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Technology and analytics|How AI Can Power Brand Management
Technology and analytics

How AI Can Power Brand Management

It can automate creative tasks and improve the customer experience. by Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek

From the Magazine (September–October 2024)
Mojo Wang

Summary.   

Marketers have begun experimenting with AI to improve their brand-management efforts. But unlike other marketing tasks, brand management involves more than just repeatedly executing one specialized function. Long considered the exclusive domain of creative talent, it encompasses multiple activities designed to build the reputation and image of a business—such as crafting and communicating the brand story, ensuring that the product or service and its price reflect the brand’s competitive positioning, and managing customer relationships to forge loyalty to the brand. A brand is a promise to customers about the quality, style, reliability, and aspiration of a purchase. AI can’t fulfill that promise on its own (at least not anytime soon). But it can shape customers’ impressions of a brand at every interaction. And it can automate expensive creative tasks—including product design. To succeed with it, you must understand how it is perceived by stakeholders and what can be done not only to mitigate their concerns but to make them avid supporters. Using examples from Intuit, Caterpillar, and LOOP, along with in-depth scholarly research, the authors propose a framework for thinking about the key roles that AI plays when it comes to managing brands effectively.
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Few brands are more iconic than Nike. From its swoosh logo to its slogan “Just Do It,” the company has mastered the artistry necessary to build a renowned brand. So when Nike asked Obvious, a trio of Parisian artists who make AI-inspired designs, to develop new iterations of the Air Max sneaker in 2020, it wanted to be sure the designs wouldn’t deviate too dramatically from Nike’s signature style. Obvious trained its generative AI model by feeding it pictures of the Air Max 1, the Air Max 90, and the Air Max 97 and used the model to create a vast array of design ideas. Then, drawing on their own knowledge and perception of broader fashion trends along with Nike’s marketing objectives, the trio iteratively tweaked the model until it produced a design that struck the right balance between novelty and staying on brand. The design incorporated many of the stylistic elements of the classic Air Max but blended them with new colors, shapes, and patterns to achieve a fresh, cool feel. The limited edition shoes sold out in less than 10 days.

Read more on Technology and analytics or related topics Brand management, AI and machine learning, Creativity, Customer-centricity and Customer experience
A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2024 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Technology and analytics or related topics Brand management, AI and machine learning, Creativity, Customer-centricity and Customer experience

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