Emotions: what is the connection with branding?

You thought you could communicate a message well only with the help of the previous parts?

Well, no... or rather, not entirely... and we did it on purpose! 😏

We have one vital thing left to see together. So important that we dedicate an entire page to it!

We're going to learn to distinguish feeling from the message!

What's the fuck*ng connection with branding???

As we saw before, a brand is the shared feeling of a group of people about:

• products

• services

• companies

• ...

Branding is about creating feelings and not about communicating messages. Your messages are tools. These tools are means to develop a shared sense of your brand.

As proof, the messages you communicate will evolve over time. Habits will change, trends will change, and your messages will grow. What will not change are the memories, emotions, and feelings you have created in your audience.

Take any brand that affected you as a child. Think back to the memories associated with it. In those memories, the feelings you are reliving today for that brand, right now, are the same as when you were a kid. Yet today, the brand may not be what it was in the past.

Our goal in branding is simple. To make sure that no matter what the mores, the trends, or the messages are at the moment, the feeling created by your brand remains “the same” over the years.

By "the same," we mean "the most faithful to the very soul of your brand." Why? Because this is the element that changes the least during the life of your brand.

In any brand, if there is one thing that should remain, it is its soul.

Let's take a look at a little example to understand!

• Pepsi = Rebel + Cool

• Coca-Cola = Family + Happiness

• Apple = Think different.

• Nike = Just do it.

As you can see, some brands have even managed to catalyze their soul into a punchy slogan!

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Be careful, don't use tagline generators!

To create a tagline, use your brand strategy. Through this, you will come up with original slogans that no one can steal from you.

Remember, your slogan should be catchy and easy to remember for your target audience.

You'll find the rest of our slogan tips in the following chapters.

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Let's get back to the point!

I still don't see what this has to do with feeling and sentiment....

We finally get to the answer!

Your brand's feeling is the emotion it should give to your audience.

A feeling that lasts over time will gradually become your brand's soul in your consumers' minds.

For the mathematicians among you:

Feeling + Time = Soul

If your brand does not play the emotion card, it will only be an entity offering to sign its name at the bottom of a contract.

A brand must transmit emotions!

Yes, boss!

Why oppose feeling and message?

Generally speaking, in trying to get a brand's message across, one quickly forgets to provide experiences to its community.

Some companies tend to focus more on the message than the more profound part they should consider: sharing the feeling that the brand has to leave!

For example, since almost the beginning, Apple rarely shows us the technical specifications of the products it sells. Why this choice?

Brand values: let us experience, not just see.

Even if the arrival of Tim Cook has slightly shaken the existing codes, Apple has taken the habit of selling more than a product sheet. The Apple company sells you a lifestyle and values. As a result, users of multiple Apple products almost have values in common.

So what?

Why buy a MacBook Pro instead of a Windows PC?

Apple isn't just selling you a computer. The company sells its MacBook Pro to people who buy it:

• To work efficiently because they don't need to bother setting it up.

• Because almost all creative people find the product intuitive.

• Because it is connected to all the other devices of the brand (the famous Apple ecosystem).

• Because it's a MacBook “Pro,” we feel more legitimate to work with it.

• ...

Talk to any "Apple Addict" about this subject, and I assure you that you will hear this kind of answer.

Yet these arguments are never present on the product sheet of the brand.

They are reasons that come from the user's experiences with the brand.

Whether through an ad or a product trial, Apple doesn't sell you a datasheet but a solution. Apple wants to sell you an experience, a feeling, and values.

Still don't believe us? Check out this commercial:

Did you see any product features displayed while watching? Negative! We offer you a feeling, not a description. And yet it makes you want to know more! Now that's a great brand promise.

The product sheet is simply an additional asset to convince the most dubious of customers.

This system allows Apple's marketing team to always say: “We create different products that challenge the status quo for different people that challenge the status quo.”

By the way, Apple already used this system in 1984 with its ad of the same name:

It's the same thing for your brand. Offer an experience and not just a list of features to your customers.

The feeling

Come on, let's stop with Apple 🍎! Let's make a direct link to branding 🤘

Before we get started, we have a quick question for you.

According to you, a logo should convey, above all:

• A: The right feeling

• B: The right message

We're sorry for those who still think that having a computer business entails making a logo that looks like a computer. The correct answer is A.

The real question is why?

If the company stays in the computer business but no longer works on computers, all would be lost!

This answer is undoubtedly good but incomplete.

In such a case, what is called rebranding would indeed have to be done. This answer illustrates this specific error case but does not provide insight into what type of logo this fictitious computer company would need to make.

This is when you realize that there is not just one correct answer. There can be several.

A good logo should be simple, distinctive, and memorable. But above all, it must convey the right feeling.

To illustrate this, let's look at Chase Bank and its logo!

One day, the graphic designer Sagi Haviv was asked to create the logo of the company Chase Bank.

When Sagi Haviv presented his work to John McCloy (president of Chase Bank), he instantly hated the logo. However, the bank ended up adopting it, despite the unfavorable opinion of its president.

A few months after the logo was adopted, Sagi Haviv's team members again ran into the Chase Bank president.

To their surprise, he proudly displayed every conceivable goodie with his company's logo (tie, cufflinks, and cap).

But what happened?

Simple: time did its work.

John McCloy's colleagues liked the new logo because it fits with the feeling the brand wanted to convey.

On the other hand, John didn't like the logo at first glance because he judged it on personal grounds (ego).

However, he also adopted it because it conveyed the right feeling. This logo is still the company's logo today.

Another example: write "apple" on Google Images. Scroll down the page until you find a photograph of the fruit, not of a trademark representing an apple (and yes, Apple once more, we lied 🥸).

Again, no one has a problem with Apple not having a Mac as a logo.

The only thing to remember is that feeling is paramount to your brand's success. Make sure you nurture it, and don't forget it for the sake of the message alone.

Brand message and feeling go hand in hand

It is the interaction with your brand that will characterize the feeling of your audience towards it.

And it is obviously the maintenance of this feeling over time that will allow you to reach the next level of the brand (spoiler: its legacy).

To conclude this introduction to branding, we will now look at the importance of temporality for a brand!

We hope you've enjoyed this chapter.

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Our only ask is that you take a quick second to share it with someone you like.

Our mission at Hyperstonk is to help fair, ambitious, and upright people make a mark and build their legend.

And, to make it happen, we need your help. So, it would mean the world to us.