Brand and Butter
The straight-talking branding podcast for leaders who refuse to settle.
Brand and Butter delivers no-BS advice on how psychology, strategy, and design create brands that work. Host Tara Ladd, founder of Your One & Only brand design studio, breaks down the real influence and power of branding – how understanding behaviour and cultural shifts can transform how people see, think, and choose.
Sometimes funny, always honest, never dull. This is the podcast that cuts through industry jargon to talk about what actually makes brands stick.
Tara Ladd is the founder of Your One and Only, who design brands that breathe with culture through psychology, strategy, and design.
Brand and Butter
Brands as Emotional Connectors: The Psychology Behind Why They Matter
The landscape of business is shifting dramatically, and brand psychology has never been more crucial for survival. When markets tighten, consumers don't simply choose the cheapest option, they gravitate toward brands they emotionally connect with and trust. And, trust has become the currency of brand relationships, built through consistent delivery of promises and authentic communication. After all, we don't just buy products, we buy meaning, memory, and moments that make us feel something real. Let's talk about it.
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you're listening to Brandon butter a straight-talking occasionally in your face no BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners. Here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing associations, consumer behavior and design thinking can impact what people say, think and feel. I'm your host, tara Ladd, the sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt founder and creative director of Brandon Design Agency. Your one and only. Hey, hey, welcome to this week's episode of Brandon Butter.
Speaker 1:So there's been a lot of things happening in the last week and I think now more than ever, we need to really be getting down to the crux of why we exist as a business, because as things get hard and we've seen it in the past people will always go to a brand that they trust or a brand that they emotionally align with, and people often say that it's price that people will choose by Now, of course, price is part of it. That's why it's part of the marketing mix, you know. If you don't know what the marketing mix, it's price place people. You know all that stuff, but it's just a consideration. If you are hell bent on working with someone, then they are going to spend the money to work with you if you align with them, given that there are obviously money conversations involved in that, but if someone wants to work with you, they will find a way to do that. So today, what I want to actually talk about is the psychology behind why brands actually matter, and I think in the next coming weeks, the things that I really want to dive into is, you know, brand trust, loyalty, the science of brand perception and like the evolution of brand relevance is like the big big four hitters, because as we move into this next era of brand and marketing and business, it's really important that we understand the moving elements and the mechanisms that come into play, and by mechanisms I mean basic human behavior. It's all good to have a really good visual identity, but if the bones of the brand aren't there the visual identity, it's just like walking outside and wearing a really nice outfit and someone going, hey, you look good and that's it. We want to make sure that that person becomes our friend, that person engages with us. You know, we start to build a relationship and all of that comes down to building an established brand DNA that will evolve as well.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people think, once you do a brand and you rebrand or whatever that may be, that it's like done, set, forget. It's not, it's now. We're looking at this being a moving element. Traditional brand is out the window. Your brand identity now now needs to adapt and evolve. We've seen this change so quickly in the last 10 years that you know, looking at this any different is old school behavior.
Speaker 1:So this is one of the things that I want to kind of start to talk about, because it's so deeply aligned with culture and that's something that I really love to study and align with. So, and one of our key differentiators here at your One and Only is understanding. You know human behavior, the way that we engage in societal narratives and belief systems and ideologies and all of these things that drive human behavior all fundamentally come from an emotion, and if you don't know basic human emotion or basic drivers of human behavior in terms of decision making, then we can miss some pretty big opportunities. So today I want to talk about why humans are fundamentally wired to connect with brands and how the most successful companies always leverage psychology. You will see that big agencies, big brands with huge budgets invest in research and data, and now there's a huge space of neuromarketing, where they're using fMRI machines and EEGs and eye tracking to tap into the way that people respond unconsciously.
