Strategic Brand Management and Development

Chapter3

Creating brand identity: Brand aesthetics and symbolism

Chapter aims and learning outcomes

This chapter corresponds to the first stage of Keller and Swaminathan’s (2020) strategic brand management process, i.e. identifying and developing brand plans (see Figure 3.1), and draws from extant literature in consumer psychology, consumer culture, sensory marketing, and design studies. Creating successful brand identities through brand aesthetics and symbolism contributes to an organisation’s ability to effectively position its brand in the minds of the consumers, in relation to its competitors in the product or service category (unlike Keller and Swaminathan (2020) who argue that it is part of the second stage of the strategic brand management ...