What I learned about branding this week

I went down an Alex Hormozi rabbit hole over the weekend.

NGL, it had been a while.

I think there’s only 127 of his videos in my “watch later” YT playlist.

But, I finally started going through them! (hold your applause, I only watched 2)

1 that I watched was about branding.

And it had the best and clearest explanation of branding that I’d ever heard.

If you’re like me, you’ve read a bunch of branding books, maybe even taken a branding course in your MBA, and read a bunch of X threads on the topic…

Only to walk away more confused.

Well, I’m here to say that Alex pulled through for us.

Here’s what I learned:

For instance, take Coca-Cola:

Thing 1 = Drinking (action)

Thing 2 = Coca-Cola (product)

Outcome = The “YUM”

Another example, Eddy Quan:

Thing 1 = Learning email and social media marketing (action)

Thing 2 = Eddy Quan's courses and content (product)

Outcome = Financial freedom and lifestyle flexibility to enjoy life's pleasures (like eating watermelon)

I could go on…

At the end of the day, good branding is pairing stuff with other things your customers and audience likes.

So, if you are just starting out, align your brand with stuff that your ideal audience already likes.

This is why people on X are getting thousands of followers right now with the “This is [really popular person], they did [really desirable thing], and I’ve [studied/worked with/etc] them for [x amount of time] which changed my life, here’s their top [x amount] of lessons I learned (a thread)” posts.

They are aligning their brand with other brands their ideal audience already likes.

Just remember, there are good and bad results for all pairings. Everyone has preferences.

Bud Light controversy in recent years, anyone?

Fortunately, for businesses, it's easy to measure good or bad: does your ideal audience buy it or not?

Because branding always happens; it's our job to make sure GOOD branding happens.

So, choose the right pairings and go all in.

Cheers,

Swanagan