How magical is it to observe and understand the way people make decisions and fall in love with some brands?

‍

While doing a live event in May, I observed a roadmap to Branding.
From people discovering your work to them buying your products and services.

I realized and observed different steps to that pivotal moment, when ''people say yes, I want this''.
For some people, it takes more time they need to investigate and build trust.
Others are more direct, claiming  ''I want this now''. For them, the message is crystal clear and meets a need, there is no shortcut they want it now without delay.

The way you express yourself and your product matching their need both help them get to positive decision-making. The result and feel they get are what they will bring back home.

‍

‍

🔸 Identification

''What is this? I have never seen this before''.

‍

They identify that you, your service or product is new and that within the market, you are different.

With identification, you have several reactions:
_ ''It is way too different from what I know''. I will not go there''.
_ ''It's different, but I'm not rejecting it though''. 

There is a system of values and beliefs between you and the identification. 
For example: their habits, education, background, status and even field of expertise.

‍How do they identify you?‍

• Your visual and tactile presence (logo, tagline, website, shop, packaging, products)  
• your expression (talking, energy, personality).

In the first step, something repetitively caught their eye. That is why they move into the next step. 

‍

‍

🔸 Memorisation

They have identified you once, twice or three times. Now they are in the memorization phase. When your user, client or customer memorizes it's you, it creates a pathway to bonding.

Something clicks into their memory and leads to curiosity. It is uncontrollable and intangible. It is hard to know why you're curious about things. They can relate to something deeper within you, such as experience, education, work-family or even childhood.

‍

🔸 Curiosity

Curiosity is a result of identification to memorization.

‍

People don't buy physical items, they want to experience an idea, a concept or a feeling. They have the curiosity, will and determination to open the door to your brand.

From curiosity, they observe and ask questions about the product, service and yourself. They listen to you and your answers. There is a conversation that occurs, which leads them to investigate on their own:
How can It be useful to me?, How can it meet a need of mine?, How is it built?, What is the inspiration?, What is the WHY?

With that sense of quest, they discover a brand (a message, a founder, a team, a method, a vision and philosophy). Many things representing the vibe of a brand.

Bringing curiosity into conversations around your brand is a great foundation to bridge the gap between you and your user. We know how much curiosity is pivotal in our human evolution. We are curious beings, curiosity has triggered a large number of decisive, innovative and life-changing inventions.

For your customer, the processes before start to make sense. They acknowledge the brand they discovered is more than what they thought. ''It's more than what I've identified. It's more than what I memorize.''
Beyond curiosity, they realize your brand has something special. It has something they have not seen before. They start to understand why and build their perception of your brand.

‍

‍

🔸 Resonance

They get a feel of the experience of YOU as a Brand.

‍

They feel connected to something you said, to the ambition of the product or the vision of the brand. Such as mindset, values, personality traits, resilience and motivation. Something moves them: it's not superficial but profound. There is something within them that resonates with what you do. How you speak resonates, inspires and motivates. 

They get a feel of the experience of YOU as a Brand. A feel that in many ways can resonate positively or negatively. People and experiences are different.
‍

A conversation to create a bond
‍The conversation leads to openness. As you share about your brand, they share about themselves. They grasp and understand what you are doing. They get it! 
They speak about you and your brand in surprising ways. That is when you need to have your notebook and capture the repeated words you hear. Listen and write them down. All these repeated words are pivotal feedback. They speak beyond words on the perception of your brand. 

By listening, you grasp the steps to bring changes into your branding and storytelling. Especially if what you hear dissonates with your WHY.

Depending on people, resonance will become a magnetic field. Because you are aligned, your brand and product will be spot on to answer a need in the market for them. Either by responding to a need they have now or forseeing a gap to fill.

The resonance will magnetize.
Thanks to your observation and listening abilities, you will sense the gap and witness how ideas and solutions magnetize themselves to you.

Resonance gets you closer to them and brings them closer to you, your products or services. That is exactly what we need to get to the next step which is building trust.

‍

🔸 Building Trust

Trust is not something that you build overnight.

‍

There are many steps before you witness and enjoy trust. Such as tangible results, working together, sharing stories and life experiences. Beyond the conversations, action shows who people really are in the moment.

Vulnerability and support are some items to the ecosystem to build trust. It grows and highlights a bond as it repeats itself.

We are in a mass-production economy with over-consumption. There are a many products that we buy but we don't know who is the brand behind the product or what they stand for.
Most of the time, we focus on one thing: ''It can resolve one problem of mine, which is not something pretty profound. It doesn't make me think about my humanity or values, it doesn't go deep within me.
It doesn't matter if I buy it once and never purchase it again''.

With brands who go deep into our emotions, there is a different pattern to building trust.
• You buy a product once and experience a great result.
• After several uses, you are happy to give your feedback, negative or positive. Your drive and concern is the betterment of the product and brand.

For a founder, it is empowering because there is a dialogue, which leads to improvements and collaborations in that mindful feedback loop.

Building trust one product at a time, one event at a time, one conversation at a time, one feedback at a time.

‍

Brand(ING) = an experience

Brand(ING) is an experience of your brand, it's vision, feel and energy.
People bring back home an experience of your brand and they want another feel of it again: that is the process of building trust. The repeated experience, being a success each time, builds a bond you can work and improve as a brand.

Your users keep asking questions, give feedback and want to become a part of what you are building. That is when you are not only building trust but a league or a pack of ambassadors.
It's a critical and challenging place. Not easy to achieve because it's intangible: it's an encounter.

The concept of WE TEAM

It can be magical to reach that place where your users or customers want to be part of what you do. They love your brand so much that they want to become a team member. They are no more a normal customer, they are part of the growth and vision of your Brand. They feel and know they are listened to and cared for.

‍

‍

We never have to forget that whatever we buy, we do not buy the object, rather the feeling or an experience of what this object can bring to us: progress, ease, efficiency, productivity, capacity to scale, feel good, ...

‍

🔸 We all are looking for betterment and substance

We all want one thing: to reach our goals!

‍
There are several ways to reach a goal: either with substance or without substance which highlights the goal's intention.
• If you reach a goal empty, you reach a goal.
• When you reach your goal beyond the numbers and statistics with the confidence, mindset, character and empathy that goes with it, you reach your goal fuller with a substance called purpose.

All the experiences, that along the way helped you reach your goal fuller are valuable for you. You value them and talk about them. You become their ambassador due to how they have helped you during the way to reach your goal fuller (with substance, wisdom, expertise and vision).

‍

‍