In 2020, we are bombarded by advertisements all the time. You can’t turn on your TV or pick up your phone to look up something without seeing at least one ad along the way. That’s why it’s so hard to stand out and why you have such a short amount of time to create an impression.
Researchers estimate that a brand has about 7 seconds to leave a good impression. If you fail to impress the consumer during that short time frame, you can’t hope on getting that person’s attention ever. That’s why you need every trick in the book to attract the consumer from the get-go.
In this post, we’ll be talking about how branding affects human psychology. We’ll see a few examples of brands using psychology to improve their business. And we’ll see how you can use some of these techniques to improve your branding efforts and increase your bottom line in the process.
Creating Brand Loyalty
Why do people want to turn their businesses into brands in the first place? In simplest terms, they want to build a loyal following of people that will purchase their products and believe in their business through the good times and bad ones. To do this a brand needs to connect with people.
Both on a personal and an emotional level.
How can you do this? According to Professor of Marketing at UCD, Damien Mcloughlin, branding is all about differentiation: in what way one brand is different from another offering the same product. Furthermore, a brand wants to be known as the number one solution for a certain problem.
There are multiple brands for every product imaginable. Consumers don’t have the time or mental capacity to consider every product every time they have a need that needs fulfilment. When facing a problem, the consumer needs to think about your product immediately.
That’s why brands try to be as loud as possible when coming up with a logo.
Examples of Big Brands Using Psychology
Things like colour, font, and images play a huge part in branding because our brains easily remember visual information. Nearly two-thirds of today’s population are visual learners. In marketing, colour isn’t there to make something look visually appealing. It’s also there trigger certain emotions in consumers.
Every successful brand in the world has a certain colour or at least a shade associated with it.
For example, McDonald’s golden arches are one of the 10 most recognisable logos in the world. The red background is there to increase the urgency to buy food quickly and the yellow arches are meant to create an aura of happiness and joy and make the restaurant seem family-friendly.
Let’s look at a few examples of how brands use psychology to turn customers into brand followers.
1. Apple’s Logo
Apple’s famous logo is extremely simple but effective at the same time. The black and white colour scheme is there to create a feeling of simplicity. At the same time, the sharp logo gives you a sense of technological sophistication.
2. Starbucks’ Colors
Starbucks caters to a young and more hip demographic, which is why the company’s logo gives you a raw and gritty vibe, with green and earthy tones. In addition to grittiness, the colours are muted to calm the consumer down and invite them for a nice, warm cup of coffee.
3. Fanta’s Label
Coca-Cola targets an even younger demographic, which is why Fanta’s logo is so in-your-face and sunny. Kids are usually attracted to bright colours. The explosive font is there to promote fun and entice young consumers.
How Can You Use Psychology to Boost Your Business
The big brands we’ve just mentioned know a thing or two about how branding affects human psychology. So let’s look at a few things you can learn from them and use to improve the relationship between your brand and customers:
1. Trigger Emotions in Buyers
As we said, people depend on their gut feeling to make purchasing reactions. As a matter of fact, people make 9 out of 10 purchasing decisions based solely on emotions. That’s why you need to sit down and figure out what sort of emotions you want your brand to trigger. Do you want to cause instant emotions? Maybe you want them to think about your brand even after the purchase is done? These are some questions you need to tackle.
2. Motivate Through Associations
Human beings are extremely emphatic. All of us relate to each other’s happiness, sadness, pain, and success. If you ever watched a video of a person walking a tightrope, you probably felt nervous until they made it to the end. Our brain has “mirror neurons” that make us physically respond to other people acting. That’s why you need to show consumers how your product solves other people’s problems. That will trigger a positive feeling if they ever face the same problem.
3. Stay Consistent to Create Trust
What’s your ultimate goal? To gain the trust of your customers. That’s why you need to make sure that your brand is consistent across all media channels. Your messaging needs to be consistent both offline and online if you don’t want your customers to start doubting you. There’s a phenomenon known as the frequency illusion. It’s an illusion that once you see something, it’s starts appearing all around you. If your message is consistent, it will stay with customers even when they’re not in direct contact with it.
Final Thoughts on Brand Psychology
That was a bit about how branding affects human psychology. Of course, people have been studying psychology for millennia at this point. However, there are certain things we know that have an effect on us as consumers. You can use this knowledge to establish your brand and make it stick with consumers.
You need to:
By doing all of these simple things, you’ll ensure that your brand has a long-lasting impact on the consumers.
