Brand mantra.. What is it? It sounds a little bit vague in my opinion. To me it sounds a little bit like the brand’s personal space or aura. So before I will tell you about the brand mantra of Nike, I will explain you what a brand mantra is.
Brand mantra: “A brand mantra is a 3 to 5 word shorthand encapsulation of your brand position. It is not an advertising slogan and it won’t be something you use publicly. A brand mantra is at its most powerful when it becomes a deeply resonant piece of the DNA of the company and is used as a touchstone to return when making difficult decisions. The brand mantra can be your guide to decide in which business you should operate, how to handle a crisis or how to make a painful choice (darkmatters.com).”
So, when we know what a brand mantra is, what is the brand mantra of Nike. Nike uses a three word brand mantra. Their mantra is:
“Authentic Athletic Performance”
“Nike’s brand mantra put a particular emphasis on maintaining authenticity, by which we also meant integrity and purity, front and center… All products and activities associated with Nike likewise had to be athletic, not leisurely… Finally, every Nike product had to exude world-class performance and meet the demands of the world’s finest athletes, even though such athletes represented a microscopic piece of Nike’s total business…”(Darkmatters.com)
Maybe your first reaction about Nike’s brand mantra was ‘Huh?! Isn’t their brand mantra Just do it?’. Well, the answer is no. A brand mantra is not a slogan. Just do it is a tagline and not a brand mantra. It’s an external manifestation of ‘Authentic Athletic Performance’. Their brand mantra is more, it’s their guide to make a lot of decisions.
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