It doesn’t matter what you sell or who your customer is.

All buyers are people.

And people don’t behave rationally.

We make decisions with our emotions and then rationalize them with logic.

If you want more people to buy (and keep buying) from you, then you must build a deep brand.

Deep brands appeal to that place within people that can’t be expressed with words.

That place where all they can muster is:

“I dunno, it just feels right.”

The gut. The heart. Jiminy-freaking-Cricket.

Whatever you call it, it’s that place in all of us that we trust more than anything.

Deep brands know that if they reach people at that level of depth and deliver the promised experience, customers will readily give their cash, loyalty, and advocacy.

That’s why JAYBIRD exists: to partner with visionary leaders to build enduring deep brands.

But brand consulting is a tough product to sell.

Surprisingly, most of us (especially leaders within companies), do not understand what a brand actually is.

What is brand?

When I say “brand,” people think I’m just using another word for marketing.

They get stuck on colors, logos, and creative.

And yes, it’s true that a core aspect of brand is logo and visual identity.

That’s the first thing people think of when asked to describe a brand.

That’s because emotions and our senses are bound together, so that’s what comes to mind first.

But press deeper, and see what happens.

People recall how a product made them feel. That first sip. The unboxing. Their eyes light up, reliving those experiences.

They’ll remember what the service was like. The shipping. The website.

They’ll tell you how much they loved it.

How they got all their friends to try it — but they were first.

Sometimes, you’ll hear of a generational brand. “Our family won’t buy anything else,” they’ll say.

If it sounds like magical thinking, that’s because it is.

Our emotions are magical things. They compel us to take action, often defying logic.

Think about it: it’s irrational to say we love an inanimate, intangible thing.

But we do this all the time. Because a brand represents something greater than we can articulate.

Everyone has an internal narrative, the story we tell ourselves as we go through life. Simultaneously, we’re telling a story to the people around us through our personalities and actions.

And that’s why we say we love brands. They help us tell our stories to ourselves and to others. Personality is our personal brand.

What I’m saying here sounds esoteric, doesn’t it?

Let’s make it practical.

Here’s a few questions everyone asks themselves after they’ve made a purchase:

"Was that an experience I want over and over?"

"Is this something I want everyone to enjoy?"

"Would I choose this experience again, even if presented with alluring competing choices?"

Those are brand questions.

And think of the implications.

Brand gets you repeat customers.

Brand gets you advocacy, the crown jewel of marketing.

Brand lets you charge more because the experience you offer is superior (or at least perceived to be so).

Can you see now? Brand is everything.

Apply first principles thinking: it all goes back to brand.

Businesses get distracted by fixating on top-level problems. The reality is, all those surface issues are manifestations of your brand challenges.

A deep brand allows you to sort out every organizational challenge you face because you have an established foundation underscoring all your efforts.

Why would you focus on third or second tier problems?

Fix your brand, and the rest will follow.

That’s what I’m actually selling.

JAYBIRD doesn’t exist to deliver slick designs, clever copy, or innovative marketing strategies.

We partner with visionary leaders who want to build deep brands.

The sexy stuff comes afterwards (and trust me— it’s sexy).

Leaders and organizations that obsess over their brand will outlast and outlive their competitors.

They’ll endure for as long as they want to.

Get your brand right first.