The psychology of branding revolves around the fundamental principle that emotions drive customer affinity, intention to buy and eventually loyalty. People buy brands. They don’t buy products. And brands are built on beautiful stories. Stories that have meaning, touch lives, and evoke emotions. 

Let me share a personal anecdote. I was one of the many urban Indian women that was eagerly awaiting the launch of Rare Beauty, the inclusive make-up line by multi-awarded American singer and songwriter Selena Gomez, in India in June this year. 

A celebrity launching her own skincare/beauty line is not new in India. In the same year that Gomez launched Rare Beauty in USA, Indian matinee idol Katrina Kaif launched her beauty line, in association with Nykaa, called Kay Beauty. This was followed by the likes of actresses Shilpa Shetty (Mamaearth), Deepika Padukone (82 East), and more recently Kriti Sanon, launching their own beauty brands. 

But rarely (no pun intended) did one see the kind of frenzy around a celeb-led brand in recent times as one did for Rare Beauty. 

So what led to me and countless other women queuing up at Sephora to get our hands on a Rare Beauty lip oil only to be told that everything was sold out in less than half a day? Sure, the India market was waiting for the brand to launch for over four years, and that could have led to the heightened anticipation. But that alone was not the reason for the bumper sales of a beauty line that wasn’t that modestly priced and was at least about 20% more expensive in India compared to the Western markets, given the hefty import duties. 

Gomez created a brand that proudly spoke about celebrating what is “rare” about every woman. From the very beginning, the 31-year-old songstress, emphasized on a beauty brand that was inside out, that celebrated diversity of skin colour, body types and age, and was truly inclusive. The brand’s concealer comes in 48 different shades – acknowledging skin colour of every kind. Its packaging is also disability friendly, making the products accessible for women of all kinds. 

And that’s not all. Gomez, being a bipolar disorder and depression survivor herself, pledged to donate 1% of the proceeds from Rare Beauty to making mental health treatment and education more accessible to people. Her work on raising awareness on mental health issues is well known. And she created a beauty brand that was not just founded on shattering unrealistic beauty standards set by a patriarchal society, but also supported mental health issues in a very tangible way. 

As a lived experience mental health advocate who has suffered from severe depression and anxiety almost all her life, the brand spoke to me in a way that most brands don’t. It touched something deep within me.  

And that very real, raw and authentic image Rare Beauty has been able to build by standing for something that’s tremendously relevant in the world that we live in today, and cutting through the relentless clutter all around us, to me, is the secret sauce of the brand that’s raking in annual revenues upwards of USD 60 million.

A brand is not just about its logomark, colours and tagline. It’s about its voice, personality, values, narratives and storytelling and cultural connections. 

Therefore, an Amul will always be more about the cheeky, quick-witted girl in her adorable polka-dotted dress, whipping up one-liner commentaries on the current affairs of the country faster than you can spread the butter on your toast, and less about the butter itself. 

Similarly, Pidilite’s Fevicol will always be the most obvious metaphor for unbreakable bonds, becoming a part of our lexicon. When we think of Fevicol, we think of unshakeable bonds first, and then the adhesive. 

A good brand does the following:

• It stirs one or more of the following emotions: love, trust, kindness, generosity, care, aspiration, desire, ambition, passion. 
• It creates a need to experience the product or the service.
• It boosts self- image/self-worth of the consumer by acting as a positive social signal. A Gucci handbag has certain social connotations.   
• It also gives you a sense of belongingness. A good brand can create a cult following. Think Nike/Apple. You are either an Apple user or you are not, and if you are one, you belong to the Apple family. 

All of the above are derivatives of the 12 brand archetypes drawn from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s personality archetypes from 1919. Even after over 100 years, this is a very relevant and helpful framework to arrive at a brand archetype. 

And it is the archetype that builds the brand’s personality, vision, voice and narrative. Burger King, as a challenger brand to the much older McDonald’s, is an Outlier. It challenges status quo, breaks a few rules and is a bit of a rebel. And so, everything about the brand reflects this personality. Their advertisement – whether it’s the famed Moldy Whopper one or otherwise, their guerilla campaigns against Mc Donald’s, their moment marketing posts on social media, are edgier, more fun and packs in as much of a punch as their Whopper does.  

