When a company is branded Well, it creates a powerful experience has a compelling story and a unique selling proposition or USP for short, brands that are branded well, fully committed to their USP branding is less about a cool logo and more about the strategy that it takes to carefully craft that logo for a specific audience. So when I design for brands, I take their strategy which includes their unique selling proposition, their tone words, their mission, their vision, their values, all of this research, it's an extensive process, I take all of that first. Then I create the brand, which would be the Instagram grid, the logo design, the brochures, the messaging, all of that stuff. So what we do is strategy first, design second, so today we're going to kind of mix a little bit of strategy in with the design to help you guys learn how to translate your unique selling proposition into your grid.

Branding is interesting because it's a science. Brand strategists have studied neuroscience and psychology to create a deeper understanding. how our brains work as it relates to brands we love and choose over and over again. They have discovered design can be used as a tool to create something beautiful, and take it a step further, when combined with strategy, it can make a real impact on customers in branding. Perception is everything. Instagram plays a large role in the perception of your business.

Believe it or not, most of our decisions are based on emotion. neuroscience is now helping people like you and I understand how the brain works. As it relates to branding. We are learning that what the customer perceives isn't always reality. Dan arlie, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University said our preconceptions of reality actually affect how we interpret reality. Meaning the way we first experience a brand, or the associations we make with a brand, shape, how we see the brand and product, your Instagram matters, and it is a huge touch point that has the ability to make or break you.

I love this study so much if goes to show you how our brains work as it relates to branding. So this specific study is about pricing and wine. You may remember it from the USP video, but I'm going to share it with you guys again Professor plasmon ran a study with the California Institute of Technology, where she gave participants wine. One bottle had a $10 price tag, whereas the other bottle had a $90 price tag. The participants did not know that the wine was the exact same in each bottle. The price tag was the only difference.

Plasmon examined the medial orbital frontal cortex and area of the brain associated with the experience of pleasure. There was a big difference in the activity in the brain of the participants when they were drinking from the $10 bottle of wine versus the $90 bottle of wine. What we learned from this study is that participants were drawing Real pleasure from the experience they didn't have from the $10 bottle of wine, even though the wine was the exact same. After looking at the brain, plasmon determined that the price set and the way the wind was branded as expensive, had a real physiological effect on how the wine tasted, even though the different priced wines were identical. I love this quote as well. It's by Al Ray's he said, pour a bottle of Gallo into an empty 50 year old bottle of French burgundy.

Then carefully decant a glass in front of a friend and asked for an opinion, you taste what you expect to taste. I love that quote so much because it shows us that how we perceive a brand is how we experience it. It's pretty crazy what our brains do. So having your brand especially your Instagram, give off this perception that you want the desired perception is very important.