Branding is often confused with logo designing, identity design, and sometimes typography. A brand is a result of “A customer’s gut feeling about a product, service or company,” according to Marty Neumeier. A brand created by a company that attempts to attract and reinforce the customer’s perception of the product helps them relate and readily identify with the company.

 A rational consumer would be willing to pay for and purchase branded products that are easily recognised by them instead of unknown ones, despite the two essentially representing the same commodity. A brand is intangible, “A brand’s value is merely the total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories, and relationships of one brand over the alternatives,” as per Seth Godin. It represents the hopes and ambitions of the company. It encompasses the motivation and purpose it wishes to portray while defining the positive attributes that the consumers can find relatable.

When a consumer makes choices about different brands, they are choosing to create an identity. It portrays an impression to others about the consumer’s identity. Each brand has its characteristics, and the consumer selects a brand aligning with their life’s conceptual pathway. The relationship can develop to the point where the consumer becomes familiar with the brand, almost owning the same, and this identification also shapes the way they behave. Brand recall has been famously represented by photocopiers being commonly called “Xerox” and detergents being identified as “Surf.”

A recently conducted case study by Michael Platt, Professor of neuroscience, marketing, and psychology, observed the brains of iPhone and Samsung Galaxy users with an MRI machine. At the same time, the participants heard good, bad, and neutral news about Apple and Samsung. Apple users showed a significant empathy response toward Apple, which is how someone would react to their family members. Samsung users did not respond to good or bad news about their brand. On the contrary, they showed reverse empathy to a statement of Apple, being significantly happy when they heard news detrimental to Apple. The study found that Apple has a well-defined market; Samsung customers bought their devices despite Apple. We subconsciously choose brands with self-expressive values and the brands we choose to act as pillars of our identity.