Marketing Management, 16th Edition

Designing the Brand

Marketers build brand equity by creating the right brand associations in consumers’ minds. The success of this process depends on all brand-related contacts with consumers—whether marketer-initiated or not.23

Defining the Brand Mantra

To focus brand positioning and guide the way their marketers help consumers think about the brand, firms can define a brand mantra. A brand mantra is a three- to five-word articulation of the heart and soul of the brand and is closely related to other branding concepts like “brand essence” and “core brand promise.” The mantra’s purpose is to guide the actions of all employees within the organization, and of all external marketing partners, by ensuring that they understand what the brand fundamentally ...