Reilly Newman | The controlled process of brand creation can simply be boiled down to concept and context – which means developing a memorable concept (positioning) and adapting that concept to the context it is placed in. This enables the brand to adjust and become more memorable in its marketing and overall presence in the market. Since the brand is self aware of its contextual environment, the established position of it can benefit from many levers used in psychology to further its impact on its desired audience.
As you can tell, these two efforts are accomplished by the business and therefore are somewhat controllable. However, we also know that “brand” is dependent on the perception of your audience and how they perceive these concept/context efforts. This leads us to their side of the story. How the audience takes in the signals from the brand and makes sense of them. Similar to concept/context, the audience is combining two elements: perception and sensation.
PERCEPTION is defined in psychology as: “a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.” This makes sense because as your brain takes in information (stimuli) from the surroundings — via seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling — it wants to paint the picture of the stimuli. Your brain processes what it is absorbing and then perceives it. This is where subjectivity comes in — as humans have different frame of references and perspectives and a lot of the information we take in can be subjective in nature. Your perception defines the stimulus and adds meaning to it based on your personal perspective. Obviously, this leads us to the next element of the actual sensation itself.
SENSATION is defined in physiology as: “the faculty of perception of stimuli.” For example, when you “smell” a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies, your nose takes in the scent and this stimulates the receptors within, which in-turn creates the sensation of the smell that you associate to be cookies. It’s the physical sensation that is then left to your perception. This is exactly why two people can smell, see, hear, feel, or taste the same stimuli, but have polar-opposite responses to it — based on their perception of that particular stimuli. This is why some people love oysters and others are grossed out, why some people like certain musical genres over others, why different people are attracted to other people for different reasons, or why some see a blue/purple dress verses seeing a white/gold dress. Similarly, the image below will create the same result of different people perceiving the same visual sensation differently. Some will see a rabbit, others will see a duck even though the visual is the same.
As you may have guessed, these discrepancies pose a major threat to any business and their marketing efforts. Can a business’ brand be seen that differently by polar view points? This brings to light the vital importance of having an abundance of clarity in not only your concept, but the contextual environment as well. Just because your brand or ad looked great as a digital ad doesn’t mean that will translate nicely to be perceived on a billboard the same way.
This is because of the two reasons we discussed. The visual sensation is changing (from a small digital ad to a large scale printed billboard) and the sensation is also changing in the experience of the stimuli itself. One experience is in the palm of your consumer’s hand on a backlit screen that is crystal clear and engaging and has the audience’s giant flat surface full attention. The other stimuli is high up on a giant flat service surrounded by visually busy industrial/urban elements and they are most likely driving past at a moderate or high speed.
These different intakes of stimuli alone alter the sensation. Next, their perception takes hold and begins crafting the meaning. This takes into account emotional state, frame of reference, perspective, preferences, etc. For example, the viewer might be stuck in traffic and very frustrated/stressed when they see your billboard. Not a good light for your brand to be subject to. Or your ad might be an annoyance to them while they are on social or a website, again not a good light.
By having clarity in your audience, your concept and context can help make these engagements more successful. This is because you will be cognizant and empathetic to your desired audience. You will understand how they want to be talked to, when they wish to be engaged with, and how might they perceive your brand’s efforts. When you have this clarity, you can leverage it and benefit from the psychological profile of your audience. The neuroscience will be on your side. Since the brain naturally works this way, doesn’t it make more sense to lean into it for the sake of your business and perception of your business? Your business depends on it because your brand is it.
