Brand Belief: The unexpected superpower

Business creates profit, but a brand creates emotional reactions. To build emotional connection with your consumers, reflecting core belief must be at the centre of your strategy. Sharing my experience about how an organisation rediscovered their brand belief.

I had to redesign the website for a higher education institute with the objective of brand building. So brand discovery was the focus of my initial meetings with the client management. It’s interesting how everyone thinks they know who they are as a brand, until they are probed deeper. And for a branding agency, that’s usually the starting point.

Defining your core brand belief

During one such discussion with the management team, we hit a speed breaker as brand related questions wafted over the room.

“Describe your brand’s personality”, I said.

I dismissed their initial response when they said something great about the institute to describe the brand personality.

After making 2-3 attempts to present the same question in different ways, I realized the trophy design of the institute had a lady carved out holding the flame. I re-framed my question and asked, “If that lady in the trophy was a real person who represented your institute, how would she be? What would be her attitude like? What would that lady really believe in? Personify that lady as your institute’s role model.”

A winner’s attitude, confident, competent, professional, determined were some keywords that echoed quite strongly.

They then started mulling over questions such as what is their purpose and what problem do they solve which is close to their heart.

That was the foundation of their brand belief statement.

brand belief statement

How the belief can impact your brand

We don’t have to invent what a brand believes in, but just discover it.

It is the brand’s reason of existence in the first place. You can feel its impact in the decision makers’ initiatives or when company leaders share their thoughts and vision with their stakeholders. Brand belief is already manifested in the staff’s behavior, ingrained in the organisation’s values and at the very core of its purpose. It was amazing to see how every existing initiative by the management for their students really tied back to this brand belief. Just that they never realized it consciously.

When a brand connects with people who believe what it believes, it inspires a level of devotion. It strongly resonates with them and creates an emotional reaction. That positive feeling towards the brand inculcates brand loyalty. Then is it not propelling your company’s profits?

Next step: Brand belief and marketing strategy

Pinning the brand belief on every wall of your company is not going to make even an iota of difference if it doesn’t manifest into something. The belief can be weaved into corporate initiatives, teacher’s approach or even your marketing strategy.

Businesses can tailor their marketing strategies based on brand belief to target niche audience, especially smaller enterprises. For example, a food brand which uses only locally source ingredients can use this unique aspect of the business. Or in the case of this institute, to market student development initiatives to target students answering their self esteem needs.

Our branding approach

At OH! Design Studio, we work with our clients to build a brand that can thrive in today’s marketplace. Online or offline- the marketing channel doesn’t matter. Our brand communication is driven by brand strategy.



By Supriya Sachdeva, Digital Communication Strategist at OH! Design Studio, Mumbai.

OH! Design Studio is a branding and strategic design agency based in Mumbai, India. To connect with OH! Design Studio, just drop us a line, we’ll get in touch with you. You can always say hello at  @SachdevaSupriya  !

Share on

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *