Thinking Beyond Science

Brands also reflect the business’s core ideas and values.

Branding, when done right, becomes synonymous with the product itself; with what the company stands for. Your full brand experience-trom the visual elements to the interpersonal experiences to your brand’s community initiatives-tells your customer about the kind of company you are. Are all of these points of entry to your company telling the right story? Do they reflect the business’s core values? Harley-Davidson, the Tata Group and Bullet motorcycles are good examples.

Brands that are able to get to the top rung of the brand ladder (where brands form relationships with customers) act as a powerful referral mechanism due to high emotional engagement. People love to tell others about the brands they like; it is the basis of influencer marketing. People wear brands, eat brands, listen to brands, and they’re constantly telling others about the brands they love. On the flip side, you cant tell someone about a brand you can’t remember.

A brand represents a promise to the customer. Therefore, the firm is the brand, the marketing materials are the brand, the employees are the brand, the product and the experience that it provides (through the entire customer journey) are the brand, the after-sales service is the brand, and through all of this, at the end of the day, the customer perception and the patterns that all of these create in the brain of the customer is the brand. A clear branding strategy provides direction and motivation to employees. It enables them to conform with the underlying business idea. It tells them how to act, how to win and how to meet the organization’s goals.

So a strong brand will provide value to the organization well beyond its physical assets. Think about the brands that you purchase: Coca-Cola, Wrangler, Apple, Ford, Rolls Royce, Hitachi, Maersk, Mahindra, Tata, Prada, Amul, IM Ahmedabad, Panasonic, Ferrari, Christian Dior, Gucci, Surf, Absolut. Are these companies really worth just their equipment, their products, their warehouses or factories? No, these companies are worth much more than their physical assets. Their brands have created a value that far exceeds their physical value. Firms with strong brands have a market value to book value (the value of physical assets) ratio that can sometimes exceed five! When an organization is clear on its brand positioning and value to the customer, and can deliver on the promise of the brand, it will see tremendous gains and also earn brand loyalty from its customer base. 2 It will last and prosper longer.

First, the brain has objectives that it wants to achieve in pursuit of the survival and health of the organism that it inhabits: the human being (this sounds almost as if the brain were a separate creature!). It wants to feel good, to avoid pain, to feel secure, to get rewards and so on. These objectives arise from the midbrain and in some measure from the hindbrain.

Each of these ‘brain states’ (feel good, feel secure, etc.) corresponds to levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, oxytocin, vasopressin, testosterone, ostrogen, BDNF, etc., in the brain. Most of these are produced in the brain; some are produced elsewhere in the body. ‘Optimal’ levels of these neurotransmitters lead to ‘feel good’, ‘feel secure’, etc., sentiments and are linked to stimuli in the environment. The brain likes to go for brands that give it the neurotransmitters that it is looking for.

Secondly, relative to other organs in the body, the brain is an energy guzzler. However, the total energy available is limited, and what can be used in a confined space is also limited given the need to maintain homeostasis. The brain is designed, therefore, to conserve energy. The brain conserves energy by having a distinct tendency to push processing into the unconscious— into automatic processing that is more efficient. Conscious thinking and focus are the most energy-intensive activities that the brain does. Brands are a way of conserving energy.

Third, the brain is designed to look for patterns, to see groups, to categorize, to create patterns, sometimes when there aren’t any, and to be comfortable with patterns, to look for meaning before detail. Brands are a way of fitting into a pattern to create meaning. Patterns make the brain feel comfortable. Patterns are both consciously and unconsciously present in the brain. The unconscious patterns reside in the midbrain and the hindbrain. Patterns make us feel secure and comfortable. They adjust serotonin in the brain to the desired levels. Familiar patterns make us feel secure and comfortable and increase the serotonin and vasopressin in the brain.

Familiar brands are the pattern that the brain wants and seeks. The more familiar the brand, the stronger the pattern.

Fourth, and in direct contrast to the third brain operating principle, the brain remembers and engages with contrasts that break a pattern; contrasts excite attention. Contrasts provide variety and increase dopamine in the brain. Variety and attention keep brands alive and interesting. Brands need to both fit into a pattern and be different at the same time; a brand, therefore, needs to be different from the competition and also different in some ways from its earlier avatars. The brand, simultaneously, should fit into an expected pattern of what a brand in its category is supposed to be like. Differences may be perceived consciously or unconsciously. The brain wants dopamine.

Dopamine leads to feeling good. Ceteris paribus, brands that give more dopamine will be selected over the competition.

Fifth, human brains are designed to mirror, to imitate, to conform socially to others. We tend to do what others around us are doing. We imitate. Neurophysiologically, when we observe others doing an action, the same neurons fire in our heads, literally. When a fan watches Roger Federer execute his tweener shot, that person is literally using the same neurons in their head-without the physical action. When we see COVID-induced fear in the person in front of us, we feel the same fear, literally. This is how human brains connect.

Human brains are wired to connect. Powerful brands create their own self-reinforcing cycle through imitation. Mirroring actions make us feel good through higher levels of relevant neurotransmitters in our brains.

Source : Brands and the Brain: How to Use Neuroscience to Create Impactful Brands by Arvind Sahay

Good Reads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60693959-brands-and-the-brain

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