What You Don’t Know Will Kill You(r Brand)
By: Tinashe Hwande
Tags: How To Brand Yourself, Digital Branding, Branding, Digital Marketing, Personal Branding

What if I told you that quality had nothing to do with it? What if the cup of coffee you paid five dollars plus tax for was no better than a fifty cent coffee from the corner store?

I remember when I used to laugh at friends for wearing six hundred dollar Gucci belts as their pants sagged enough to know what kind of underwear they were wearing. At the time, I took pride in the fact that I did not wear logos and symbols across my chest or feel the urge to buy shoes that cost more than my entire outfit. In my eyes everyone had fallen for the catchy slogans and fancy logos, everyone but me; I was far too “woke” to fall into such an illusion… or at least that’s what I thought.

The intangible power of brands was not evident to me until the day I had a seemingly innocent discussion about computers with a close friend. He was an avid gamer who pledged his allegiance to the HP computer and I was a content creator who preached the gospel of Apple. As we partook in “civil” discourse on the benefits of our chosen devices, he became intensely defensive about his chosen brand as if his convincing me of HP’s superiority would make me smash my MacBook, in the likeness of the most popular scene in the movie “Office Space.”

I knew there was no way I could convince him that Apple products were superior so instead I switched the topic to something a little lighter, Raiders and 49ers… We never spoke on the subject again, both knowing internally that it would conjure up emotions, the type of emotions that could create a strain on a relationship if gone unchecked.

As I thought back to the “almost argument” I had with my friend, I started thinking about all of the arguments I’ve heard over preferred brands. Whether it was Cowboys and Patriots, Nike and Adidas, or Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, time and time again the innocent conversations turned into heated arguments, sometimes severe enough to end friendships. Before truly understanding the power of a brand, I viewed arguments over inanimate objects and famous individuals as trivial and childish, until of course someone brought up a brand I personally favored, then and only then was I personally invested.

The Mind Behind the Brand

Brands live in the minds and hearts of the people, not their closets or kitchens. As hard as it was for me to admit, my inclination towards different brands had little to nothing to do with facts and everything to do with how I felt about them.

The only reason I believed that Colgate was the best brand of toothpaste on the market was because my parents used it all my life. My justification, however, was not that it had certain “properties” that rid plaque and ensured that I would not lose all of my teeth by age twenty-five… we’ll see about that.

As I dove into my informal studies of branding, I quickly found that it was no accident that I was so emotionally invested in the brands that I loved, whether the brand was Will Smith or Apple products. What marketers have known for centuries is that we buy from a place of emotion, whether those emotions are negative or positive. So long as a brand appeals to the hearts and minds of those they want to sell to, they will have life long customers.

At first I felt as if I had been bamboozled by the marketers, who never had the best reputation to start with, but the more I researched the more I realized how natural this phenomenon truly was. Brands are not an external part of us but rather a representation of our inherent human inclination towards beliefs, stories, and feelings depicted by symbols; a concept as old as time itself. The only difference between a marketer and a tribal leader is that the marketer sells the belief in a product as opposed to a spiritual ideology.

My Why

I have dedicated my life to the creation, cultivation, and building of “Better Brands.” By now you may be asking yourself “what exactly is a Better Brand?” A Better Brand is a brand that is committed to making a positive impact on this planet through a message, product, or service.

For far too long, we have been sold on solutions to problems that we never truly had, directed towards products that do more harm than good, and persuaded to consume mental toxicity in the guise of “entertainment.” This is not a politically centered book nor is it a religious text, it is however a principle based piece of literature that will aid you in building a brand with the intention to improve the lives of those on this planet.

Many things in life are objective, but one thing that will remain subjective until the end of time is what is beneficial for us as people. We all want to be healthy, happy, and wealthy, we do not want to suffer from disease, poverty, or a lack of fulfillment.

A Better Brand is one that aims to meet or, at the very least, aid us in meeting one of these intrinsic needs. Whether it be replacing a can of sugar with a glass bottle of water or creating a biodegradable clothing line, a Better Brand can take many forms.

You do not have to be on a mission to feed the whole planet or reinvent an entire industry to be a Better Brand. You must however seek to change individual lives in a very real way. Building Better Brands is not a mission statement nor a catchy slogan, it is my reason for existing and so long as I live I will be dedicated to Building Better Brands.

Written by. Tinashe Hwande, Founder of Brand2BusinessBrand2Business

Edited by Tayla Hasselbach