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When most teams talk about brand strategy, they reach for slides, pyramids, and fancy words:
“We’re a transformative, human-centric, innovation-led ecosystem.”
Meanwhile your customer is in a supermarket aisle, an app store, or a Google search thinking:
“Which one feels right?”
“Which one do I remember?”
“Which one looks like it will actually work for me?”
Real brand strategy lives there—in the tiny decision-window where a real person, with limited time and emotional energy, chooses.
Research in consumer psychology and branding suggests that choice is driven largely by fast, intuitive System 1 processes—automatic judgments built from emotion, familiarity, and simple cues—rather than slow, rational System 2 analysis (Drăgoi, 2024; Kahneman, 2011; Venkatraman, 2020).
This article re-centers brand strategy around that reality. You’ll learn:
What positioning really means in the customer’s head
Why emotion, story, and distinctiveness drive brand choice more than clever taglines
How mere exposure and recognizable brand assets make you “easy to pick” (Walvis, 2008; Sharp, 2010).
A practical step-by-step activity to craft a one-line positioning statement people can actually feel
A short FAQ to clear up common confusion
What brand positioning really is (spoiler: it’s not your tagline)
Traditional definitions say positioning is “the place a brand occupies in the mind of the consumer.” That sounds abstract, but it’s actually concrete:
Positioning = the quick cluster of feelings, images, and expectations that fire in someone’s mind when your brand comes up.
Brand strategy and marketing science literature increasingly emphasise two key ideas:
Mental availability – how easily your brand comes to mind in buying situations
Distinctive brand assets – simple, consistent cues (colors, logo shapes, sounds, phrases) that make it easy to spot you in the wild (System1 Group, 2021; Sharp, 2010; Puente-Díaz, 2025).
If people can’t recall you, or can’t recognise you quickly, you’re not really “positioned,” no matter how good your slide deck looks.
Positioning, then, is less about owning an intellectual “word” and more about shaping a mental shortcut:
“That one is the safe choice.”
“That one is the interesting option.”
“That one is for people like me.”
And those shortcuts are built primarily from:
Emotion – how you make people feel
Story – the narrative people connect you to
Distinctiveness & familiarity – how easy you are to spot and remember
Let’s break those down.
Emotion first: people choose how brands make them feel
Decades of research confirm that emotions are not a side effect; they are central to how people perceive, evaluate, and choose brands (Achar et al., 2016; Consoli, 2009; Biercewicz, 2024).
Emotional branding studies show that:
Brands that reliably evoke specific feelings—trust, nostalgia, belonging, pride, calm—become easier to choose, even when competitors offer similar or better functional value (GoBrandVerge, 2024; Rajan, 2024; Singh, 2025).
Emotional engagement accounts for a large share of brand strength; in some analyses, it explains roughly half of the “energy” behind brand equity (Forrester, 2024).
In other words, people often choose whatever feels like:
Less risk (safety, reliability)
More identity-aligned (this is “my kind of thing”)
Less emotional friction (I won’t regret this, I won’t look stupid)
Practical implication
When you craft positioning, ask first:
“What is the dominant feeling we want to be associated with our brand in buying moments?”
Examples:
Calm clarity in a chaotic niche
Quiet confidence in a high-stakes B2B decision
Playful curiosity in a traditionally boring industry
Then build everything—design, copy, stories, offers—to consistently cue that feeling.
“People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
"Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go."
Story: how brains file brands in memory
Our brains love stories. We constantly interpret experiences by fitting them into narrative structures (Escalas, 2004).
Brand storytelling research shows that:
Well-structured brand stories enhance brand image and attitudes, often via narrative transportation—that feeling of being absorbed into a narrative world (Deng, 2025; Green & Appel, 2024; Zhang, 2023; Phusapan, 2013).
Stories connect brands to identity (“this is who I am” / “this is who I want to be”), which is a powerful driver of loyalty (Zhang, 2023; Tijer, 2025; Escalas, 2004).
Narrative-driven content can produce longer-lasting shifts in attitudes than purely factual arguments (Kim et al., 2016, discussed in “Let’s tell a story #spon,” 2023).
So instead of defining positioning as:
“We’re the most innovative solution for [segment].”
You can ask:
“What story do we help our customer tell about themselves?”
Examples:
“I’m the kind of parent who does the deeper, more thoughtful thing.”
“I’m the founder who cares about ethics as much as growth.”
“I’m the person who finally got serious about my health, but in a kind, sustainable way.”
Your brand becomes the supporting character that helps them move from Before to After.
Distinctiveness & familiarity: why simple cues beat clever concepts
Research on the mere exposure effect shows that repeated contact with a stimulus—name, logo, packaging—tends to increase liking and preference, even when the exposures are brief and not consciously remembered (Hekkert et al., 2013; Jenosize, 2025; Segmentify, 2024; Lead Alchemists, n.d.).
