Title: How Good Brands Live Rent Free in Your Head
URL: https://lineacreative.com/ideas/best-practices/how-good-brands-live-rent-free-in-your-head/
Published: 2023-11-14 13:25:21
Last modified: 2024-04-12 11:49:15
Author: Eric Stroo
---
## Good Brands Reinforce Themselves

We’re all communicators here and we all know that a brand is way more than just 
a logo and some colors. A brand is an ethos. A brand is a feeling. A brand is the
connective tissue between the mind of the consumer and the heart of the business.
And like all tissue, it atrophies if it’s not being flexed, but it grows with some
dedicated work. So let’s hit the gym and take some examples from the brands that
already do heavy lifting.

##  Users Love this One Simple Sound: Netflix

There’s a great episode of the podcast 20,000 Hertz that tells the story of Netflix’s
Tudum! sound better than I could, but I bet just reading that sentence made you 
play the sound in your head. I’d even bet that you’re thinking about all the hours
you’ve spent watching _Love is Blind_ or (my fave) _The Circle_ and wondering if
a new season or episode has dropped.

Through a simple audio signature, Netflix has connected their entire platform and
the experiences we have on it together. It’s something so simple and yet so well
executed that even the phoneticization can transport you to your couch with your
favorite binge-watching snacks.

Not that every brand needs an audio signature, but every brand should strive to 
understand how to make users/customers remember them without having to say the name
or see the logo.

## Take On VW

This commercial is easily my favorite ad spot of all time. From the nearly perfect
homage to the A-Ha music video and high note of Take on Me to the cameo of Coach
Beard as the villain, this spot fits right into VW’s legacy of creating great ads
and I cannot hear that song without thinking of the Jetta.

Effective brand building often takes cultural touchpoints and repurposes them in
ways that both replicate the original but also gives it new meaning. This idea is
what Richard Dawkins would call a meme, and we’re all here for the memes.

We don’t think every brand should jump on the “meme train”, but they should be looking
for opportunities to engage with the larger culture and find ways to become part
of the conversation instead, as they often try, to make the conversation about them.

## Steak-umm Goes Goblin Mode

If you haven’t ever read the Twitter (we’re not calling it ‘X’) account from Steak-
umm, a frozen food company, you’re missing out on a postmodernist masterpiece.

They actively engage in rants on subjects ranging from late stage capitalism to 
the need to listen to experts and avoid conspiracy theories. Just so we’re all clear
about this, a relatively minor frozen steak company has some of the most incisive
analysis of the modern world.

Believe me when I say that when the world has problems, I (a decade long vegetarian)
turn to Steak-umm for their takes. By trusting their social media managers, they
have grown a dedicated following that has managed to get them tons of earned media
and grow a huge following.

## How Can Your Brand Do It?

Any ad agency or marketer who tells you that this is easy is a liar. There’s not
a simple solution to find the “thing” (or things) that can take your brand into 
the minds of the consumer. But we do think there are a couple of ingredients every
brand needs: curiosity and the willingness to take a risk and to fail.

We are nothing if not curious and while we may be cautious we look for opportunities
to take calculated risks to give our partners a chance to grow their brand’s relationship
with their customers