Speaker 1:This is when they say people don't judge books by covers, but they do. It is simply unconscious behavior, like we subconsciously look at things and make judgments so quickly that we don't even know that we're doing it. We can judge someone by what they're wearing. We can judge someone by what they sound like, and that's the good old example of, say, the tatted up guy, and you just have this perception of him and then he puts on scrubs and he's a doctor and you're like whoa, this is just what we do. These are preconceived heuristics, which are brain shortcuts that have come from associations and stereotypes and generalizations, and this is so deeply embedded in our culture that it's so important that you understand them so you as a brand can communicate the wider message.
Speaker 1:So we want to talk about the need for human connection. This is so important as we're moving into the next iteration, iteration. So saying on my keynote the other week we're moving from aspirational marketing, which is buy this and become this, into affirmational marketing, which is buy this because you already belong here. We're not looking at getting better, we're looking at embracing who we are. That's kind of where we're at at the moment, and what we're seeing is that we're creating sub communities. As as as gets well, the internet, social media just diversifies, we're seeing these sub-communities establish and they're getting more niche, and so it's about finding how people belong and what their identity is and where they feel like themselves.
Speaker 1:Because, you know, we grow up and we become these people and you see, all these people as they get older and they're like I should have, could have, would have, and we're seeing this change. Now. I think the generalization or the realization I should say for the younger gen is that they're like why do I want to work all my life, get old and then be like I should have done this? They're living their life when they should be living their life, and I actually really respect them for that, and so we need to look at the way brands connect emotionally with their audiences. Now Nike, whether you love them or hate them, have done a really good job of this. They're not selling shoes, they are selling the likelihood or the ambition and the want and need and desire to be an athlete. And it was like one of their older sayings was if you have a body, you're an athlete and it's just saying that the everyday person can become an athlete. And by wearing Nike which, ironically, their shares went through the roof during this whole crash recently and I was like, why is that? But I mean, I'm sure that there's some real reason for it, but when you buy from Nike, that's the just do it. And we've seen this recently with their Superbowl campaign.
Speaker 1:They came back with their old way of doing marketing, which was bringing that emotion back into. It's not about what you do, it's about the process and it's about the buildup and it's about who you become in that process and it's that is relatable to everyone. You don't have to be a, you know, a great athlete to to feel what that successful drive and momentum and process of achievement feels like. You know, it's resilience, and everyone can relate to that in whatever life circumstance. Like it's not even gym related, it could be life related, and so that is the type of messaging that people then can put themselves into the narrative and see it from their own perspective, and that's when the marketing hits. It's when you put them. They're able to see themselves in the narrative. That's being spoken and then that's when you hit the emotion. It's the simple topic of brands don't just sell products, they sell meaning and they identify people. And brands that have successfully created these emotional connections are always going to win. They always do.
Speaker 1:And if I was to say to you, can you remember an ad that you know? Tell me an ad that you remember, for whatever reason, it'll always be something that holds a memory, and it's the same way why sense marketing works. You know you spray a perfume. It will remind you of an event or a certain type of food reminds you of an occasion. Like, all of these things hold memories. That's why these things are important and brands that tap into that are going to win. Because of that exact reason. Apple do this really well. I don't know if you've seen the hearing aid commercial that they did, but man, was I blubbering mess after that? Dove do it phenomenally, like phenomenally, and yeah, we've seen this work countless times before. And emotion doesn't mean sad or making someone feel like cry, happy it's funny as well Like liquid death. I'll say it till the day I die liquid death are fantastic, with irreverent, hilarious marketing. Um, who gives a crap? Have done that.
Speaker 1:Their whole original spin-off funding came from the founder sitting on a toilet for like 50 hours to get as many people, uh, buying the product as they could. You know, investing into their product. It was like funding or seed funding or whatever he was doing at the beginning, and you know, that's one of their founding stories. It's when you have those things, they're the things that create meaning and identify. And so we need to look at the science of brand perception because it's how the brain processes information. So that's visual, emotional memory formation. We have it through a various that. I have a whole thing on the website.