Brand science adds two important insights:
Distinctive brand assets – consistent cues (colors, shapes, slogans, sounds) that uniquely signal you and not your competitors.
Mental availability – how easily those cues come to mind in buying situations (Walvis, 2008; System1 Group, 2021; Sharp, 2010).
The combination matters:
If your assets are distinctive but rarely seen → people don’t remember you at the shelf or search results.
If you’re seen often but look generic → exposure boosts the category, not your specific brand.
That’s why many highly effective brands have simple, repeatable elements:
One or two core colors
A consistent shape or icon
A short, distinctive phrase or sonic cue
Repeated imagery that matches the emotional tone of the positioning
This is less about “being creative” and more about being easy to recognize when System 1 is scanning quickly (Brandtrust, 2023; Brandspeak, 2019).
Putting it together: a human-centered positioning formula
Instead of starting with “We are the leading X for Y,” you can use a more human frame:
For [specific people] in [specific situation], our brand is the [role] that helps them feel [core emotion] and move from [before state] to [after state], because we [credible reason / distinguishing behaviour].
For example:
For burned-out solo founders who hate spammy marketing,
our brand is the gentle growth partner
that helps them feel calmly confident about visibility
and move from sporadic chaos to steady, values-aligned growth,
because we use transparent, psychology-informed strategies and ethical influence audits instead of manipulative hacks.
Notice how this blends:
Emotion (calm confidence)
Story (from chaos to steady growth)
Distinctiveness (ethical, psychology-informed approach)
Now let’s make this practical.
Practical activity: Build a one-line positioning statement people can actually feel
This is a 5-step exercise you can run for your brand, product, or offer. Block out 30–45 minutes.
Choose one real customer snapshot
Think of one real, specific person you’ve served (or want to serve), not “everyone.”
Answer briefly:
What are they struggling with right now when they discover you?
How do they describe it in their own words?
What situation are they in? (Scrolling at 2 am? At work, under pressure? Comparing tools in a hurry?)
Write 3–5 bullet points. The more concrete, the better.
Identify the emotional “before” and “after”
Based on that snapshot, write:
Before:
How do they feel before working with you? (e.g., overwhelmed, ashamed, sceptical, lonely, stuck)
After:
How do they want to feel after things go well with you? (e.g., relieved, in control, proud, calm, energised)
Check your “after” against emotional branding research: is it a core, recognisable emotion like trust, belonging, joy, pride, or safety (Consoli, 2009; Biercewicz, 2024; Singh, 2025)?
Circle one primary emotion you want to own.
Define your brand’s role in their story
Ask:
“If my customer is the protagonist, what role does my brand play?”
Examples of roles:
Guide
Shield
Toolbox
Translator
Sparring partner
Gentle alarm clock
Pick one that matches the emotional shift you want to facilitate (Escalas, 2004; Deng, 2025).
Draft your first positioning sentence
Use this template and fill in the blanks:
For [who / situation],
[brand / product] is the [role]
that helps them move from [before state] to [after state],
so they can [practical outcome] while feeling [core emotion].
Example:
For first-time founders who feel lost in a sea of tactics,
ClarityLab is the calm, data-savvy guide
that helps them move from frantic marketing experiments to steady, trackable growth,
so they can make confident decisions while feeling in control rather than overwhelmed.
Don’t worry if it sounds long; this is a working statement, not yet a tagline.
Stress-test it with three questions
Now, stress-test your draft with three quick checks:
Could my customer repeat this in simpler words?
Ask a real person: “What do you hear?” If they can’t paraphrase it, simplify.
Does it line up with our visible cues?
Do your logo, colors, images, and tone of voice support the same emotional message and role?
Or is there a mismatch (e.g., “calm guide” with shouty neon graphics)?
Would this still make sense in 3 years?
Is it rooted in a deep human need and emotion, or in a passing trend?
Only once it passes these checks should you start translating it into:
Shorter taglines
About-page copy
Sales page headlines
Briefs for designers and content creators
You can re-run this exercise for each major offer, but keep a consistent emotional core across the brand so you don’t fragment your identity.
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Conclusion
When you strip away the jargon, brand strategy is about this:
“In the messy, emotional reality of a buying moment, what do people remember about us, and how does that make their decision easier?”
If you can answer that clearly—and back it up with consistent stories, cues, and experiences—you’re already ahead of most of the market.
Use the positioning activity with your team, your clients, or your co-founder. Iterate on your sentence until it feels:
Emotionally precise
Easy to repeat
Visibly supported by your design and behaviour
That’s brand strategy, made human.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers about Human-centered brand strategy
A positioning statement is an internal tool: a longer sentence or paragraph that clarifies who you serve, what role you play, what emotional shift you create, and why you’re credible. It’s designed to be directionally accurate, not sexy.
A tagline is a short public phrase distilled from that deeper strategy. Without the underlying clarity, taglines often become vague claims (“empowering growth”) that don’t stick in memory or emotion (Walvis, 2008; Sharp, 2010).
