A fatal business mistake? Underestimating the importance of branding.

Consumers don’t actually care about what you’re selling.

It’s a hard truth to accept, but it has been proven even in household brands that we know. Research has shown that in blind taste tests, most people actually prefer Pepsi to Coke. 

Likewise, 59% of participants preferred JIF to G&G peanut butter in a blind taste test: but that number shot up to 85% once they were shown the labels and asked to try it again.

So what is swaying the consumers’ choice when it comes to products? The answer (no prizes for guessing this one) is branding.

People prefer brands they know and trust simply because there is likely to be consistency, and it eliminates risk. It’s the main reason why you can count on McDonald’s tasting the same no matter which outlet you visit in the world. If you asked people what fast food restaurant they enjoy the most, you’d be hard pressed to hear ‘McDonalds’. 

Nobody cares about what you’re selling: they care about how you sell it.

It’s common for companies to put out apologies when they mess up. However, KFC took it one step further during their logistics crisis in 2018. In essence, it’s the exact same thing: an apology. What made them different was the clever use of an anagram (I can’t type it here because my boss would veto it for sure) to mitigate the fallout - an act that turned KFC into a case study for corporate crisis management and won several awards.

Heck, one of the greatest success stories of all time was the Pet Rock, from 1975. It was an ordinary rock with a guide on how to care for it, and it made the equivalent of about $20m in sales today.

Our approach to branding follows two simple thought processes: Why should people care about what we’re going to say? How do we get them interested?

This customer-centric approach has proven to work when you think of brands such as Apple, Lululemon and Hai Di Lao, which placed strong emphasis on high standards of service and their customers. It has also garnered them a loyal customer base who resonate with their values as a company, and willingly become advocates of these brands.

In a nutshell, the key to a successful brand establishmentis how you market it - because if you can’t get their attention and retain it, you’re not going to sell them anything.