Political commentator Bill Whittle observes, “As we spend more and more time experiencing the world through the frame and since the internet has brought the entire world into our homes (but only what’s inside the frame) an interesting phenomenon is happening. We seem to be talking to each other less and instead, we’re watching what each other does.”

This means our language has become visual.

There’s a difference in how the human brain works when it is watching something and when it is reading something. Reading is an active process. It requires the production of an “inner voice” which increases our attention span. When we look at words, we create thoughts about the words we’re reading. We’re actively involved in processing the information.

Watching a video is passive. Videos are processed 60,000 times faster than text and because humans are hard-wired to avoid demanding cognitive loads, it’s no surprise that (as of two years ago) Nielsen was saying the average US adult watches 6 hours of video per day. I’d bet that number has gone up in 2020. That passive nature of video allows us to sit back and form an empathetic connection with what we see. We are more emotionally attached to a video than we are to something we read and that is partly due to a process called mirror-neuron mechanism.

The Mirror In The Frame

As Dr. Liraz Margalit says, “A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires not just when we ourselves perform an action, but also when we watch someone else perform that same action. Our brains mirror what’s unfolding before us as if we were part of the scene, even if we are just sitting passively on the sidelines. So when it comes to mirror neurons, there is no difference between the cinema and real life. This suggests that we could actually be experiencing (in small but significant ways) the pain (and supposedly also the pleasures) of those we witness on screen. This neurological activity makes the spectator much more emotionally involved.”

We are in the midst of a major cultural moment, the explosiveness of it is only made more potent by the trend of moving from reading, which is a logical, reasoning mental activity, to visual, which is a feeling and unreasoning activity. While we need both, we also need to realize that, at this time, we’re heavily leaning toward one side, and that means instability.

How brands shape perception is even more critical now. Every communication needs to be pressure tested for feelings. Every symbol, every message needs to be scrutinized for any possible offense. Some audiences on social media will be looking for inconsistencies in order to drag your brand through the public square, which can materially impact share prices. 

Neurologist Donald Calne sums up the power of emotion for every brand owner, “Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action.”

With this in mind, be careful. People feel more than they think and it’s easy for things to get out of control fast.

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A good way to understand what branding does is to consider the opposite: what happens if you do not use branding at all? The amazing thing is that branding takes place anyway. But instead of the brand owner or manager intentionally guiding people, people use their imagination to fill the empty space, this vacuum of information, with their own ideas and fantasies.

This is always the case in situations when there is no available information; the empty space is filled with speculations, and the ideas based on them. People start to speculate, and share their speculations with others. Sometimes, outside commentators try to help by producing statements and comments, still without access to precise facts or real insight into the thinking of the decision makers.

I have never met, or heard of, any brand builders who found the right branding by launching their products with no planned branding effort. I have met their opposites, though, who complain that their brand is not perceived the way it should be, or that their brand is not in the forefront of people’s minds as it is supposed to be.

Managing is a key word in explaining what branding is all about. In most companies, there are many different management processes: human resources management, finance management, production management, procurement management, etc. Since branding is one of the most important processes in creating value, both in terms of equity and of the business’s result (profit), it should definitely be considered an important core management process. Unfortunately, in many companies, it is not.

Sometimes this is the result of a traditional point of view. Branding is considered part of the marketing process, and yes, of course, it is an essential part of marketing. But there is much more to branding than just marketing; it is traditionally the basis of the company culture. Branding is usually where the company’s vision, mission and values are stated. It is, simply, a sub-set Branding of management strategy in any kind of enterprise, not just commercial. Favorite alternative phrases for branding include ‘company DNA’, ‘company soul’ or brand essence.

Example: ‘Pirate Branding’ – How To Manage Perception Of Fear In People’s Minds

The marauding pirates of the Caribbean in the iconic pirate era of the 1650s to the 1720s are a very illustrative and dramatic example of effectively managing perception in people’s minds. It begins with the ‘logo’ of the pirates: the classic flag most commonly attributed to Henry Avery, one of the most infamous pirate captains. The white skull in profile, wearing a kerchief, on a red or black background and with the crossed bones below very clearly depicts the fate of the crews who refused to surrender to the pirates.

