Once upon a time, a brand was merely that identifying mark burned onto criminals, slaves or unsuspecting livestock. Today, although the identification role remains, we generally consider the term ‘brand’ within its more commonly commercial context – it’s "a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers"*.

Irrespective of whether we think about the original or the more common, current description, there are two consistent aspects: (1) the identifying mark itself and (2) the meaning or reference it holds. And, thanks to the marvel that is the human brain, 1 serves as a short-cut to 2 – and so we don’t need to consider all the detail offered by 2 every time we see 1. These mental shortcuts, or heuristics, help ease our cognitive load.

Information Overload

In 2020, the average person is subject to more information than he can handle. It’s estimated that humans make upward of 33,500 decisions each day and (while there are no official figures) encounter as many as 10,000 advertisements per day designed to help influence these choices. In the context of an increasingly complex and noisy world, the value of a brand in helping us simplify decision-making cannot be underestimated. But, how is this achieved? 

A short-cut to meaning

The process of branding is, ironically, best explained as a circuitous route to creating a short-cut to meaning.

Companies go to great effort to develop a customised identity for their brands, comprising a meticulously crafted logo and a carefully selected colour palette. Some take it a step further and develop a host of supplementary iconic assets, stretching beyond sight into sound and smell. And then, when it is ready to present to the world of consumers, they invest hundreds of thousands (and for some, millions) in marketing budget to educate consumers about what the brand has to offer. They create adverts which take pride in the wondrous features underlying the product or service, and construct narratives which celebrate the emotional benefits too. These are regularly revised in the effort to reach that marketing ideal known as “fresh consistency”, lest us silly shoppers be incapable of joining some figurative dots to get the fully branded picture.

Impact on purchase decisions

Brands feed us all this detail in the simple hope that when it’s time for a purchase decision to be made, we will spot elements of the brand’s identity, and this will prompt all the thoughts and feelings to come flooding back to us and a steer a decision in the brand’s favour. 

And all evidence points to the fact that it works. 

We take mental shortcuts every day to help us decide what we should buy, who we can trust, and even how to act. Over time, most of these decisions become intuitive and habitual. We get through much of any given day on auto-pilot. 

But to enable this eventual decision shortcut, there is long and arduous journey the brand must travel first.

If your brand lacks meaning, or your iconic assets aren’t up to the task, let’s talk. Jack Be Nimble has deep experience in the development of brands and their identities and we’d love the opportunity to tell you about the work we do in this area.

Image by Raphael Biscaldi on Unsplash.