Speaker 1:You can go and have a look at the blog. It's like memory encoding. There's like visual, tactical, like semantics and what's the other one Audible assuming. So podcasts are really good for that because you tap into that Written. You know, when you're writing blogs like that's, that's a memory formation for talking about marketing, of course. And then we look at, uh, sound and video. You know the visuals going with that. And tactical is, um, or tactile, I should say, is the feeling of like a prop, it's like holding the product, it's like seeing what that feels like.
Speaker 1:Apple and Steve Jobs did this really well when he used to present the iPhone. He used to walk around with the iPhone in his hand and use that as the visual prompt and people could then assimilate what he was saying with the product he was holding in his hand. And that's when you can kind of build that association. It's the visual that people will now get when they think of the product. They see the product, they can wrap all those associations to the product and that's another way of doing things. So it's this hugely important thing to understand all of these ways that the brain processes information, and it's not just one thing, which is why I always say when someone says, oh, your messaging needs information, and it's not just one thing, which is why I always say when someone says, oh, your messaging needs to be changed. It's like great, it does, but if the visuals don't align with the messaging, then there'll be a disconnect.
Speaker 1:And you know if you've got this is one thing I actually totally off tangent think about with spec savers. Spec savers have this amazing campaign where it's like you should have gone to spec savers and it's really funny and humorous, but I feel that that doesn't carry through into the store. Like every store that I go into seems really sterile, and you know even the way that the staff greet you. I mean they're nice, but it doesn't have that, those touch points that carry on from that campaign, and I feel like there is so much opportunity for them to bring that in store where, yeah, the campaign's like wildly successful, just kicked my drawer wildly successful but the I feel like that. I was thinking about that the other day. So it's like how can you bring those touch points into everything that you do? And, of course, brands can't be funny all the time, but if you're going to go out with this wildly successful campaign, bring, bring that in somehow. I feel like there needs to be that like full circle customer journey.
Speaker 1:But there's another thing that we really need to think about and that's brand recognition and consistency, which is tapping into that. Exactly that when you are saying the same thing over and over again and you do it often and people then familiarize themselves with it, then that creates a memory. It's like the neural pathways you know. You create a habit, habitual formation. You do it for 30 days. It then becomes a habit, like that's kind of the same thing with like brand recognition. You do the same things over and over, and that's how people then start to remember your brand. And if you're not doing, I mean here I am pot calling kettle black. I'm about to get get serious with the, with our strategy, but it's pushing that, that content out consistently so that people know that it's going to be there.
Speaker 1:You know, with the, with the podcast, I dropped off a little bit, but when I started to do that continuously every week at the same time people, then the listenership picked back up again. So it was like even I, I not like I know. So I feel you, if you're not doing, I feel that. But it's almost like now you need to figure out the order of priority. I just had my mate, sheree from Digital Picnic, just mentioned me and be like you need to do this. I'm like I know, I know. So we're all guilty of our own things and I think at the end of the day, it's just a matter of doing the things that work or making a list, a priority list. So I have a huge priority list at the moment because I can often get sucked down the tunnel of doom doing something that's completely off. I'm an ADHD. That happens often. So it's about making sure that you're doing the things that work and you're staying on track and then working down that. You know that list of opportunity.
Speaker 1:But another thing is like understanding how brand perception influences purchasing decisions, like we see this with who gives a crap Like I bring that back up again. But they will often bring that humorous like giving. And even their toilet paper is wrapped different, like every touch point is so vastly different to anyone else within their category that they become the standout choice purely of a few things. It wasn't even that they completely revamped. They had a social initiative to it, like a social responsibility, social responsibility. So they've created the give back in like initiative and they just wrapped their toilet paper in like recyclable paper. Recyclable paper oh my god, anyway. Paper, um. But it's also done in a really creative way. They've got touch points on the toilet paper roll so when it's finished, like there's a message there or something else, so it's not just like the end. And then they have humorous like personality that's carried through all of their brand, at the, at the top level, from socials into like the way that they put things like from their brand name, like everywhere. And these aren't big game changing ideas, they're just simple ideas. They've just done things that are so vastly different.