An important part of managing the perception of a brand is being clear about what drives the brand owners – the why or the purpose and mission of the brand. A widespread myth states that the pirates were only interested in loot, and not in killing. This is why many ships full of merchandise, including gold and other valuables, surrendered relatively easily, with very little fighting. The sailors forced to fight by their ambitious navy officers knew very well that the pirates were outlaws with very little to lose, and that they were therefore extremely dangerous and brutal fighters. Many crews surrendered to pirates only to be recruited into pirate ranks, which not only kept them alive, but also offered monetary rewards. A pirate received one to two shares of the loot instead of the 19 to 24 shillings a month for a sailor offered by, for instance, the merchant navy.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Thomas Gad, excerpted from his book Customer Experience Branding, with permission from Kogan Page publishing.

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1. Forming brand perceptions begins with planning. Start with your higher intentions. Describe, in as much detail as possible, what you want to achieve. Consider the big picture or your higher aim; your ‘why’ or your spiritual dimension.

2. Connect the central idea to something people already know. Consider how the part of the brain that makes decisions works and remember that it’s a non-verbal part of the brain. Put simply, the brain asks these two questions before making a decision:

• Have I seen this before? YES/NO
• Was it a GOOD/BAD experience?

Since the decision-making part of the brain is non-verbal, you need to use patterns to reach it.

3. Create a pattern out of your perception. Since the decision-making part of the brain is non-verbal, verbal communication and arguments do not have as great an impact on decisions as we have believed in the past. Visuals, activities (including enlisting existing customers as references and a sales force), processes, causality and similar approaches work better.

4. Connect with the individual. Anything that is connected to the life and work of individuals is 70 percent more effective in producing the desired perception in people’s minds. Try and include all of the senses in your approach.

5. Program anticipation and prepare a surprise. Use expressions like ‘the first time ever’, ‘totally unique’, ‘different approach’. Announce the presence of the unexpected and tell the customer they will be surprised.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Thomas Gad, excerpted from his book Customer Experience Branding, with permission from Kogan Page publishing.

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Brands will have the same challenges. Many years ago, Rolling Stone magazine launched its iconic “Perception–Reality” campaign that intended to destroy the bad-boy rock and roll type cast image advertisers mistakenly had regarding its appeal and readership. As Rolling Stone understood at the time, its typecasting was hurting its ability to attract new advertisers; and so the campaign took on the dilemma head on in side by side comparisons of “perception” and “reality.”

It could be said that typecasting is really the result of a brand exercising sound brand discipline; so strong and so successful, in fact, that to alter, embellish or enhance the understanding of brand may be difficult. This can happen even in industries populated with “knowledgeable”insiders such as writers, editors, bloggers, or, as in the case of the Rolling Stone example, expert media strategists and buyers.

WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is contending with type casting … not with their wrestling stars, but with the brand itself. Ironically, in a business that relies on type casting good guys and villains for staged wrestling bouts to enthrall fans, the brand is attempting to shed the notion that it stands for more than “wrestling” but that it’s a powerful entertainment media vehicle for advertisers.

Of course, typecasting can be desirable, as in the case of “Mac vs. PC.” Mac relishes being type cast as the fresh, creative and friendly alternative to the “PC.” Or Subway’s type casting as the healthy fast food alternative to heavy, greasy fast food options. Or Gold’s Gym as the no nonsense strength training alternative to the glitzy, sophisticated LA Fitness locations.

There are two fundamentals that brand marketers must recognize with regard to this issue. Firstly, as consumers of brands in a world saturated with them, we consciously (and subconsciously) categorize them for easy mental reference. This “filing system” is formed by our earliest memory with the brand and is not easily altered. We are resistant to changing a perception that gets hardened like cement over time. Secondly, many reporters, editors, and bloggers are either over-worked or just lazy, and may not dig deeper about your brand when including it in their story.

