Persuasive brand management: How managers can influence brand meaning when they are losing control over it

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework that enables an improved comprehension of how brand meaning is constructed. Design/methodology/approach: Conceptual implications are drawn from an analysis and discussion of the literature in the fields of brand management, meanings, rhetoric, and narratives. Findings: Brand managers are progressively losing control over the multiple sources of brand meaning. Brand meaning is co-created during the consumer-brand relationship and the customer-perceived brand meaning is re-interpreted at each touchpoint that a consumer has with a managerially determined brand interface, a brand employee, or an external stakeholder. Originality/value: "Persuasive brand management" is presented as a new approach to brand management. It considers that the main activities of managers regarding brand strategy decisions involve processes of interpreting and creating meanings; as well as persuading a wide diversity of internal and external stakeholders.