Why I started branding

Mirror mirror on the wall who is the happiest of them all

We’re asked a series of questions as we grow up.

It starts with a benign “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Then the question changes slightly to “where do you want to go (for uni—you’re not thinking of not going right)?” when we enter our teens.

But the question reverts to “what do you want to do (after graduating of course, you wouldn’t dare to drop out)?”

The questions never stop. They’re a plague especially when you’re being interrogated asked by family.

In some ways, they’re issues that, like it or not, we should be raising ourselves, even without the badgering of external forces.

However, there is a question that is more important than the rest. One that should hover above the others and rule them all. Yet, this question is somehow almost always relegated to the bottom of the to-ask list or worse, altogether overlooked.

How do you want to live?

Regardless of what we do, we’re all problem solvers at heart. The hairdresser solves our beauty insecurities; the plumber solves our bathroom nightmares; the salesman solves our ambivalence; sharp suited consultants solve corporate conundrums. We offer remedies to problems in ways that are unique to our expertise. And it is precisely this expertise that shapes the lens through which we read and interact with the world.

Where do we establish this expertise? At work. Every industry, every company, every organization (households included) espouses a certain lens that its members imbibe and internalize. This lens allows us to see things that other people miss—should that hair root be permed in a different direction for volume? Does that customer want reassurance that this year’s color (magenta btw) won’t make her rosacea stand out? Is the CapEx draining too much from a company’s free cash flow? a.k.a close reading skills that make life a bit more comfortable for clients. Therefore, before contemplating what job(s) we want, we should be asking ourselves: will this job allow me to hone my lens at the angle that I want?

Branding is the lens to the human heart

For me, I’m curious about what moves people. What compels people to become attached. When feelings of affinity convert to loyalty.

The answer to such questions lies in probing the WHY before the what. And what better place to nurture such curiosity than in an industry where problems are tackled from the customer end? Branding is based upon an understanding of why people act the way they do. Trends are tracked down to analyze why people gravitate towards them—is it a response to a seasonal calling or the symptom of a bigger and more primordial urge? Branding prompts one to ponder about issues that have reverberations outside the office i.e. why are Seoulites raving about donuts out of the blue (Ella reports on this here)? Why are GenZ and Alpha flocking to vintage shops (read more)? Why do people care about what batteries are used in EVs (WIRED talks about it here)?

The why is what matters. It is human truth. It’s also the driving force behind customer decision making. Businesses that don’t see people as complex entities with surprisingly simple, yet unfulfilled, desires are doomed to fail.

Human truths, once identified, aren’t documented, crystallized and preserved in a museum of branding. Rather, they’re re-processed and transposed into a language that resonates with customers. Oftentimes, people don’t realize they want something until they discover a brand that nudges them in the right direction. In this sense, human truths are narrated through a story that incites. A story that inspires people to imagine another “me”—an alternative self in a realizable parallel universe that is somehow more covetable than the current me.

Branding is storytelling. It’s the lens that peers into people’s hearts and identifies the embers of a fire that can unfurl into a narrative that places the customer at the center, imbuing them with a confidence that sparks new beginnings.