Three laws of branding: Neuroscientific foundations of effective brand building

Abstract

Commercial brands strive to be chosen by customers, and branding as an activity is aimed at increasing the likelihood that they are. Almost all customer choices are at least partially memory-based. This paper begins with the assumption that as neuroscience is a 'hard' science studying memory as a highly regular subject matter, it should be possible to deduce several laws from it for the 'soft' field of branding. Based on primary, empirical research in neuroscience, the author synthesises three laws that govern the probability that a brand enters our awareness as a positive candidate for choice. Brands that have been built in accordance with these laws have a higher probability of being chosen than brands in the same category that have not. © 2008 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.