Ever wondered what makes the difference between brand success and brand failure? Hard work? Creative genius? Luck? A combination of all three is a good start. As is the brand’s ability to speak to the subconscious as powerfully as it convinces the conscious, the ‘thinking’ parts of our brain.

Neuroscience has taught us that most decision-making is automatic and intuitive, made in System 1 - the ‘rapid response’ part of our brain. After that, we rationalise our decisions in System 2 – the logical section of the brain.

To create a successful brand marketers and designers need to connect with both the instinctive System 1, whose dominant language is visual (around 90%), as well as making sense to System 2.

Coley Porter Bell has developed a number of Rules of Thumb to help create brand design and experiences that will appeal to both parts of the brain.

Key take outs:

1. Brands have to work as both a signpost and an invitation - System 1 can decode large amounts of meaning from small slivers of stimuli, even things we aren’t consciously aware of.  Therefore, design seduces most powerfully when we use detail to layer in equity and meaning – not just to standout.
2. We learn by association - System 1 learns by association, for example red = danger and or excitement, calligraphy = tradition and hand-craft. This means that we can communicate qualities or ideas instantly by leveraging well established cues from seemingly unrelated scenarios in the wider world.
3. We respond to humanity - We have a preference to things that feel human and will infer personality and emotional states not just from people but from anything with human like qualities.
4. Know your visual DNA – what’s your brand’s defining visual assets?  - System 1 doesn’t see the world in ‘photographs’ but rather as ‘Gestalt’ – a whole pieced together by the sum of its parts (lines, edges, colours, movement etc). Therefore, you need to determine the qualities and characteristics that distinguish your brand, category and offer. Whereas some elements must remain ‘fixed’ to ensure understanding and recognition, others can be changed whilst still allowing people to identify the brand.
5. System 1 and System 2 in harmony - At the point of purchase a sale will result more easily if Systems 1 and 2 are in harmony – a general rule for packaging. However, in some channels it may be beneficial to create dissonance between the two. To create codes that jar, disrupt and make you stop and think – advertising for example.

To find out more contact Vicky Bullen at Coley Porter Bell