Requirements for Brand Managers and Product Managers Responsible for Competitiveness of Product and Brands

Competitiveness of a product and care of a brand value are mainly the work of product managers and brand managers who play a major role in creating a competitive advantage of their companies. The aim of the paper is to present partial results of an independent research and connect them with the knowledge base of knowledgable management and human factors in product management. The paper focuses on a set of requirements for qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills that are imposed on candidates for the position of "Brand Manager". For the purposes of defining the research objectives, an assumption was made that a set of requirements for candidates will prove that brand managers and product managers are knowledgable workers. In order to meet this goal, the method of content analysis of job advertisements was used. Secondly, the research was focused on identifying and analysing the differences between the sets of requirements for product managers and brand managers. The analysis of the texts of job advertisements resulted in the requirements for knowledge and competency. It provided the information about what level of education, type and length of practical experience was preferred for the position of "Brand Manager". The unexpected result was that the groups of technical knowledge and work experience of brand managers and product managers had statistically significant differences. At the end of the article, there are a number of recommendations formulated for the implementation of recruitment strategy.