Speaker 1:It's just about identifying the gap. There's something that we've been working with a lot of our clients on at the moment, and that's positioning. When you know where the gap is, then you can plug it like, glue it in. That's where you go. You find that white space and you dive into it and you say this is where we're going to be. And that's when you find your distinct differentiation. You then shout that difference from the rooftops. You then go out with that messaging You've done the analysis of your competitors. If you don't know how to do this stuff, I'm about to release a PDF called the what was it called? The market advantage gap so you can go and track where you think it's actually really cool. So I will link that eventually below. However, if you're on our email list, you will get that when I push it out. But it's about yeah, it's about that initial research, like the really heavy lifting stuff at the beginning, and then everything else becomes really easy, because then you find these gaps and they're not massive gaps, it's like tiny little things that you can change that make this huge difference, and that's where we're at right now. You like, the chances of you being able to create something that hasn't been done before is so hard these days Like we talk about brands that are still talking, or brand designers that are still talking about owning colors.
Speaker 1:That's like not even a thing anymore, in my opinion. Like there are too many brands that own distinct colors. You can't own purple Cadbury's, got it. You can't own red Coke's, got it. And even then, like it's like your own assimilation of what that brand looks like in your mind, you can still do it. Yes, traditional marketing, though I like to look at it as color pairings now. So, like color color palettes, like pairing colors together and yeah, that's just kind of where my head's at.
Speaker 1:It's like moving elements, making your brand movable and dynamic so that it's carrying through. You can constantly adapt and evolve it and add to it so that it's not just static, it's moving as you grow. And understanding these dynamics is important because if you stay static and then the world changes and then you're constantly having to reinvent your brand every time, like give yourself the ability to adapt with it, like how can you adapt with it? So that's where where our thinking is at the moment is using these different ways of seeing where the market's at, how we tracking where the world is right now, what societal messages are being said, how we can align culture and and the way that we're moving as a society, so that we can tap into that and grow with the societal narrative, as opposed to trying to always fight against it or find the next best thing. And when you know what you're doing and what your intention is, then you're not going to be worrying about these stupid trends and figuring out ways to stay on top, because you will know your trajectory. Then the trends and all those things that go out become part of your plan as, like a tactical way to you know, bring the the wider strategic alignment into play, which basically means you've got your long-term strategy. And then you use these things like the trending reels as a tactic to give more prominence to the overarching strategy.
Speaker 1:We did a whole podcast episode on that. You can go back and have a read. But it's really just about finding the opportunity and looking at the, these tiny gaps that you can then blow up into a big thing Like. Think about toilet paper. They just probably said let's make it fun, and that was it. That was the idea, it never. And then the idea evolves.
Speaker 1:When an idea can grow and you can apply it to many things, you know that it's a good idea If the idea can only go, you know, left and right and then it stops there's. It's not, it's not wide enough. The idea has to be transactional, not transactional. It has to, has to be able to grow and transition. Give it the option to be applied to multiple things and you know it'll go. Look at the MasterCard. Can't even remember the tagline now. For everything else there's MasterCard. That's that went across for so many years because it had the ability to. And that's a campaign? Yeah, sure, but it can also be applied to strategy. Any strategy and the Specsavers is a perfect example Should have gone to Specsavers.
Speaker 1:That's an idea that can continue to grow, because the idea is it's strong in its foundation. It can be applied to so many different things and that's all you need to do is find something like that. And that takes work, yes, but when you find it well, then it's done. You just use it over and over and over again and then that's what people begin to know you for. So it's also about understanding the trust. Right? You do things the same way, in the same format, but you say different things, but you continue to do things very you know same Z, so that people know that that's what you do, they become familiar with who you are as a brand and what it is that you stand for, and they can then build that trust around you. You're not going to shake them.