For example, a very large and successful flooring company began making quality, but affordable products when it started out, but later began adding a wider range of designs, warranty levels and price points. In spite of a considerable amount of marketing efforts to introduce its new lines, it is still often type cast as that company that produces inexpensive flooring by the writers and editors in the industry. Typecasting is difficult to change, indeed.

In her book “Impossible to Ignore. Creating memorable content to influence decisions” Carmen Simon writes,“It is critical for us to help audiences keep in mind valuable information” to prevent “accidental forgetting.” As she observes, “We may forget what we experienced, but we won’t forget what we understood.” Properly understanding brands requires effort, of course, and that’s where marketing must step in.

If the typecasting is unwarranted or undesirable, there are three areas to consider in addressing this:

1. Bold action. Just as a comedic actor would take on a dramatic role to alter audience and critical perceptions, so should brands take on their new role with strategic timing. Appreciating the resistance to change, the marketing may need to be suitably jarring to challenge the type casting and reposition the brand.
2. Often brands become lax in telling their own story and then wonder why others are not following them. As in the case of WWE, the brand’s executives are taking their story directly to ad agencies and advertisers emphasizing that they are more and capable of more by means of tie-ins and promotions than the limited view media execs may have.
3. Brands, just as the markets they do business in, must adapt to a constantly fluid and evolving space. Depending on the category, change can be either at a snail’s pace or almost daily. Brand marketers must carefully consider the pros and cons of such a move in order to eliminate the drag of typecasting can have on sales performance and growth.

Essentially, for brands to have the chance to break free from typecasting their actions must create new memories, based on an altered understanding of the brand. Communicated and received successfully old meanings can be pushed aside to make a new role for the brand.

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I was thinking about that party when taking a closer look at Coke’s decision to kill its White Coke can before the scheduled end of its holiday season run. This was primarily a story about customer confusion — there was not enough difference between the White Coke can and the Diet Coke can and people were getting confused and buying the wrong one. But there was a side-story that some people thought that the Coke from the white can did not taste the same/as good as the Coke from the red can. Ridiculous, you might say. Not that surprising, I thought, based on my own experience from that beer-tasting party.

In fact, there is plenty of research that shows how the power of packaging influences taste perception. Brian Wansink carried out an experiment where restaurant diners were served a free glass of wine before a meal. All diners got the same wine, but half were told it was from California, and the other half were told that it was from North Dakota. The diners who thought the wine was from California enjoyed the wine more — clearly influenced by their expectations. But it didn’t end there. They also rated the food higher, ate more of it and said they were more likely to return than the diners who thought they had been given wine from North Dakota. What the diners were told about the origin of the wine had a profound impact on their experience of the whole meal.

What’s going on here is that our brains are trying to compensate for the fact that most of us don’t have a very refined palate, and can’t tell good from bad without additional clues. As Dan Ariely described in “Predictably Irrational,” fMRI tests have shown that the prefrontal cortex, responsible for higher-order brain functions, activates when it is given information (like a wine’s origin) and can override the part of the brain that is just reacting to the taste. Wine actually tastes different if you know (or think you know) where it comes from.

This helps explain why Pepsi won the Pepsi Challenge (a blind taste test) but didn’t beat Coke in most branded taste tests. Coke was winning the battle of the prefrontal cortex with its brand. When I worked at Nestlé, we had a goal to be preferred 60/40 in blind taste tests vs. the competition. In light of this research, this looks like a noble but futile objective. Taste does matter, of course — but what really counts is how people rate the whole package.

Other research has shown similar effects from music, lighting, utensils and other aspects of the dining experience. Context is another important factor that impacts experience.

This is good news for brand managers because it reaffirms the importance of branding. It’s not just about the product inside. The brand matters because it tells consumers what to expect and influences how they evaluate a product. A strong brand gets the prefrontal cortex on your side.

It also reinforces the importance of considering your customer’s complete experience. The little details — even ones that are not directly related to the product itself — are important in forming brand perceptions. Ignore them at your peril.

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