Brands are a normal part of life, these days, and this isn’t accidental. For years, brands have been deliberately pursuing the most effective ways to market themselves. Think of the critically-acclaimed show Mad Men, which took place in the middle of the 20th century–anyone familiar with Don Draper’s story knows the lengths to which companies, even in the 60s, would go to successfully market a product. But with today’s normalization of media consumption and exposure to networked technology, the avenues that brands can affect us are limitless. We see them, hear them, and even feel them through their messaging.
Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are making it easier than ever for brands to connect with audiences, providing sophisticated forms of tracking, analysis, and interaction to help connect consumers with products they’ll love. But how are brands actually affecting us? Are they just out there making noise? Or are they actually performing vitally influential roles in our everyday lives and our society? Let's explore these ideas in a little more detail!
Bringing Utility Into The Mix
We get it, brands are everywhere! But what does that mean? Companies sponsor events, purchase stadiums, and give out freebies, all with their branding placed smack-dab all over the place. All of your clothes probably have the brand on the inside, and many of them are likely to have the brand on the outside, too. Brands have managed to become bragging rights, but they are also parts of everyday infrastructure.
According to Gareth Parkin, Founder of GoPromotional (a company that produces promotional merchandise for businesses):
“Businesses, individuals, and organizers still view branded physical goods as powerful tools for making lasting impressions. In a world that is increasingly digitized, tangible goods are likely to only increase in value, especially when it comes to brands connecting with individuals.”
Businesses use promotional products for dozens of marketing reasons. Brands can be found everywhere.
Check your kitchen drawer full of miscellaneous junk and you’re likely to find pens with phone numbers on them. Look through your closet and you’ll likely find at least one t-shirt full of sponsors from an event you went to years ago.
Chances are, you’ve worked for a company that made you wear a branded hat, gave you a branded mug, or let you pocket some of those oh-so-convenient branded pens. The examples are never-ending.
These types of branded items are useful, pervasive, and an important part of how small businesses and large businesses stay relevant in peoples’ minds over large swathes of time.
Advancing Consumer Analytics and Tracking
The past decade or so has seen an intense development in our cultural awareness of not only brands but also how technology is utilized by brands to engage with consumers.
Research and data have always been important to marketers, but the sheer scope by which this is the case has never been so substantial. With smart technology in almost everybody’s pocket, tools to measure multiple metrics are incredibly pervasive.
Many people think of these types of data monitoring as invasive, which is entirely justified in many (if not most) circumstances. However, from a marketer's (and thus a brand’s) perspective, the ability to collect and distribute data effectively is what helps match the right product with the right buyer.
In such a driven environment, it’s easier than ever for brands to interact with large and effective swathes of information, which essentially also makes it easier for brands to interact with you.
More specifically, you might notice that the advertisements that you come across while doing your typical online tasks are sometimes alarmingly relevant to your life. Whether it’s a big change such as moving to a new home or something simple like looking for a new pair of shoes, your web browsers will immediately catch on (and so will relevant brands).
The use of cookies, analytics, social listening, and other modalities allows advertisers, brands, and software companies to compile data about you. Of course, the goal is to use this data to increase the probability of a conversion.
Constructing Personal Identities
The idea that brands play important roles in our identities is not a new one, but it’s seldom talked about. People identify strongly with the way they lead their lives, and in today’s consumerist environment, it’s very normal for different products and services to become important factors in our lives.
As internet users, it’s common to be swarmed by new products on a regular basis, which means that the extent to which we interact with these products is also becoming an important part of our identities.
Some people take pride in their ability to move past the plethora of new products, but others thrive in an environment where they can express themselves with new branded merchandise and products.
Culture and brands interact in important ways, as each influences the other. Culture tends to scrutinize brands and their products, but it can also be influenced by them. Look at how universal Apple and Android products have become–they have dominated their respective industry and, via their systems, directly influenced how we communicate with one another and how we perceive media. That's one reason why a business name is so important: it can literally influence the culture we live in, especially if it's memorable. If you'd like a solid process for creating brand names, check out this awesome article from Media Heroes on how to come up with a business name.
Making Everyday Decisions
A lot of us seem to almost run on autopilot. We wake up, do what we’ve got to do, and finish the day trying to do more of what makes us happy and less of what does the opposite.
Decision-making is something we take for granted, but it’s crucial that we’re aware of the effect that brands and marketing have on our decision-making processes. A big part of what makes a brand successful is its ability to persuade people to pay attention to them, and ultimately buy their product or products. Persuasion is all about influencing decisions, evoking an emotional reaction, and connecting with audiences.
Decisions in our daily lives are affected by the fact that we are more connected with consumption than ever before. A lot of our time is planned around purchases, and motivating that process is a primary objective amongst brands.
Being aware of this helps you become a better consumer, preventing yourself from making decisions that aren’t in your best interest, and pushing brands to make products and marketing initiatives that actually help the consumer.
There is also something to be said of brands that embrace social movements and trends. Obviously, brands seek to incorporate things that people care about into their messaging, but sometimes, this can create a sort of feedback loop that legitimizes certain ideas in the public consciousness. This general increase in the frequency of an idea’s positive representation (or even negative) can make certain ideas more or less appealing to certain people, and therefore affect their decision-making.