Brands are magic potential

They have the magical power to transform us.

decoded branding is a pure Brand Agency in Zürich, Switzerland.
Founded by the international brand expert and author of „Brand Magic“ Thomas Zerlauth.
We focus on the magical effect of brands, their transformative potential and the myths that determine their future.

A wondrous magic emanates from brands that has an effect on us. The fascination for the magical lies deep within us humans. Because we have a tendency towards irrationality. The world of brands is indeed a library of stories. We all know these stories, but without consciously remembering them. Yet, in a way, we stick to the story and the script. We buy and surround ourselves with things we know and that mean something to us.
A brand is ultimately what the human autopilot perceives and decodes in a fraction of a second. Brands help us make unconscious, intuitive and automated purchasing decisions. Through depth- and neuropsychology, however, we know that 95% of all decisions are made unconsciously. Despite this scientific fact, a surprisingly large number of marketing plans focus primarily on the consciously decisive pilots of the human being.

the secret codes of successful brands. decoded branding zuerich

Brands are coded frames of meaning and reward

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.

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Brands can develop a tremendous pull and we usually find it difficult to rationally explain this effect and our reaction to it.

thomas zerlauth. decoded Branding Zürich

It is estimated that the conscious mind processes about 45 basic units of information (bits) per second. The unconscious, on the other hand, copes with millions of bits.

We operate in our highly technical and information overloaded civilisation on the basis of a brain that was developed for life and survival in the wild nature of the prehistoric age.

Brands are subjective realities that are implicitly triggered by codes in the counterpart.