Brand management: then and now

Tim Ambler

In this article, Tim Ambler, of the London Business School, discusses the future of marketing. He argues that brand managers have always included some of the most talented people in business and, although complexity and the need for accountability are not going to decrease, the industry will find ways to cope.

Brand management: then and now

Tim AmblerLondon Business School

Marketing has become far more professional in the 50 years since the Marketing Society was founded. This article takes a look at that development in order to speculate about where marketing will be in decades to come. These thoughts have been influenced immensely by discussions with some of the brightest young marketers of today.1

As the word 'marketing' means different things to different people, we will focus on brand management. How was it in the 1960s, how has it changed and how is brand management today? What can we...

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