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For far too long, marketers have spent more on performance marketing than brand marketing. And it’s easy to see why: branding is about long-term awareness and creating an emotional connection with customers, whereas performance is about immediate results – driving likes, clicks, leads and sales through hard-hitting, targeted ads.
But the truth is, a strong brand isn’t a vanity exercise: it’s the foundation for strong sales performance. A recent report by TikTok and Tracksuit showed that high-awareness brands achieve 2.86x the conversion rate of low-awareness brands, and a brand known by four out of ten consumers is 43% more efficient in driving performance marketing outcomes.
If that surprises you, let’s look at the reasons why branding is actually at the heart of great results…
Brand-building is effective because it hacks people’s headspace, making it quite literally a no-brainer for them to choose you and stay with you. Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow, has shown that people rarely think through their purchasing decisions: instead, they make decisions automatically and emotionally, picking the company they like and recall most easily (hence why branding is called “the mental rental” business).
Behavioural science has shown that brand-building drives results and solves problems for businesses in four ways:
1. Fame
A distinctive brand can make your business famous, primarily because it gets people’s attention and gets them talking. And when brands become familiar to people, they tend to trust them more. There’s a psychological logic to this that goes, “If I’ve heard of this brand, they must be doing something right”.
“In today’s crowded market, people buy meaning before they buy services or products. A strong brand shapes perception, builds trust, and creates lasting demand. That’s why it’s the foundation of all great marketing.”
– Nick Sammut, Managing & Creative Director, TOAST
2. Feeling
An emotionally compelling brand makes customers feel more attached to your products or services. But this isn’t just about feeling for feeling’s sake: you’ve got to create positive emotions in customers, not negative ones. Evoking disgust, irritation or disappointment puts people off, but evoking humour, joy or empathy creates a connection that subtly draws them towards your business.
“Branding determines how people feel about your business. What they think when they hear your name. The gut-level trust (or doubt) that determines whether they love or reject your brand.”
– Kristy Welsh, Principal & Strategic Marketing Advisor, Strategic Intent
3. Fluency
If you’ve got a consistent set of brand devices (e.g. logo, icons, colour palette, tagline, messaging and jingles), house them within a coherent branding system, and repeat those devices consistently across all your ads, customers will recognise and remember you much more easily. What does this matter? Because the next time they’re in the market for your product or service, you’ll be the first thing they think of – and more often than not, the first company they’ll choose.
4. Credibility
Your branding must reflect the internal DNA of your business: it has to showcase what you do (i.e. your products and services) and why you’re different (i.e. your unique value proposition). If your business’ external presence is out of alignment with either of those things, customers will feel misled by your brand and (inevitably) disappointed when their experience doesn’t live up to your promises.
In fact, behavioural science has shown that we attribute more perceived value to brands when we feel they’re authentic, which is why it’s vital to strategically investigate the internal reality of the business as a first port of call for branding.
To sum up, strategic branding is a win-win-win for your margins. If people know something, feel something and remember something about your brand, they’ll probably buy something, too. And if their experience of your brand lives up to your promises, they’ll keep coming back for more.
So when thinking about how to divide up your communications budget for the year, Mailchimp Report "How to Grow Your Brand", recommends that you should actually be spending around 60% on brand and 40% on performance, not the other way around. Because it always pays to invest in brand-building.
“Brand is the rising tide that lifts all boats.”
– Eugene Healey, founder of EH Strategy Consulting
At TOAST, we don’t just make brands that look nice or sound good. We make brands that enhance business outcomes through smart strategic thinking and crafted designs.
View the Full Case Study: BOWERBIRD →
“Your brand is everything. If you’re thinking about investing in it, I would say absolutely do it.
We’re living proof it has worked and we’ve seen the outcome.”
– Lauren Lewis, Founder & Creative Director, BOWERBIRD
Solutions Group had a brand fragmentation challenge. They were made up of many different businesses with their own distinct identities – and wanted to unify them all under one coherent brand architecture. This would not only allow them to show clients the full breadth of what the group could do, but also create more belonging and cohesion between their teams. So we brought together all the businesses under one overarching brand, Solutions+, and created a value proposition that could apply to the whole group (“We bring the plus”). Now clients can see that Solutions+ is a one-stop shop for all their needs, the group is cross-selling their services much more effectively and efficiently.
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As a top-tier façade solutions company, Fairview had developed an extensive line of claddings and façade products. But they didn’t have a high-level branding system that could organise and draw attention to all these offerings to their prospects. Working closely with them, we developed a dynamic brand architecture system that could highlight each product, while making it clear they were all produced by the same company, to the same exceptional standards. By showcasing this product breadth, we created an identity that laid a strong foundation for future growth and success.
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View the Full Case Study: Fairview →
If you're looking to build a brand that gets results, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Nick and Emile to arrange a complimentary discovery session. We look forward to collaborating.
Email us at: hello@toastcreative.com.au
