behind the brand

There are 8 billion people in the world, each with their own daily rhythm. How does your product fit into any one person’s life? From when they wake up to when they go to sleep, in what moments of their life do they make room for whatever you have to offer? How do they come to know your product? The first look, the initial spark that just might convince someone to adopt your product into their life all comes down to branding.

Branding can be defined as the visual elements (how does this brand appear?) and the brand voice (how does this brand sound?). Together, these elements create a way of being perceived that allow consumers to imagine who they could be with this product. Branding is the most persistent thread in a customer's journey. It creates the first path toward a product, shapes the everyday experience of using it, surfaces during moments of difficulty, and leaves the final impression if a customer walks away. At each touchpoint, branding, in tandem with product, either reinforces or undermines the promise made at first glance.

When a customer uses a product, there is a gap in their life they are trying to fill. For customers who are companies, this gap is usually a loss of money, resources, time — these things are not lightly accounted for. The stories are generally similar across solving this gap, where some hidden insight of a painful process was discovered through intensive observation or experience. Take Slack, for instance: what began as an internal solution to the founders' own communication frustrations evolved into a product that filled a gap countless other companies shared. While these utilitarian solutions appeal to the logical parts of our brains, companies are still run by humans — emotions are never out of the picture. Branding aimed at companies emphasizes a product that is efficient, reliable, and better than any other solution out there.

For end consumers, it is the same, but also a very different story. We individuals can be easily influenced by things even if we have no painfully apparent problem. We can be swayed much more strongly on the emotional axis until we perceive a gap in our lives that may not even be there. Netflix users seek escapism, Instagram coaxes the most shareable moments in your life out of you, Trader Joe’s shoppers fill their baskets with eccentrically branded groceries in treasure-hunt-esque trips, IKEA makes shopping for your perfect couch a real life choose-your-own-adventure game, clothing stores sell you your ideal aesthetic behind a glass window: the clean girl, the coquette, the y2k diva, the athlete.

Brand is inseparable from product. Great products are imbued from start to finish with an unmistakably unique brand, and great brands tell the stories of life changing products.

Find an archive of great brands here.