Mantras Vs Missions

Guy Kawasaki writes about corporate mantras Vs mission statements. Good one. But one thing that Guy didn’t stress enough, or seem to have left to be understood, is that mantras should reflect the already built image (perceived value) and better not be internally focussed.

I liked Guy’s sample mantra for FedEx. It matched what i have felt as a customer.

Here are some example mantras for FedEx – internally focused.

If marketing myopia is failure to see down the road, then should we call the failure to building your mantra on perceived value as marcom myopia?

BTW: Should mantras be written by a set of our customers rather than the management and marketing guys? Might work better. Any volunteers??