Brand strategy isn’t brain surgery
It’s more to do with the heart
Sometimes I feel a bit of a fraud working in an area that is called ‘strategy’ whilst creating love stories instead of spread sheets.
I’ve always loved drawing and making art. It made me feel something I could never fully put into words. Nothing compares to the deep connection that comes from evoking a positive emotional response in someone when I’ve shared one of my creations.*
Creating a brand is no different. Its sole purpose is to take what you do and present it to people in a way that will make them feel a certain way.
The heart connects first, then the brain makes sense of it. This is why we call it “capturing hearts and minds,” not “minds and hearts.”
But somewhere along the way, brand strategy became tangled up with dashboards, conversion funnels, and spreadsheets. We started treating brands like equations, as if a human being can be persuaded by logic alone. And many businesses believe that strategy is a mathematical exercise instead of the deeply human one it truly is.
The irony is that decades of behavioural science prove something profoundly simple: people don’t make decisions logically, at least not at first. They make them emotionally, intuitively, often unconsciously – and only later wrap those decisions in rational justification.
Emotion drives decision-making more than logic
Let’s start with something foundational. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman’s work on cognitive processing (often summed up as System 1 and System 2) demonstrates that the fast, emotional brain makes decisions long before the slower, analytical brain catches up. This means the initial connection a person feels toward a brand (trust, excitement, affinity, comfort)isn’t just decoration. It is the decision.
In other words: your brand is chosen in a split second, and justified later.
Antonio Damasio’s groundbreaking research supports this too. In studying people with damage to the parts of the brain that regulate emotion, he found they could still reason, but they couldn’t make even the simplest decisions. Without emotion, choice becomes impossible. It’s emotional processing and not logic that sparks action.
If strategy is meant to influence behaviour, how could it possibly ignore the very mechanism that makes behaviour happen?
Brands people love outperform brands people merely understand
Business schools may worship utility, but consumers don’t. A 10-year analysis by the consulting firm Motista found that customers with an emotional connection to a brand, i.e. a personal, human resonance, have a 306% higher lifetime value than those who are simply satisfied. They’re more loyal, they buy more often, and they become organic advocates.
This emotional connection has nothing to do with product features or price. It’s about identity and meaning.
Similarly, research by Ipsos using their “Brand Meaning and Salience” framework shows that the strongest brands are those perceived as meaningful, not just useful. Meaning accounts for the majority of a brand’s long-term equity. Again, usefulness is not enough.
If logic alone sold products, the best-made, most efficient, most technically perfect offering would dominate every market and this has never been true.
The dark side of this is of course when brands successfully manipulate us into buying inferior products and we’re left with a broken heart. I want to be clear that I always make sure the brand ‘does what it says on the tin’. If you can’t deliver your promise, your brand will never get repeat customers.
Story beats statistics
Human beings are wired for story, not spreadsheets. Neuroscientist Paul Zak found that narrative content triggers oxytocin release (our bonding chemical) making people more trusting and more willing to act. Stories literally create biological changes that influence decision-making.
This is why a well-told origin story, a clear mission, or a heartfelt purpose can outperform a long list of differentiators. Apple, Nike, Patagonia, and Disney don’t win because of their features. They win because they stand for something that makes people feel a certain way.
Brand strategy, therefore, is not about data alone. Data can tell you what people do, but not why they do it. It’s the emotional “why” that gives a brand its gravity.
Emotion isn’t woo woo. It’s essential
Some leaders still flinch at the word “emotion,” as if emotion is the opposite of business. But emotion drives trust, loyalty, memory, habit, and preference. It is at the centre of human experience and therefore at the centre of branding.
Brands are not algorithms. They are relationships.
Relationships thrive on:
shared values
a sense of belonging
identity
aspiration
safety
meaning
Not on a list of product specs.
This is where brand strategy becomes less like management consulting and more like matchmaking. Your job isn’t just to describe what you do, it’s to understand how what you do makes people feel. And then express that feeling consistently, authentically, and beautifully.
Brand strategy is emotional architecture
When you strip away the buzzwords, brand strategy is the craft of shaping emotional perception. It’s the translation of purpose into feeling. It’s the art of helping people understand why your brand matters to them.
The most strategic thing you can do is decide which emotion your brand exists to evoke.
Do you make people feel safe? Inspired? Understood? Empowered? Free? Connected?
Once you understand that, everything else becomes coherent.
The visuals.
The voice.
The story.
The experience.
The culture.
Even the product or service itself.
They all become extensions of the same emotional truth.
The heart leads, the mind follows
People like to pretend they’re logical. But watch how they behave, and you’ll see what the research has always shown: the heart decides, and the mind rationalises.
So when businesses obsess over metrics, funnels, and features without first defining the emotional engine behind their brand, they’re skipping the step that actually moves people.
Brand strategy isn’t the mathematics of manipulation. It’s the psychology of connection.
*
Full disclosure: my artistic creations are usually a picture of a loved one’s dog, so a warm, happy reaction is pretty easy to achieve. Here’s a recent charcoal sketch I did for my sister-in-law Jen’s adorable dog Dunkin for her birthday.
Ready to create a brand that makes people feel something??
Contact me, and we can have a chat about it. Or book in a free call here.
References
Decision Lab. (n.d.). System 1 and System 2 thinking. The Decision Lab.
https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/philosophy/system-1-and-system-2-thinking
Farnam Street. (2016). Daniel Kahneman: The machinery of thought. FS Blog.
https://fs.blog/daniel-kahneman-the-two-systems/
Motista. (2018, September 19). New retail study shows marketers under-leverage emotional connection [Press release]. PR Newswire.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-retail-study-shows-marketers-under-leverage-emotional-connection-300720049.html
Motista. (2018). Leveraging the value of emotional connection for retailers [PDF].
https://inspirefire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/3.3_Motista_Leveraging-Emotional-Connection-for-Retailers.pdf
Somatic marker hypothesis. (n.d.). Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_marker_hypothesis
Ipsos. (n.d.). Brand equity. Ipsos Encyclopedia.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-hk/ipsos-encyclopedia-brand-equity
Ipsos. (2016). Building stronger brands [PDF]. Ipsos.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2016-10/Building_Stronger_Brands.pdf