Brands are built and managed by developing marketing programs that establish positive associations with the brand into the memory of consumers and target audiences. This is done by establishing programs in a marketing plan that focus on the favorability of the brand and highlight the niche it serves. When done well, marketers are able to build upon brand equity by emphasizing brand favorability and superiority in serving a market niche. Brands will often take on a life of their own outside of the marketer’s direct control. Because of this, marketers should also monitor and develop strategies to influence factors outside of their control. For instance, brand associations and word-of-mouth exposure are elements that are out of a marketer’s direct control. However, these items are still clearly within a marketer’s realm of influence.

To best influence these nebulous areas, marketers need to conduct competitive benchmarking and understand where their brands stand against competitors in the five P’s of marketing; product, place, price, place, promotion, and people. By understanding the whole space the brand is living in, marketers can not only build programs highlighting the favorable aspects of the brand but they can develop strategies to influence factors outside of their control. For instance, if a brand has developed a strong association as a green product, marketers can work to develop social action programs to improve the environment. By executing a strategy such as this the marketer is influencing word-of-mouth by enhancing the brand’s association with a social movement. This integrated effort between controllable and non-controllable elements of a brand’s image will allow marketers to build brand equity and improve the consumers’ brand experience.