I just got around to seeing the Game of Thrones series last week. I know, what took me so long? It’s totally binge-worthy.

And am I the only one who finds it peculiar how the people in the show tend to behave a bit like the animals and earth elements in their house insignia?  Targaryen Dragons; just think of the viciousness of the Iron born and when they say the simple phrase; ‘We are Iron born, we take.’ - the justification for their ways is complete. Ancient barbaric ways, you may conclude. Yet it is no different from how you feel like Tony Stark anytime you work on a project using an iPad and MacBook. 

Another Way to Define Branding 

At its core essence, branding is myth making. How branding really works, is all so deceptively simple and I’d show it to you in this piece. You see the human brain never evolved much past the blueprints for our ancestors’ hunter-gatherer, social animal wiring. The unique thing about humans is their ability to co-operate in large numbers towards a greater good. Other animal packs and team-ups, more often than not, are formed based on family bonds or symbiotic benefits. Only humans have developed to work towards an end that may have zero benefits to the individual, alongside hundreds of strangers. Think World Wars. What, then, is the glue that holds the whole operation together? 

Stories. 

And not any story, but the fundamental ones replaying in the dregs of every person’s soul. It has been the same stories for millenia; You Need Love, You are Important; special in-fact; might I call you Superior, Those who aren’t on our side are enemies… those types of stories. Men live and die and make the truth of those stories to themselves. 

All branding does is to create a side story, a myth, that inserts you and your mission into the narrative already existing in everyone’s heads. Highlight this paragraph. 

Let us illustrate; 

Fundamental Story: You Need Love

Brand: A social media app; Facebook.  

Agenda: To curate users’ attention and interest and sell that to advertisers

Branding: Facebook connects you to the ones you love, allows you stay in their lives and they in yours across distances. (The word in italics highlights how they insert themselves into the narrative)

Even though most of us use social media to actually connect with family and friends 20% of the time and even though most of our news feeds are cat videos, polarizing video clips and celebrity gossip, Facebook’s branding would stay the same. And it is that myth users would buy into, fascinatingly blind to what utility they really are getting from the brand. 

Branding begins long before the brand designer opens up Adobe Illustrator. It begins with a round table discussion about what fundamental story your business or organization wants to exploit, and how to insert yourself in that story. Create your own myth. 

My last words are Seth Godin’s famous words; ‘People don’t buy products. They buy stories.’