Using metaphors in new brand design

This paper addresses an important gap in brand development. While attention has been rightly focused on consumer understanding of brand imagery, insufficient attention has been given to how the firm's managers create, understand and communicate to each other something so intangible as a future brand's vision. We demonstrate how using metaphors in brand design enhances the ability of a cross‐functional team to create a coherent brand vision: facilitating both creativity and its communication. Brand visions are vital given the essential periodic improvements and mutations brands must undergo, without sacrificing the integrity and values which drive their purchase. Management complexity arises because brand development happens in a multi‐disciplinary environment. Moreover these different managers must translate the intangible meanings held by consumers into very tangible product and service specifications. The role and nature of metaphor in this process is examined in detail. We then provide practical examples of how this technique has been used with managers in a variety of branding tasks.