18 September 2025
A BRAND IS ABOUT LOVE!❤️
Brand building plays a key role in the growth of any company.
If you're in business, you're in the brand business. A brand is the soul of a company. It's what makes a company unique.
A brand is any company's most valuable intangible asset, for which the consumer pays a premium.
The difference between a trademark/product and a brand is that a product is something produced at a factory or company. A brand is something produced in the mind.
A brand evokes certain associations and a set of them in the consumer, evoking a range of thoughts, emotions, and experiences that aren't always articulated in words, but are nonetheless present.
A brand is how people feel about you.
Why do you need a brand? For effectiveness! It's emotion exchanged for money.
Brand = emotion. And the most powerful emotion is love.
At the heart of every brand lies love and care for the customer.
The primary goal of any brand is to inspire trust, and the ultimate goal is to inspire love. When you love, you trust, forgive, follow, and appreciate—you're happy.
Focus on emotion.
Emotional marketing always appeals to the heart. If you can evoke even the slightest emotion in relation to your brand (smile, sadness, feelings, belonging, curiosity, joy, etc.), you'll win!
The strongest brands appeal to the heart.
All purchases are made based on emotions and feelings, not rational thought. Only then does the brain try to justify the purchase with rational arguments.
"The brain is still checking the facts, but the soul has already made its choice"—a phrase from a BMW brochure.
Stupid, irrational actions make us happy, but cold calculations do not.
The human soul is 90% irrational.
There's no rational benefit to be gained from either Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
However, the irrational can sometimes be made to appear rational. People like to rationalize their entertainment, especially their purchases.
For example, at first glance, the desire to go out and get drunk seems irrational. But it's very easy to justify any action. Just like people who claim they buy Playboy because of the articles in the magazine. People need a justification or excuse to change their behavior.
While most of the decisions we make are emotional, compelling emotional propositions must be supported by rational justifications.
All brands represent a combination of rational and emotional characteristics. And they need to be strong in both.
There must be core values that provide a rational justification for an emotional proposition. Or they must offer a benefit that any rational person can understand.
Consumers prefer one brand of product over all others based solely on brand image, not on any objective data.
Example:
7 bowls of oatmeal. They're all identical. Which one should I buy?
To decide, we look at the packaging. What does the box look like, what promises and recommendations the manufacturer has made, and whether they resonate with us? At the moment of first contact, these factors determine the consumer's choice.
Next time, if their expectations are met and their experience is positive, their choice will be as simple as possible, and they'll choose the familiar box.
It's not necessarily that the other boxes contain a different product—they're simply showing loyalty to a brand that hasn't disappointed their expectations.
Basically, NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ANYTHING ABOUT QUALITY. And that's true!
Your product may be highly specialized for highly specialized people, but even highly specialized people won't fully understand your features. This is where brand power comes into play!
A brand is what the consumer thinks about a product, not what the product actually is.
It's the perception of a product that exists in the consumer's mind, the sum total of all expectations and impressions.
An example of the Nike brand:
1st contact-connection.
The consumer looks at an advertising poster (or other advertising activity).
At this point, a feeling and impression of the product is formed.
2nd contact-connection.
Approached the store. Saw the display case and the sneakers themselves.
3rd contact-connection.
Bought the sneakers and wore them for a couple of months. Formed a final impression of the brand (based on earlier expectations).
These three components form a brand connection (articulate).
The third impression may be different from the first two. If you've got a sprain, you need to understand whose fault it is. The risk of injury becomes part of the product experience, part of the brand of these sneakers.
A skilled and competent brand is a process of shaping and articulating impressions.
This involves creating desirable impressions and, where possible, eliminating or neutralizing undesirable ones.
Nike doesn't just make beautiful shoes – they're also functional, reliable, and safe for your health.
A brand performs three important functions:
1️⃣Differentiates similar products from one another.
2️⃣Creates product advantages - Articulation.
3️⃣Helps consumers understand how a product relates to them, why it's important to them, and how it fits into their lifestyle (relevance).
Top-level relevance is when you're associated with a category.
For example:
Safety is (company name); Speed is (company name); Washing machine is (company name), etc.
People want to seem cooler and smarter than others. And with the help of brands, they want to show others that they're cooler than they actually are.
Today's audiences want their needs met, to be helped in their lives and everyday life to become better, richer, more beautiful, and more successful.
A brand's products and services simply must fit into the target audience's lifestyle, evoke an emotional connection and the desired associations.
Every brand should strive to create a WOW effect.
A WOW effect is when the result exceeds expectations. When surprise and delight become part of your strategy. When the consumer is stunned and delighted by your brand.
And the brand always delivers on its promises. Take note☝️
