakeholders have access to the most recent brand assets and that they are used following brand guidelines.

It also enables organizations to tailor asset-sharing options. This means they can designate which assets are available to which teams, departments, or users. It also allows them to define access permissions for each asset, such as read-only or edit access.

This also facilitates creative collaboration by offering workflows that allow teams to work on projects, campaigns, or other initiatives. This feature ensures that all team members have access to the same brand assets.

4. Brand asset analytics and insights

Brand asset management software often contains tracking and analytics tools that provide insights into how brand assets are being used and their impact on the organization's overall brand strategy. Here are some features for tracking and analytics:

• Usage and performance metrics: Brand asset management software can track usage metrics to assist organizations in determining which brand assets are most popular and how they are used. This includes information such as asset views, downloads, and shares. It can also track performance metrics to assist businesses in understanding the impact of their brand assets on business performance. This includes information about asset performance, such as the number of leads generated, or revenue generated by a specific campaign.
• User Analytics: User analytics in brand asset management software can help organizations understand who is using brand assets and how they are being used. This includes information about user activity, such as frequency of login, time spent on the platform, and asset usage.
• Reporting: Reports generated by brand asset management software can provide insights into how brand assets are used and their impact on business performance. These reports can be tailored to specific organizational requirements and can help guide future brand asset management strategies.

5. Brand guideline implementation and compliance

A brand guideline library, which houses brand guidelines and standards, is frequently included in brand asset management software. This enables users to refer to guidelines when creating and sharing brand assets, ensuring that all brand assets are consistent and meet brand standards.

Use cases for Brand Asset Management Software

Brand asset management software can be useful across multiple industry verticals. Here are some ways in which brand asset management can be useful:

• Brand Management: Brand management teams can use brand asset management software to ensure that all brand assets adhere to the brand's identity and messaging across all touchpoints. The brand compliance software can offer analytics and insights to help these teams pinpoint areas where brand consistency can be enhanced, while also serving as a centralized location for all brand assets and guidelines. For example, Artwork Flow can assist brands in remaining compliant by simplifying proofing tasks.
• Sales and Customer Service: Sales and customer service teams can use brand asset management software to access and use brand assets in customer communications. This ensures that all customer-facing materials, such as sales presentations and customer support documentation, match the brand's identity and messaging. The software can also provide analytics and insights to assist these teams in improving their customer communications.
• Product Development: Brand asset management software can help product development teams ensure that all product-related materials, such as packaging, labels, and user manuals, are consistent with the brand's identity and messaging. The software can also provide version control to ensure that all materials are up-to-date. Artwork Flow has assisted brands in cutting their packaging and label artwork approval timelines by more than half.
• Marketing and Advertising: Marketing and advertising teams can use brand asset management software to organize and manage their brand assets, such as logos, images, and videos. They can easily share these assets with other teams, such as creative agencies, and ensure that the assets are always up to date. The software can also generate usage guidelines to ensure that all advertising materials adhere to the brand's identity and messaging.
• Human Resources: Human resources teams can use brand asset management software to ensure that all internal communications, such as employee newsletters and company presentations, are consistent with the brand's identity and messaging. Access management features can also be included in the software to ensure that only authorized employees have access to specific brand assets.

Delivering a Consistent Customer Experience

A consistent customer experience means that each time customers interact with the brand, they know what to expect across all channels and touchpoints. This includes maintaining a consistent brand voice and feel across apps, websites, and physical stores at each stage of the customer journey.

Why is it important to maintain CX consistency across different touchpoints and channels?

Customers who have a consistent customer experience have a more cohesive and positive perception of the brand, which can lead to increased loyalty and advocacy.

• Builds trust and loyalty: Consistency across multiple touchpoints and channels fosters customer trust, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business.
• Enhances brand recognition: Consistent messaging and branding across multiple channels and touchpoints can aid in the development of brand recognition and awareness.
• Improves customer satisfaction: It instills a sense of familiarity and predictability in customers, making it easier for them to navigate and interact with a company. As a result, customer satisfaction improves, and the likelihood of positive reviews and referrals increases.

Key challenges in delivering a consistent customer experience

There are several challenges in delivering a consistent customer experience, including:

• Channel proliferation: With the rise of new digital channels and touchpoints, brands may find it difficult to maintain consistency across all channels.
• Team and resource constraints: Maintaining consistency across multiple teams and departments can be challenging without proper creative collaboration tools, especially when resources and budgets are limited.
• Time-consuming manual processes: Manually managing and organizing your brand assets and guidelines can be time-consuming and error-prone, resulting in inconsistencies.
• Lack of visibility and insights: It can be difficult to identify areas of improvement and optimization without access to data and insights. This can lead to delays in asset development.
• Localization: Brands often operate across different regions with different languages as well as regulatory compliances. It can be difficult to adapt messaging and content for different regions and languages while maintaining compliance and consistency.

How does brand asset management software help?

Brand asset management software can help overcome the challenges of delivering a consistent customer experience in several ways:

• Ensuring brand guidelines are followed consistently: Brand asset management software can help ensure that all teams and channels are following the same guidelines by centralizing brand guidelines. This can aid in brand consistency and identity reinforcement.
• Centralizing brand assets: Brand asset management software can centralize all brand assets, making it simple for teams to access and use the most recent assets. This can assist in ensuring that all assets are consistent across all touchpoints and channels.
• Providing analytics and insights: Brand asset management software can provide data and insights on how brand assets are used across different touchpoints and channels. This can assist brands in identifying areas for optimization and improvement, as well as tracking performance against key metrics.

Best Practices with Brand Asset Management Software

To use brand asset management software effectively for delivering a consistent customer experience, one can keep in mind the following pointers.

• Create and maintain up-to-date brand guidelines: You can use brand management software to create comprehensive guidelines that define your brand's visual and messaging elements and keep them up to date.
• Ensure all teams and channels have access to the same brand assets: A BAM solution can enable you to centralize your brand assets in the software and make them available to all teams and channels to ensure that everyone is using the most up-to-date materials.
• Provide training and support for using brand asset management software effectively: You need to invest in training your team on how to use the software effectively. This will ensure that they understand the importance of maintaining a consistent brand image and have the knowledge to do so.
• Regularly review and update brand assets and guidelines: You must review and update your brand assets and guidelines regularly to ensure that they are still relevant and effective for your brand's messaging and visual identity.

There is no fixed set of rules for brand asset management. It often depends on the brands and their requirements. However, when it comes to maintaining a consistent CX, the above set of practices can be helpful while getting started. 

Conclusion

Brand asset management software is critical to providing a consistent customer experience. Not only is it an extension of a digital asset management solution, but it can also help with sales and marketing efforts, as well as help with product development. If you want to see how AI-assisted brand asset management solutions can help you, make sure to book a demo today for a personalized walkthrough with our experts.