Partner Center: New brand management interface

What is it?

The Brands tab in Partner Center is getting a facelift. This new interface is far easier to navigate and brings this page up to the standards set by the layout of the other tabs in Partner Center.

When was it made available?

The new Brands interface released on August 30th, 2019.

Why is it important?

Previously, the Brands tab was difficult to navigate. Partners that had many brands would need to scroll to find the brand they sought, and clicking Add location or Add region would place this at the bottom of the page. It was difficult to rearrange brands and locations. The settings for each brand was exceptionally confusing.

With the new brands interface, it should be much easier to manage your brands.

Note: When using the new brands interface, you may see the phrases groups and sub-groups. This is to represent the true capabilities of brands and emphasize that you don't necessarily need to divide your accounts into brands and regions.

How does it work?

When browsing to Partner Center > Businesses > Brands, you will see the new interface. Aside from just being easier on the eyes, it is now possible to search for the brand you wish to edit.

Clicking on an existing brand will bring you to the Brand Management page. The primary tab you'll interact with is the Accounts tab.

Note: Should you wish to use the previous brands interface, you can do so by clicking View Legacy Brands.

Access brands

It is now far easier to access brands:

1. Go to Partner Center > Businesses > Brands > Brand Name.
2. Click Open Multi-location Business Center.

Create brands

1. Go to Partner Center > Businesses > Brands.
2. Click Create Brand.
   
3. Enter the name of the brand.
   • You will also want to select the market, location, and category for the brand. The location and category will determine the brand's default listing sources.
     
4. Click Create brand.

After creating your brand, you can add either accounts or sub-groups to it.

Note: Sub-groups and accounts cannot exist on the same level of a brand. If you would 
like to use sub-groups to organize your accounts, create your sub-groups before adding 
accounts.

Create sub-groups

Sub-groups allow you to further segment your accounts. These sub-groups can then be viewed in Business Center by any assigned users. These are especially useful for reporting purposes.

If you've just created a new brand, you can add sub-groups using the Create sub-group button. If your brand isn't empty, you can add a sub-group by clicking Create sub-group on the Accounts sub-tab.

Once you've created your sub-group, you can add further sub-groups to it or begin adding accounts. If you wish to create sub-groups within sub-groups, hover over the existing sub-group and click + sub-group.

Note: You can only have either sub-groups or accounts at each level of a sub-group. For this reason, it is advised that you create all sub-groups before adding accounts.

Add accounts

You can add accounts to a sub-group or brand similarly to creating sub-groups.

As mentioned in previous notes, you cannot have both accounts and sub-groups within the same level of a brand or sub-group. For this reason, if you have added sub-groups to your brand, you will not see an Add Account button at the bottom of the list.

Organize brands

One of the best new features of the revamped brands interface is the ability to move accounts between sub-groups. This can be done by dragging and dropping any accounts via the drag icon next to the account name.

Assign users to brand

You can assign users to a brand. To do so:

1. Go to Partner Center > Businesses > Brands > Brand Name > Users.
2. Click Add Users.
3. Find the user you wish to add.
4. If you wish to add the user to the entire brand, select Entire brand. Alternatively, if you wish to only allow users to access specific sub-groups, click Select sub-groups.
5. If you've chosen Select sub-groups, you will be able to sort through the various sub-groups and add the user to individual sub-groups. This can be done by clicking + next to the sub-groups you wish the user to have access to.

Modifying features

You can modify the features that appear to users accessing this brand in Business Center via the Features sub-tab. This allows you to toggle the tabs that appear for the brand and its sub-groups.

Selecting listing sources

You can modify the sources that appear on the brand and its sub-groups via the Sources sub-tab. Selections on this page save instantly.

Please be aware that changing the country or business category for the brand will change the sources that are toggled on and off.