A brand gives the autopilot an intuitive meaning and gut feeling. The unconscious understandably causes us a certain discomfort – after all, it is beyond our direct control and influence. Yet it represents the far more vital part of our psychic apparatus and an equally real and essential component of individual life as the conscious, thinking world of the ego.

Brands are coded fields of consciousness that address this very unconscious and respond in the form of resonance. They send out signals (brand codes) to convey implicit meaning and reward to the consumer. All of this happens completely automatically. While some still think that a nice logo and an appealing design already make a strong brand, brand strategists think in completely different categories. A brand is neither a particular design nor the product – although it encompasses both. By its very nature, a brand is that which first sets a proper stage for these visible external representatives. It describes and condenses a subjective reality that is built around a real existing object (e.g. a product or a service). The term „subjective“ is crucial to the game.