We all have logos and slogans seared into our minds, so it’s no surprise that the monetary value of a brand alone is often worth more than all other company assets combined; Apple’s brand is worth USD 516 billion, for example.

Obviously, branding is incredibly powerful. However, in a paper released by Arnd Florack and Johanna Palcu at the University of Vienna, the extent of branding’s power to effect consumers on an unconscious level was revealed. 

At the heart of it are designers. Without designers, branding stays in Zoom calls, emails and meeting rooms. Designers work their skills and imagination to produce something tangible. They are in a powerful position. But just how far does their power go? 

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Findings from Florack and Palcu say it all revolves around ‘brand schema’.

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Brand Schema

Brand schema is, simply put, a pattern of thought that consumers have of a brand. It includes all areas from the conscious to the deeply unconscious, and from trust to social status.

Through brand schema, a consumer’s thoughts are directed before they’ve even tried a product or service. One study showed that consumers judged their favourite soda better when trying a labelled version than when trying the exact same drink without the labelling. When it came to peanut butter, most people didn’t even bother looking for alternatives to their favourites.

Brand schema is perhaps most effective when a quick or unfamiliar decision is required. For example, if there are a bunch of different TVs on a store shelf, the consumer is likely to go for the one with their thought patterns leading to trust. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

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Brands Can Gain Immunity

Brands, whether they know it or not, can even gain brand schema immunity.

A great example of this is when BMW launched Mini in 2005. The German car magazine AutoBild summed it up perfectly with an article titled, “Does Love Make You Blind?”. In this case, perhaps the answer is yes.

In test runs, the new 2005 Mini looked set to be a flop. It was, on paper, mediocre and unconvincing. But upon launch, it was a hit. Consumers had enough trust and positive brand schema for BMW that the brand alone carried the Mini launch through to success. This stems from years of BMW’s successful brand campaigns and the Mini launch branding highlighting the involvement of the parent company.

In more recent years, you can look at the introduction of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E in 2019. Many people were critical of Ford using the iconic Mustang name with an electric vehicle, however, it was Ford’s strong reputation for engineering and vision that turned scepticism into positivity. They also used the brand appeal to hire influencers for the launch event, resulting in it being the third highest-reaching global product of 2019.

The ‘immunity’ doesn’t stop there either. The paper shows that consumers actively search, consciously or not, for information that supports their perception of a brand. Consumers remember positive reinforcements far more than minor negatives. Designers in this case have an incredible amount of power, knowing they can utilise their creativity to reinforce positive messages and perceptions of trust; minor negatives can quickly get brushed aside.

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With Power, Comes Great Responsibility

Be warned, however, as things can easily take a wrong turn in the world of branding. While positive brand schemas can mitigate negative experiences initially, at some point there will be a tipping point. There is a limit to how much people can take. A repetitive product failure or disappointing result with a new launch will naturally start to change opinion. It’s therefore critical that designers wield their branding power carefully.

For example, one way that companies can avoid potential negative brand schema upon the launch of a new product is by detaching itself. 

For example, Mercedes doesn’t use its traditional name or logo for its Smart cars. It was a risky idea for a high-end brand to produce small (potentially comically small) cars, so the branding team distanced themselves and got creative. They created a new name, logo and entire brand image. Those interested in Mercedes would perhaps have known the link and therefore put greater trust in Smart, but the general public could see few links between the vehicles and its parent company. 

Florack and Palcu also touch on the relevancy of culture’s impact on designers' power. For example, in Japan and Spain, there is power found in strong harmony-oriented designs; whereas in the U.S. that’s very rare. With that in mind, a designer can easily make the mistake of not harnessing their full potential if they don’t understand the market fully. 

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Heart to Heart.

Enough of the subconscious. Let’s talk about ‘self-concept’.

This is the type of branding psychology that speaks to an individual consumer, directly. Here, the designer can get personal. Multiply that by the millions of individuals who walk past a billboard and you’ve got a lot of power. 

Take Dove's ‘real beauty’ campaign; since 2004 its been an ongoing attempt to redefine the concept of beauty, celebrating the natural variations in women. Through relatively minimal photographs of women of all sizes, the campaign has been a hit that’s added symbolic meaning to the brand image of Dove. 

Women have had the chance to communicate to those around them that they shared Dove’s opinion that society’s beauty values needed to be changed and through identity-based motives the design team worked the psychology effect like a treat.

That feeling of connection is also valued when designers take a reassuring approach. Consumers want to feel like this is a two-way arrangement. We all love the feeling when our bank gives something back, right? Well in branding, that works a treat. There’s a reason Henkel’s slogan ‘a brand like a friend’ has been such a hit for them.

It’s likely most designers reading this will know that branding can be broken down into functional, symbolic and experiential draws for the consumer. But they, and their managers, must make deliberate decisions to target these areas with impactful decisions to make a positive brand schema. If not, the recipe they cook up could simply be too strong or not suited for their consumer.