Speaker 1:People hate change the minute that you shift in. That's why there has to be a big song and dance when you're rebranding, because if you've completely changed something and people aren't expecting it, you either do a what I would consider to be like a drip rebrand, where you slowly introduce it so people would be familiarize themselves with little bits and pieces, or you do a big song and dance and a big bleed up into it and say, hey, we've changed, this is us now, yada, yada, and then people can understand that that's what you've done and you bring them in on that journey, and there are plenty of different. There's multiple ways that you can launch a brand. That's a whole different thing, but it's really important to understand that. People want to know what's going on. They hate change. We know this.
Speaker 1:This is very evident and it's important that we need to stay on track to make them. Well, if you do something different, it's just a matter of you know continuously then doing it different in. Whatever that way may be, it's about staying consistent. It's not like I'm going to use a font one day over here and then use a different font over here. Consistency helps to create like that familiar mindset and that recognition so that someone can identify you straight away, even if it's the way you sound. For instance, sonic branding is really big, like the sound of netflix or the sound of tiktok it goes, or like you know that who the brand is without even opening your like, without even looking, and if they change that sound, you wouldn't know. So there's all of these and that's an audible way of information processing. So it's important to know these like tiny little things that can help you to stay into the mind of the consumer.
Speaker 1:This creates brand loyalty as well. If you are staying true to who you are and what you do and what you're about, who you're here for, and you're delivering constantly the same thing, that's when the loyalty is created. That's when people know that you're about and who you're here for and you're delivering constantly the same thing, that's when the loyalty is created. That's when people know that you're not a risky choice and they can invest in you and they know that they're going to get the outcome, and that's when you start to build the community, because people know who you are, what it is that you do, what it is that you stand for, and that's when you build business stability. So when you have that community around you, you know that someone's going to refer you or someone's going to talk about your brand to their friends and suggest and that is the best type of feedback you can get word of mouth, which is why people pay for affiliates. That is when you have a trusted source ambassadors, influences. This is why this works is because people trust other people and if they trust someone that refers you by default it's choked on my own spit by default you will earn that respect and recognition.
Speaker 1:So you're always going to think about the first thing you do. When you go to buy something, you say, hey, has someone used xyz? And if you have someone, come in, you've found a brand you really like it. And you have someone that you know, come in and has someone used X Y Z? And if you have someone, come in. You've found a brand you really like it and you have someone that you know come in and go. Oh, I used them once. They were really bad. All of a sudden, your perception shifts. So think about that. It's really important to understand why, how reviews play a part positive word of mouth, community and that's that's the importance of community. It's actually about building that consistent, positive association around your brand so that you build business stability. And so we look at brands that you know have had to recover from trust.
Speaker 1:Issues like Lego.
Speaker 1:A classic example spoke about that. They were on the brink of bankruptcy. They were not doing what they were supposed to be doing, in that they were trying to diversify and going into theme parks and doing all these like collaborations and they actually diluted their brand to the point where they were siphoning up to 1 million dollars out of their business a day. It was like 800 million dollars in debt in 2003. And what they did was they reached out to their audience, and the audience weren't kids, they were the adult fans of Lego. They called that AFOLs and they're engineers and creatives and builders and they're people that you know probably all in the neurodivergent community and they spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on Lego and they spend hours and they build these big things. It's like a whole thing of creativity. And when Lego tapped back into that audience, they were able to then find that reason for why they exist, and they then recouped and they're now back on top of again again, and it was listening to their audience, and this is something that I keep saying.
Speaker 1:It's like people think they know their audience but they don't. They talk at them, they don't listen and they miss huge opportunities. Especially at the moment the conversations are changing so drastically, we need to have our ears open all the time to understand what's happening, and so the end or the moral of the story is that trust is the currency of brand relationships and it's built through consistent delivery of your promise. So, as we're watching things evolve these days, it's so important for you to just keep your finger on the pulse and understand what's happening and how modern consumers are seeking that authenticity and alignment with their personal, personal values. It's the reason why someone would buy.
