The Psychology behind Branding
To understand branding psychology, you must first understand how human
beings “function” and what triggers them to associate products and services
with specific humanized traits. And in order to understand that, you must
understand two basic philosophies:
1. Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Maslow designed a pyramid of what he
called the basic human needs—five primary groups of needs humans
will always strive to fulfill. At the base of the pyramid, you find the
most basic (and maybe animalic) needs: the physiological needs (things
like food, or sleeping, or digestion for example).
As you move up in the pyramid of needs humans, you will discover that
humans need to fulfill needs related to safety (the need to be employed, the
need to stay healthy, etc.), needs connected to love and belonging (having
friends, a family, sexual intimacy), needs connected to esteem (such as
feeling self-confident or having the respect of those around you), and
ultimately, self-actualization needs (such as creativity, morality, spontaneity,
and so on).
Understanding the pyramid of needs is crucial to understanding what people
are looking for when it comes to what they buy. Depending on what you sell,
you will want to tap into these needs to help your target audience associate
your products with the emotions triggered by a specific set of needs (e.g., if
you sell bagels, you will fulfill people’s need to feed themselves).
In personal branding, the needs you should tap into are usually located higher
on the pyramid—most of the times in the last two categories, the ones
connected to esteem and self-actualization. People need the inspiration to be
self-confident and to achieve the things that make them respected in society
—and likewise, they need the inspiration to achieve their standards of
morality, creativity, or spontaneity.
Once you understand how to tap into these needs and desires, you understand
what your personal brand must offer. The more in-depth you go on this, the
more likely it is that people will come back to your personal brand, again and
again, to fulfill their aspirations for being better on multiple plans.
2. Aristotle's causes for human action. The famous fourth century-BC