Think of positioning as the blueprint, and tagline as one visible feature of the house.
It depends on how often and consistently people encounter you.
Because brand choice is heavily influenced by mere exposure and mental availability, shifts in positioning usually require repeated, coherent signals across touchpoints (Hekkert et al., 2013; System1 Group, 2021; Segmentify, 2024).
If you change the words but not:
Your visuals
Your tone
The stories you tell
The contexts where you show up
…customers will likely still experience you as the “old” version. Positioning is a pattern, not a sentence.
Formal research (surveys, qualitative studies, neuromarketing) can be very helpful, especially for bigger brands (Drăgoi, 2024; Walvis, 2008).
But many small brands can make meaningful progress by:
Talking to existing customers and asking:
“Why did you choose us?”
“How did you feel before/after?”
“If you recommended us to a friend, what would you say?”
Observing real behaviour (what they actually buy, not what they claim they want).
Running small A/B tests with different stories and emotional tones.
Start with thick, grounded conversations, then refine with more formal methods as you grow.
Niche decisions (“we serve X segment”) and positioning decisions (“this is how we’re experienced”) are linked but not identical.
Niche is mostly about who and where: which category, which segment, which context.
Positioning is about how you show up in their mind relative to alternatives.
For example, two brands can serve the same niche (e.g., beginner designers) but position themselves very differently:
One as the serious, career-building path
Another as the playful, low-pressure experiment zone
Both can succeed, because they occupy different emotional and narrative spaces within the same niche (Escalas, 2004; Achar et al., 2016).
It’s common to have multiple segments (e.g., individuals and teams, or beginners and pros). You have options:
Keep one emotional core (e.g., “calm clarity”) and adapt the story and proof for each segment.
Create sub-positionings for major product lines that still feel like they belong to the same “parent feeling.”
Research on emotional interpretation of brand messages across cultures suggests that while concrete expressions may differ, consistent emotional themes can travel surprisingly well (Puente-Díaz, 2025).
If your segments want completely different emotional experiences, you may effectively be building multiple brands—and that’s usually a more advanced, resource-heavy strategy.
Brand Strategy & Positioning Book Recommendations
Here is a collection of the best books on the market related to Brand Psychology & Positioning:
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References
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- Biercewicz, K. (2024). Consumer emotions, purchasing decisions, shopping time and purchase value. Marketing and Trade, 12(1), 42–59.
- Brandtrust. (2023). System 1 thinking: Why it matters for marketers.
- Consoli, D. (2009). Emotions that influence purchase decisions and their electronic processing. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 1007–1016.
- Deng, L. (2025). The impact of brand storytelling on consumer perception. Science Journal of Economics and Management Research, 7(2), 104–112.
- Drăgoi, D. A. (2024). Cognitive systems in branding: Linking neuromarketing, emotions, and subliminal persuasion to customer choices. Annals of Ovidius University, Economic Sciences Series, 24(2), 73–88.
- Escalas, J. E. (2004). Narrative processing: Building consumer connections to brands. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(1–2), 168–180.
- Forrester. (2024, April 9). Daniel Kahneman changed how we think about consumer choice and brand strategy.
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- Hekkert, P., Snelders, D., & van Wieringen, P. C. W. (2013). The mere exposure effect for consumer products as a function of exposure frequency, duration, and delay. Acta Psychologica, 144(2), 258–268.
- Jenosize. (2025). Mere-exposure effect: Marketing that builds on familiarity.
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Lead Alchemists. (n.d.). Guide to the mere exposure effect in marketing.
- “Let’s tell a story #spon”: Research into the effects of using brand stories on social media. (2023). Tilburg University.
- Puente-Díaz, C. (2025). Emotional interpretation of brand messages: A comparative study between Sweden and Chile. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 49(2), 233–249.
- Rajan, R. (2024). The role of emotional branding in consumer decision-making processes. International Educational Scientific Research Journal, 10(3), 45–52.
- Segmentify. (2024). Mere exposure effect examples in marketing and advertising.
- Sharp, B. (2010). How brands grow: What marketers don’t know. Oxford University Press. (Summary discussed in Hub Agency, 2022; MarketingScience.info, 2023).
- Singh, A. (2025). The role of emotional branding in influencing consumer behaviour. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 7(4), 112–120.
- System1 Group. (2021, September 22). Distinctive brand assets – Why are they so important?
- Tijer. (2025). Brand storytelling and consumer loyalty: A strategic perspective. The International Journal of Emerging Research, 5(1), 116–128.
- Venkatraman, V. (2020). Disrupting System 1 thinking: Better science for smarter marketing. Ipsos.
- Walvis, T. H. (2008). Three laws of branding: Neuroscientific foundations of effective brand building. Journal of Brand Management, 16(3), 176–194.
- Zhang, J. (2023). An empirical analysis of the impact of brand story themes on consumer attitudes. Sustainability, 15(24), 16679.
