BRAND MANAGER AS A KNOWLEDGE WORKER

The submitted paper is focused on abilities and behavioural competencies of a brand manager, a key role bearer in brand oriented marketing management. In order for brand managers to succeed in an environment formed by deregulation, information networks, globalization, consumer participation based on awareness and the ability of consumers to spread their voice and other external forces, they have to have both knowledge and personality prerequisites. The research was designed to verify that a brand manager is an example of a knowledge worker in the 21st century and to provide proof that the business practice sees him/ her as such. The author finds it useful to focus on requirements on brand managers also because it is a subject relevant to both sides of the labour market: for candidates for this job and for employers looking for the most capable candidates. With regard to this aspect, job advertisements were chosen as the source of primary data and, using the method of content analysis, the findings regarding the present state of requirements were joined with the comparison of the set of competencies, which the leaders of American companies expected to be necessary for success on the labour market in the 21th century. The research project confirmed that creativity and analytical thinking skills were among the most common requirements placed on brand managers. The requirement "able to communicate well" had the highest frequency of 69.6 %. That is higher than in the secondary research with the most wanted requirement "ability of solving problems".