How people actually think about brands

A couple days ago, I wrote that the best definition of a brand is a story. However, that’s not the whole story. (ba-dum-bum)

Describing your brand in a story format is an effective model for defining your value proposition in a compelling way. It is a good exercise to help you craft more engaging marketing messaging. And it can get you out of the tendency to use industry-speak and get to the heart of why you should matter to your customers.

However, the truth is consumers typically don’t care very much for your “story,” even if they are the “hero” of it. Customers use brands to help in decision-making. We are overwhelmed with all the numerous decisions we have to make throughout the day. And the majority of purchases are simply not worth a significant amount of our mental capacity.

We need a shorthand for decisions and brands provide that for people. If I want X, I know that Y brand can fulfill that and is currently accessible to me. That’s the simple interaction and the true value of a brand – giving people a cheat sheet to make decisions easier.

As marketers, it is our goal, in fact our primary mission, to make that connection as strong as possible. From psychology, we know that repetition and emotional responses build those stronger bonds. This is why mass media advertising worked so well for so many years. Produce a killer spot and run it over and over again, until people are forced to remember the message. However, in a media saturated world, it becomes harder and harder to achieve the level of repetition needed to build a powerful connection. This makes it necessary to focus more on emotional appeals.

You see, we actually want people to think less about our brand. If they need to think to hard about why they should buy your product, they’ll cut out. It’s too much work for the brain. Instead, if you focus on feelings and senses, they’ll be more likely to make the connection subconsciously.

People don’t want to think about your brand. They don’t want to understand all of your brand attributes or value proposition. They just want an easier way to make decisions. Give them that and you have a powerful brand.