How to Create Brand Meaning: Customer Expectations of Big Brands and Small Brands
Key points for establishing brand meaning and distinguishing small brands from big brands:
Creating a great brand is ultimately about cultivating brand meaning: a deep connection in the mind and life of the consumer
The expectations for a brand are very different depending on how the consumer views you. The biggest distinction is between a small brand, and a big brand.
The “size” of the brand determines the unique set of consumer expectations, especially around brand personality, accessibility, and the challenge of taking on societal issues.
Having a great brand is a tremendous asset. It drives demand for existing products, enabling greater pricing power. It enables the launch of new successful products, and can even pioneer entirely new markets. And perhaps most impressively, it can completely transform the consumer's experience of reality.
So how does one go about creating a great brand?
Think about your favorite brand. What do you like about it? Chances are, you enjoy the shoes they make or the technology they provide. But for the brand to be an asset, it has to go above, and beyond the simple value it delivers through its products.
For a brand to matter, it needs to stand out in the minds and the lives of the consumer. What problems does it solve, and what joy does it bring to their existence? And what special place has it carved out in the consumer's broad portfolio of interests? Fundamentally, this comes down to creating brand meaning: an endearing bond within the consumer's life.
Establishing brand meaning is easier said than done, but the first step is introspective. You first need to understand what kind of brand you are: Are you a small brand? Or a big brand?
How Your Customer Sees You: Big Brands and Small Brands
There are millions of different brands. But when it comes to how a brand matters in a consumer's life, there are two main categories: small brands and large brands.
This insight comes from the Danish consulting firm ReD Associates, which conducted over 180 hours of semi-structured interviews with a broad range of consumers across New York, Shanghai, and London. The research provides a fresh perspective on the brand-consumer relationship: not how brands see themselves, but how their consumers see them. It turns out that, in the mind of the market, the "size" of the brand isn't market cap or revenue, or the number of employees. Instead, whether you're a big brand or a small brand is determined simply by how your consumer sees you.
This designation is critical, as it determines the unique set of expectations that consumers have for your brand. Meeting (or exceeding) these expectations is vital to establishing brand meaning.
Brand Meaning for Big Brands
Consumers intuitively recognize what a big brand is. These are large, typically global brands such as IKEA, Nike, Google, Apple, BMW, etc. Big Brands have the reputation of having massive agency and power – both over the consumer experience and in society, more generally.
Personality-wise, these brands are viewed as having a world-beating quality to them. Think of Nike - a symbol for athletic and personal excellence, or Google - who's seen as creating a better world through technology.
While big brands benefit from a strong reputation and a consistent story, they also risk feeling distant and cold. For example, one respondent is quoted in the ReD report as stating, "I wouldn't go to a Starbucks seeking inspiration."
One of the principal challenges for big brands is to meet these lofty consumer expectations while enabling a broad range of consumers to see their personal ambitions through the lens of these characteristics. Ultimately, this means integrating these deeper motivations into the core of the brand strategy. Brands like Lego, and Walmart, for example, both needed to rebrand by recognizing and assimilating the customer’s emotional needs.
Consumers also increasingly want big brands to tackle societal issues such as climate change, and social inequality, which pose unique risks for the brand, as well as opportunities for deeper connection.
Brand Meaning for Small Brands
On the other hand, small brands represent a range of much more niche players in the marketplace. Even brands that have grown by leaps and bounds, such as SweetGreen, or have a storied history, like New Balance, are seen by their consumers as 'small'.
Like big brands, small brands are also viewed in terms of human-like personality characteristics.
However, whereas a big brand personality feels like a vaunted celebrity you look up to, a small brand personality feels like someone you easily know. They're close friends or neighbors, with approachable personalities.
The personalities of small brands are also more concrete, niche, and easily defined. Liquid Death, for example, the breakout water brand of 2022, has a very distinct brand personality. They are the "dark humor" water brand - very different from the abstract, nebulous character of a Nike or an Apple, which can attract and retain a wide array of consumers. In contrast, small brand personalities are concrete and specialized.
The path to brand meaning for small brands is to develop a niche personality that is simultaneously accessible. The goal now is to achieve a healthy level of empathy with the consumer. You might do this by adding a personalized touch to the consumer experience, creating moments of serendipity, or integrating pleasurable surprises.
Personable acts like these allow you to express your unique brand personality in a friendly way and create a warm and inviting aura for your brand- exactly what consumers want and expect from small brands.
Final Thoughts on Small Brands, Big Brands, and The Path to Brand Meaning
For your brand to matter, you must understand how your customers see you. And consumers naturally categorize brands into these two categories.
If you're a small brand, you'll want to ensure you have a clearly defined, niche personality. And you want to conduct yourself in a way that makes that personality accessible - zero in on an approach that allows you to get on the level of the consumer with a personalized touch. As we’ve seen with Boba Tea brands, the level of connection is much more specialized and personal.
For big brands, it’s about creating the strategy, content, and campaigns that align with these broad, ambitious traits. As brands become bigger, so too do their consumer's expectations. Here, your actions, messaging, and ambitions must transcend the business world altogether. It's about embodying a broad, ambitious brand personality, and contending with these larger, societal expectations. And all in a way that maintains your broad appeal across a politically diverse consumer base.
Much of marketing is about exceeding expectations. Indeed, the classic adage of "Underpromise and over-deliver", holds for many marketing scenarios. But to do this, you must first understand these expectations.
The first step is to know how your consumers see you.
Photo by Lava Lavanda on Unsplash
About the author
Matt Johnson, PhD is a researcher, writer, and consumer neuroscientist focusing on the application of psychology to branding. He is the author of the best-selling consumer psychology book Blindsight, and Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). Contact Matt for speaking engagements, opportunities to collaborate, or just to say hello
References for Creating Brand Meaning for Small Brands and Big Brands
Lau, F. and Osborne, K. (2021), Big, Small, and Connected Brands: Is your brand meeting consumer expectations? Red Associates Report
Johnson, M., & Misiaszek, T. (2022). Branding that Means Business: Economist Edge: books that give you the edge (Vol. 1). Profile Books.
