Regardless of funding, revenues, or company size, one of the strongest differentiators an organization can have is its brand. But brand strength doesn't happen on its own. It's a competitive advantage that needs to be earned. It takes organizational self-reflection, focus, and discipline to create a brand that customers prefer over competitors. That’s why brand management is important. The brand must have rules placed around it to be easily upheld and presented appropriately. And it needs to be considerate to a quickly changing world with numerous cultural nuances.

There’s no denying that we live in a digital world. From the millions of websites and apps at our disposal to the internet-connected phone in our pockets, the evidence is all around us. As consumers, the same holds true. We rely on the web for just about everything. Whether we’re shopping, researching a new product, or communicating with a business, we often turn to the convenience and practicality of digital channels.

As a marketer, you know first hand how important it is for your potential and existing customers to feel good about your brand. It creates expectations around the quality and value of your offering, and what it will feel like to use your product or service. Those expectations impact what your market buys.

What is a brand? Let me illustrate with a brand I'm partial to: New Balance. I used to think of New Balance as the maker of all white, extra wide “Dad” shoes. Now, as the proud owner of a dozen different pairs, I think of New Balance as a hipster modern shoe that goes with my jeans and shorts. I can wear them to church or to walk five miles. I can wear them anywhere!

As a brand in this day and age, you are (whether you realize it or not) in the experience business. Transactions are no longer a simple exchange of dollars for goods or services; consumers demand more. They expect you to win their affections and loyalty by delivering consistent, memorable experiences at each and every interaction. And, because of this, the digital assets and content you use to tell your story, educate your audiences, and represent your brand, are more important than ever. To help them deliver on this experience economy, more and more brands turn to digital asset management (DAM) systems. Here’s how the right DAM system can help!

Your brand is a way for customers to identify your business. It is how they recognize and differentiate you from the competition. But, just as a sports team is more than the uniform they wear, a strong brand is more than a logo or tagline. To its most loyal fans, it’s a community. It’s an emotional connection, a badge of honor, and a driving force in why people buy what they buy. According to a recent Nielsen survey, nearly 60 percent of global respondents prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them, and 21 percent say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like.

Whether your brand is traveling down the hall to a colleague's office or across the globe, you need to safeguard it for the journey ahead. With freelancers, marketing agencies, internal teams, and many others using your brand in communications and content, it's easy for inconsistencies and misuse to arise. A brand identity kit can help by providing disparate groups and individuals with the tools and information they need to uphold your brand consistently. While every brand identity kit looks different, here are a few essentials to pack in yours:

Sandra De Biasi is the project manager of digital assets and graphics at Varian, a Fortune 500 company and provider of radiation oncology treatment software and hardware.

At Varian, she manages their digital asset management system, which has played an integral role in managing the company’s brand assets during their recent corporate rebrand. Here’s her exciting story about how monitoring content analytics in their DAM system helped secure their valuable brand assets.