{"id":2524,"date":"2024-07-30T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T07:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.equus-design.com\/blog\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2024-07-31T14:14:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T06:14:42","slug":"how-we-get-baptised-into-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eq-brand.com\/blog\/how-we-get-baptised-into-brands\/","title":{"rendered":"How we get \u2018baptised\u2019 into brands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the past, everyone assumed that branding was driven by brand owners, and was about creating differentiation through logos and packaging and advertising. Nowadays we realise that branding is something that happens in our minds. It\u2019s fluid, it\u2019s malleable, and it changes with every new experience. And it begins with a kind of baptism, an \u2018aha\u2019 moment when we realise that \u2018this brand is my brand\u2019. In this post we explain how this happens, and why.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a teenager, raised in a London suburb, I was fascinated one day by what my next door neighbour was wearing. His name was Leyland, older than me by a few years, and a bit of a dude. He was a design student, and very fashion conscious. On this particular day he was sporting a brand new pair of Levi\u2019s 501s, and they looked really cool on him. It was the era of the skinheads in the UK and Flower Power in the US, two broad movements for which, despite being polar opposites, Levi\u2019s seemed to be the jeans of choice. So I was already aware of the brand, and liked it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up to that point, for me it was all about the visual appeal. I liked the cut of the jeans and all the details, like the copper rivets, the metal button fly, the double yellow stitching, the chevrons on the back pockets, the little red Levi\u2019s tab on the right back pocket, and the leather patch above it with the famous depiction of two horses trying to pull a pair of Levi\u2019s apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what I noticed in particular about the Levi\u2019s my neighbour Leyland sported, was how well they hugged his body. So I must have said something about how perfectly fitted they looked, because he then told me how this was achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said when he bought the jeans they were blackish blue in colour, kind of oversize, and the denim material was very stiff. And if you wanted them to fit you really well, the prescribed ritual was to pull on the jeans, soak yourself in a hot bath for about 30 minutes, and after stepping out, let the jeans dry on your body. Call it a kind of baptism, which everyone who wanted a pair of Levi\u2019s had to go through to \u2018join the tribe\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way to describe my reaction was star-struck. From that moment on I became a Levi\u2019s devotee and as far as I\u2019m concerned – when it comes to jeans – Levi\u2019s absolutely define the category, right down to this day. That experience cemented Levi\u2019s in my mind as \u2018my brand\u2019, because Levi\u2019s jeans helped the adolescent me define who I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, it was five years before I could actually afford to buy a pair of buy my own. But by then the price didn\u2019t matter \u2013 that expensive first pair of Levi\u2019s had already been \u2018pre-sold\u2019 by the experience I\u2019d had with the brand five years before, which had burned it into my psyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this says something about how branding works in terms of its psychology. In the past, everyone assumed that branding was driven by brand owners and created by brand consultants. We thought it was about creating differentiation through logos and packaging and advertising. Nowadays we in the industry have grown up \u2013 now we realise that branding is something that happens in our heads. It\u2019s a living organism that dwells inside the brain. It\u2019s fluid, it\u2019s malleable, and it changes with every new experience. And it begins with a kind of baptism, an \u2018aha\u2019 moment when we realise that \u2018this brand is my brand\u2019. And from that moment on, we are willing to make whatever sacrifice is required to own that brand. Be it the high purchase price, or demanding rituals like the Levi\u2019s shrink-to-fit \u2018baptism\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been described as \u2018self-image congruity\u2019, which refers to the point where you realise that there is an alignment between your self-concept, and the brands that you desire. We all have a self-concept \u2014 a perception of ourselves that includes not only preferences about our chosen style, but also cultural factors like our values. We also have an innate desire for a kind of integrity or consistency about how we dress and accessorize ourselves \u2013 that our appearance and our stuff needs to reflect either who we are as a whole person, or the image we aspire to. Self-image congruity happens when we realise that a brand we are attracted to matches our inner sense of self. For me this \u2018self-image  congruity\u2019 with Levi\u2019s didn\u2019t just stop at the look. It was also about the authenticity of the Levi\u2019s back story, and their values. This was reinforced by another kind of immersion I had with the Levi\u2019s brand later on, in my career as a designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We designed an exhibition for Levi\u2019s to promote the brand across nine cities in South East Asia. Called \u201c150 years New – from 501 to Type 1\u201d, it showcased not only the Levi\u2019s back story and iconic products like the 501, but also their product innovation over the years<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward three decades, and by an unexpected twist of fate, the branding consultancy I founded in Singapore was selected by Levi Strauss & Co to undertake three key projects. Firstly we were asked to design a travelling exhibition celebrating their 150th<\/sup> anniversary, as a way of promoting the Levi\u2019s brand in South East Asia. When completed it travelled to nine cities across the region. Called \u201c150 years New – from 501 to Type 1\u201d, it showcased not only their back story and iconic products like the 501, it also put the spotlight on their innovation in new styles like the Type 1 \u2018Engineered Jeans\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside the travelling exhibition, we were also commissioned to design two