3 People Believe in Brand Love. Admit it.

People don’t think too much about your brand

Brand love is a marketing concept I grew up with, studied it, believed in it, and in the last ten years, I started to lose trust in it.

Humans love their families, their pets, the places they go, and themselves, and trust me, they do not love your brand of toilet paper, cleaning detergent, candy bar, or Pet Treat.

Yet, we still believe that brand equity’s outcome is the love of a brand.

The Marketoonist has a great visual on the topic. It’s not new, but always a pleasure to engage with

Inside the mind of the consumer

So, what is happening in reality in people’s brains when brand love knocks on the door. How do they fall in love with a brand? They are exposed to brand messages; they react with their emotions, paying attention or ignoring the signals received, and build connective memory structures.

Yet rarely, if ever, they replace “the love of <<me>>” with “the love of Hertz” in their brains.

Brands are signals of trust for generic product lines; they form a repertoire of choice consistent across categories; brands appear and disappear from peoples’ consideration set based on product performance, salience, and external perspectives (brand fame).

Build memory structures that resonate

I see the role of advertising to strengthen those memory structures connected to brands, to keep repeating consistent brand messages that will resonate at the point of sales in unconscious ways.

Because even there, where we think humans are analyzing every single purchase decision with care, they are acting on instinct too.

But we can nudge the instinct by building memory structures.

When was the last time you thought the brand you work on is bigger than life?