Speaker 1:Who Gives a Crap is because they're aligning. You know they're one for one, it was a one for one offer but they're giving back to, you know, to sanitary stuff overseas. How good was that? What a sell. They're just giving back and helping to, you know, rebuild third world countries and using that way of you know, giving back is altruism. So, as a consumer. You buying from who gives a crap is giving you a feel good feeling because you feel like you're doing good by doing that you buy.
Speaker 1:You have a choice and you can either buy a. You could buy a toilet paper that gives and helps someone else, or you can just buy a toilet paper that does nothing, and why would you not feel good about that choice? So the choice is you feel good by buying who gives a crap toilet paper because you know that that will help someone else. And that is another thing that you can tap into the positive brand associations that make your brand look good in the mind of the consumer. It's like the halo effect. It carries across you do something good and it carries across everything that you do. And the more positive associations that you have about your brand, the harder it is for people to say no to. So I think it takes one negative to knock out 13 positives. So you need 13 positive associations to counteract a negative. Keep that in mind if you ever get a negative review.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, we need to understand how modern consumers are seeking that authenticity, how they're seeking alignment and belonging, and that's through community, it's through like-minded stories and this is why it's becoming real and authentic. And people say authentic, it's such a buzzword Just don't be a dick, just be yourself. Rock up, be a real person and don't put this bravado on and people will begin. They can sense it. People can sense bullshit. When you rock up and you're yourself, they go yep, and they can. They just know. So that whole facade of that fakeness is really starting to come through and people are like, nah, so that's what we're going to see, I think, as we watch the world evolve, is that those that we've seen this again. I mentioned it again with the tesla they've did their shares of tanked. And then we see it with target and costco with their dei initiatives. Like people have doubled down with costco because they doubled down on on their dei initiatives, whereas target cut it and they dropped them. So people are now buying with values more than ever and, as we see this shift into the younger gen becoming adults and making bigger decisions, there's a value shift in finances. So how they spend their money is value aligned.
Speaker 1:So as brands, we need to be considering the way that we show up and communicate what we stand for. So I guess the core takeaways for today is that we need to understand the need for human connection, because when you know that, you will be able to create emotional messages that can actually resonate with your audiences Because if you are just rocking up as a product, like there's no connection piece, it's just a product that they will buy and use and you become a commodity we need to understand that there is a deep science involved. Psychology is a huge part in the way that we make choices and we're seeing more designers get right into the psychological thinking because you need to. It's the way that we think is the future, because we're seeing jobs get absolutely obliterated with AI at the moment and if you don't have a different way of thinking, then your job from a skillset can be completely wiped Not eliminated, but the need for it will reduce, so it will become harder. So selling your mind and the way that you think is going to become one of the biggest things. And when you can sell your idea by understanding people, when you understand them better, you can then reshape what your ideas mean to someone and put it in a way that's better delivered for the sell.
Speaker 1:We need to understand brand trust and loyalty, because trust is the epitome. It's why we have middle funnel content. It's that trust building phase. How many pieces of content do you have going out that can help someone go? I want to research this company. What else have you got available for them to be able to understand more about your business? So people will search for it.
Speaker 1:If there's nothing there, they won't buy from you, and so that means, for instance, for us we have a blog post, we have an email, we have a podcast, we have videos and courses, and we're soon to release a digital product range. We have customer reviews. It's like what people say about you. The everyday conversations that you're having online are really important as well. As I say, as I about to launch my new strategy don't stop that, please. I've noticed a huge difference in that. Do not stop to stop doing that. But at the end of the day, it's that brands that have a high sense of purpose will grow way faster than those that don't, and this is why we're seeing brand go beyond profit. It's about a feeling and it's about a memory, and the more you know that, the better you will win, especially in this hard and tricky market that we are in.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I hope you liked that episode. Stay tuned, as the next couple of episodes are going to be more in line with the way that we're thinking um and how you can tap into that those little nuances that others may miss, to gain an advantage until I will chat to you next week. Did you like that episode? I hope so, because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us, you can find us at youwantanonly underscore au on Instagram.
