Always remember
Branding is always about feeling more than thinking. Emotion over logic. Heart before head.
The reason for this is, in part, bacause around 90% of our decisions are sub-conscious. We don't really know how we make them. And when we try to think about it, it's highly likely our mind will make up a reason that 'makes sense'. The reason we create will, in fact, likely be chosen purely because it flatters our ego and makes us feel good about it.
Feelings are incredibly important in decision making.
Likewise, the Binet & Field IPA study 'The Long and The Short of It' showed when it comes to advertising, emotional campaigns are almost 2X as likely to achieve profit performance as rational campaigns, and over 2X as efficient at driving market share growth.
Indeed. We are almost never the 'rational' consumers so beloved of economists. What we are is 'post-rational'. We make emotional decisions - "it felt right" - then find sensible, rational reasons to justify them afterwards. This post-rationalisation is so we don't risk looking or feeling stupid, to ourselves or others. As my friend Sumit Roy so eloquently put it: "Products have rationales, brands have emotionales'