marketing brochures – one promoting the Levi Strauss Foundation, which donates a huge amount annually to fund programmes worldwide to alleviate poverty, with a specific focus on women and children, and another brochure promoting Levi Strauss & Co Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our scope of work on all three projects included the development of the content, which meant we had to research not only the history of the brand and its products over the years, but also the philanthropic values of its founder Levi Strauss, and how his values have remained a central focus of the company, even down to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the process of working on these projects, I realized that beyond the quality and the design of the products, I also bought into the altruistic ethos of the company, because it aligned with my values too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were commissioned to design a brochure promoting the work of the Levi Strauss Foundation, which donates a huge amount annually to fund programmes worldwide to alleviate poverty, with a specific focus on women and children. Our concept was centred around letters written by the beneficiaries of Levi\u2019s outreach, and included a global photoshoot covering all their programmes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what was happening to me then \u2013 before the explosion of social media \u2013 was that because of my unique experiences with the Levi\u2019s brand, it was being built in my mind very much in the way it is built routinely today in the minds of the modern consumer. Including the way I was drawn into curating and shaping the marketplace perception of the brand by my content creation. Because today \u2013 due to the increasing expectation of customers for their brands to reflect their values, and the massive influence of social media \u2013 branding has become what the branding guru Michael Wolff calls \u2018a complicated neurological phenomenon\u2019, in which customers build the brand in their minds and then \u2018co-create\u2019 it in their social media posts and reviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the day the received wisdom about branding was that in order to succeed, brands needed to promote one key concept top down in consumer\u2019s minds (like \u2018freedom\u2019 for Harley Davidson or \u2018safety\u2019 for Volvo). Nowadays insights from modern psychology and neuroscience have revealed that brands don\u2019t represent only one key concept in customer\u2019s minds, but multiple concepts. Every brand comprises a complex network of interconnected associations and memories in the human brain, that shape which brand we instinctively prefer. Described as the \u2018Brand Connectome\u2019 by Michael Platt, Professor of Marketing, Psychology and Neuroscience at Wharton, the more positive associations a brand has, the more it will grow in our consciousness, till it reaches a kind of tipping point at which that brand becomes \u2018our brand\u2019, and we form a kind of familial loyalty to it. That tipping point for many will be a sense of self-image congruity, because it draws so many of the other strands together. And this process cannot be controlled by brand owners and brand consultants. It happens naturally, bottom up. All that brand owners and brand consultants can do, is learn how best to manage it, or influence it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Brand Connectome\u2019 is a complex network of interconnected associations and memories in the human brain, that shape which brand we instinctively prefer. This is the Brand Connectome I formed around the Levi\u2019s brand, and why I call it \u2018my brand\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what happened to me in my relationship with Levi\u2019s. It began with the look of the jeans and all the visual details, reinforced by the branding and its various iconic elements. It deepened with my discovery of the Levi\u2019s \u2018baptism\u2019, and moved onto my experience of owning and wearing the jeans, and seeing how they looked better as they aged. Finally it was consolidated by my awareness of the Levi\u2019s back story, and the values that drive their social outreach, and then my own curation of this very compelling story in my writeups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this underlines is that nowadays, brands need to appeal to consumers on multiple levels simultaneously, and the deepest of those levels is emotional, and values-driven. Consumers are not so much focused on rational things like product features as on how the brand makes them feel, and how it enhances their sense of identity. So it\u2019s the brands that create the most positive emotional connections with customers that will succeed, because they are the ones that generate the greatest feelings of empathy, resonance and \u2018self-image congruity\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion? Bearing in mind all the above, brands need plenty of emotional intelligence nowadays, or EQ, to survive. In the past, success was thought to be down to the IQ-based insights of the branding profession \u2013 doing the right research, drawing the right conclusions, creating the right brand design. Nowadays, while all the above is still very important, EQ is the new \u2018must have\u2019 for brand owners as well as brand consultants \u2013 the ability to step into not just the shoes of their consumers, but also into their minds and emotions and values. And then use those insights to collaborate with them in the curation and development of their brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build your brand identity with us:<\/strong>We understand the challenge of creating a compelling brand experience that is both authentic to who you are, and resonates with your customers. With our unrivalled expertise in brand strategy and identity design, and working with brand owners across Singapore, SE Asia and the Middle East, we are able to create inspiring brands and a holistic brand experience, across all channels. If anything in the blogpost above strikes a chord, and you need our assistance, do get in touch with us<\/em> here<\/a><\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past, everyone assumed that branding was driven by brand owners, and was about creating differentiation through logos and..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[36,30,32,20,19,24,22,42,23,35],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eq-brand.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Equus_Blog2_thumbnail-16.jpg","yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n