What does your gut say?

I recently had the opportunity to watch Fredrik Haren deliver his keynote address at an event. As a world-renowned authority on Creativity, his goal was to inspire people (especially the business leaders present) to foster an environment that allows creativity to flourish. He conducted a small exercise with the audience, asking them a question and noting down their first 10 responses. His next slide had 8 of the 10 responses already listed down. It demonstrated how predictable we are as people and how easily we are conditioned.

His point was simple - people are utterly predictable. We have been conditioned to think, feel and react in very specific ways.

And as it often happens, my mind wandered to how this impacts building memorable brands.

I always use Marty Neumeier 's definition of a brand - The gut feeling people have about a product, service or company.

If people are so predictable, shouldn’t it be easy to influence the way people feel about your brand? The answer is yes.

Then why do companies find it difficult to build memorable brands?

The simple answer is that we tend to over-complicate and over-communicate what the brand stands for.

Think about Cadbury - Your first thought was probably the product - chocolate. But what did you feel? You probably felt joy, or nostalgia, or warmth. That is what the brand stands for - Comfort.

Now imagine a Jeep - What did you think about? The visual of their rugged, off-road vehicles probably flashed through your mind. But what did you feel? The outdoors, excitement, the desire to explore? Once again neatly falling under the umbrella of adventure, which is what their brand stands for.

Anytime we think about established brands we have an emotional response. Nike, Disney, Apple, Harley Davidson…the list is endless.

Companies are known for their product or service, and their brand reflects their emotion.

We need to focus on keeping our brand message simple and easy to relate to.

It fundamentally comes down to Simplicity, Consistency and Repetition.

• Keep your brand message simple and easy to understand.
• Keep your brand message consistent across all your touchpoints
• Keep repeating your brand message.

People are predictable. If these three things are done well, you’ve got a brand with a strong emotional connection with your audience.