Your brand is just a collection of opinions.

It's no secret that a brand is much more than a logo and a few color choices. But have you considered that your brand is mostly made up of opinions? About your company, your staff, your services and products. As usual, the HOW is much more important than the WHAT.

Your memory is full of clusters of associations.

Hello, what? What is an association cluster? To answer that and understand the real values of your brand, we have to start with the cognitive research that Atkinson and Shiffrin conducted at Stanford University in 1968. When their friends celebrated the Summer of Love in San Francisco, they took the opportunity to research the memory process. They developed a model where, through repetition, we place our cognitive impressions in our long-term memory. Long-term memory functions as an association cluster with memory keys. Here you see a memory from their studies. It is not completely logical and obvious how a cluster is connected.

Your brand is a cluster of associations.

The memory of your brand works the same way. The memory keys are your name, your colors and your logo. But what opens up is a cluster of associations filled with collective opinions. About your products and services, how you appear when someone meet you, how you communicate, quality, price, appearance, you name it... Everything matters. And it's not your opinion that matters. It's your potential customers'. Of course you own the formal brand, but it is the customers who own the right of interpretation.

It is not your brand platform that determines how you are perceived. It is how you live it and implement it in your daily work. There is no dial to turn to change opinions about you. It's about living your brand. And that everyone in the company, at least everyone who has any kind of customer contact, does it. 

Create your brand before you become famous.

You might think, whatever, we're so unknown we don't have a brand. But then it is easiest to build good values that lead to you being appreciated. There are no scandals or problems that need to be washed away. Do your homework at once when you start and start from what the customers and prospects are asking for. From the outside in. Start working on the customer journey by talking to your customers.

A good brand brings more sales.

It may sound obvious, but it is easy to forget in your daily work. An investment in your brand is an investment in your sales. A popular brand has better sales and more loyal customers. An unpopular brand reduces its sales. Of course, there is a large gray scale in between. But every step in the right direction is a good step.

Do you want to know more about how to create positive associations and increase sales? 
Get in touch with klas @ kip.se