When we sat down to lay the building blocks of Columbia Pacific Communities, we agreed that it would be a “Caregiver” archetype, with elements of the “Creator.” ‘Caregiver’ was an obvious choice given that we are in the business of providing care to senior citizens. And ‘Creator’ because we wanted to be the category creators – the ones that set the rules and the tone for the category in India and redefined it. 

With that in place, we steadfastly stuck to our vision of being a holistic care solution for seniors in our country and became India’s largest and most preferred senior living community operators, in less than five years from initiation. 

Our brand credo of “positive ageing” helps seniors live healthier, better and happier lives for longer through the power of active ageing and also challenges ageist attitudes in society. Our multi-awarded campaigns and narratives revolve around the concept of positive ageing which believes that age can never be a deterrent to living one’s best life.

An emotional connect with customers is not just forged through powerful narratives. It could be through other sensory tools – like music or even a visual identity that evokes a sense of nostalgia. 

Think of the Titan brand tune. It’s an adaptation of Mozart's 25th Symphony. A timeless tune that always evokes a sense of nostalgia and puts a gentle smile on your face unfailingly, as does the “Humara Bajaj” jingle created by the legendary adman Alyque Padamsee.

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It’s perhaps pertinent to mention that Bajaj pre-empted competition in the auto space by playing on the Indian sentiment, underlining the fact that it was a proudly made in India brand, which helped the brand retain its market share. 

Strong visual identities could also be very powerful in forging an emotional connect with customers. If you grew up in 80s and 90s India, the canary yellow and green wrapping paper of Mango Bite candies, the iconic Cosmic Cobalt blue of Nivea tins that generations of women have used as their only beauty product, and the pappad munching bunny of Lijjat Pappad, are all unforgettable visual identities of brands that became truly iconic and a part of our everyday lives. 

However, despite all the innovation in branding and packaging, very few brands today have been able to match up to the visual appeal of these brands. 

And that is because these brands believed in the power of consistency. 

The big question is: in today’s chaotic, oversaturated and overstimulated media landscape, how do brands create everlasting emotional bonds with their consumers and translate that to business? 

Brand building is a long-term process. There are no short cuts to it. Consider this. Iphone had a 3% market share in its initial years. It took even an Apple a good 16 years to get to the top, and today it has the highest global market share in smartphones at almost 29%. Exceptional branding with focus on product and design excellence over years has ensured that the brand is right on top despite its premium pricing. 

But it’s not an overnight success story. Nothing is. Brands, just like the city of Rome, are not built in a day.  And this is particularly important for shareholders, key stakeholders and business owners to understand, in an environment that is increasingly looking for instant results and returns on investments. 

I consider brands as culture vanguards. They tell us to “think different”(Apple); to “just do it”(Nike); to “Belong anywhere” (Airbnb); “don’t crack under pressure” (Tag Heur). 

In other words, they tell us what our life’s mantra should be and how to live life. In many ways, they lead, we follow. They decide the direction in which they want to steer the world. Yes, of course they have hugely vested interests. But we know that already. 

But they can’t tell us what to do if they don’t know us well enough. And that’s where neuromarketing comes in. 

If we look at what forms the crux of the soon-to-be USD 21,218 million neuromarketing industry – it is a neuro-science based discipline that observes and understands consumer behaviour, decision making and responses to external stimuli. 

The role of advertising and branding is to change this behaviour through powerful, affirmative, persuasive and action-inducing stories and messaging. 

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy UK, said, “The future of advertising is rooted in the behavioural sciences.” 

If companies truly want to derive value out of Marketing functions, they need to focus on the “why” of consumer behaviour as opposed to the “what.” The “why” helps unlock extremely powerful insights that have the potential to transform businesses. So, it’s not just about figuring out the efficacy of marketing campaigns and crunching performance marketing data. It’s about creating brands for the future that would be resilient, that would shape and create culture by cultivating keen interest in human psychology and behaviour and understanding the relationship between how we think and what we buy.