The psychology behind branding    

Audio-visual advertisements, mega promos happening at shopping malls with the product displayed in full glory –these are some of the branding techniques that are popularly used by companies. They have been around for decades. 

But what is it that makes one buy the product of a particular brand?

The branding strategy hits at something deeper than the exterior glamour and placement. It connects with the consumer on an emotional level. We see a lot of products associated with emotions like love, life-long dreams, health, and relationships. 

A Harpic toilet cleaning advertisement portrays a clean toilet with the emotion of pride. A Santoor bath soap associates itself with healthy and young look and UltraTech cement advertisement is about strengthening one’s life-long dream of building a house. 

We love to see celebrities on TV. When they endorse a brand, it increases the recall value. It is no surprise that we are drawn to anything featuring our favourite film star or sports icon, which can unintentionally affect our brand preference while shopping. This is the end result of branding, or we can call it – brand psychology.

So, what is brand psychology? 

Brand psychology refers to the Science behind the branding process. You need to develop a branding strategy before you set out your marketing strategy. Managers working on branding must think of what the brand represents, who the target audience is, what problem it is solving and the values it brings along. Once these questions are answered, the data is converted into art, and we have our branding material. 

Ingredients of a brand 

Creating an art from a thought needs design or logo, colour and a tagline. A logo represents a company. It must be catchy. A logo goes a long way in establishing brand loyalty as a consumer identifies a company with the design that comes with the brand name. The 2 hand logo of Life Insurance Corporation of India is a fine example of brand identification through the logo as many rural and semi-urban populace recognize the insurance company by the logo and associate it with trust. 

The colours used say a lot about the product. For example, red is always seen as danger while green can be earth friendly. Pinks and blues are usually safe to use for household items while a bright yellow or orange can convey something funky.  

A tagline is nothing less than a masterpiece from a skilled artist. The Amul tagline is an instant recall, while many have tickled our minds with their creativity. Some of them are ‘Yeh Dil Mange More,’ ‘Yeh Fevicol ka jood hai’ and ‘Daag Achche hai.’

In short, branding exercise is not only limited to helping us make our choices but they also engage us emotionally and creatively. They are most often subliminal.