Let’s begin with a quick confession: no one — and I mean no one — wakes up in the morning excited about your product. Harsh? Perhaps. But once you accept this uncomfortable truth, your marketing becomes exponentially more effective.

Because here’s the thing: people don’t buy products. They buy outcomes. They buy feelings. They buy transformation. What they’re really after is not your eco-friendly face cream, your bespoke kitchen knives, or even your exquisite designer watch, they’re buying what your product enables them to become. Sophisticated. Confident. Well-prepared. The envy of their friends and neighbours. Less tired. More adventurous. More… them.

Also remember that you are yourself a brand: you wear certain clothes, live in a specific neighbourhood, drive a specific car, go to specific restaurants, or attend specific events to blend in with a group of people to like to associate with or to be seen to be associating with. It’s all about ego… and brands know this.

Let’s also clear up another widely held misconception while we’re at it: your logo is not your brand. Your logo is your cattle tag – a useful device for recognition, yes, but it’s not the thing that keeps people coming back.

I’ve had this debate often with clients who feels they need a new logo to change how their brand/business is perceived. I am not against subtle logo refresh to modernise it – just look at how brand logos for VW, Starbucks, Coca Cola, BMW, Google, etc. have changed – but a brand-new logo just for the sake of it is not ideal.

If your brand were a person, the logo is the haircut. It might catch someone’s eye across the room, but it’s what you say, how you behave, and whether you’re remembered fondly the next day that really counts.

We’ve all seen this in the wild. Take two coffees – one costs £3, the other £6. They’re both technically… coffee. But one is served in a brown paper cup, poured by Dave who looks half asleep. The other comes in an elegant black cup with gold foil, handed to you by a barista who says your name like you’re royalty. You didn’t pay £6 for coffee. You paid for status, style, and the warm glow of being seen.

Buying is rarely a rational act. The finest marketers know this. They sell us stories, not specifications. They deal in desires, not features. People don’t buy toothpaste: they buy fresh breath and the confidence to lean in closer. They don’t buy gym memberships: they buy the future version of themselves with a jawline you could slice cheese on. And they certainly don’t buy alcohol: they buy celebration, escape, ritual, rebellion, or – if you’ve really nailed your brand – romance in a glass.

If you’re not making people feel something, you’re just one of a hundred indistinguishable options on the shelf. And in today’s brand-cluttered world, where attention is more precious than gold dust, indistinguishable is death. You also need to show some courage to differentiate your business/brand/service – be bold and make people sit up and take notice.

Why does this matter for your business? Companies that obsess over what they sell rather than what their customers experience almost always end up in a price war. They talk about millimetres, megabytes, and manufacturing processes, forgetting that most customers are just trying to solve a problem or elevate their mood.

Those who master the emotional equation – the ones who sell relief, reassurance, freedom, belonging, adventure, and joy – those brands create loyalty. And loyalty is where the magic (and the margin) lives.

So instead of asking “How can we get more people to buy our product?” ask:

1. How does our product make someone feel?

2. What does our brand help them achieve?

3. How do we fit into the story they tell themselves about who they are or who they want to be?

Answer that, and you’ll have something far more powerful than a sleek logo or catchy strapline. You’ll have relevance. You’ll have resonance. You’ll have reason.

We live in a world where consumers are drowning in choice and starving for meaning. If you’re in branding, marketing, or running a business, your job is not to shout louder about what you sell, it’s to whisper clearly about what your customer stands to gain.

Because they’re not buying the thing – they’re buying what the thing does. And, more importantly, what it does for them.