CONTENT MARKETING
August 18, 2026 • 8 min read
Why People Choose Brands
That Feel Like Them
Have you ever gone into a store looking for something specific, compared two similar products,
and somehow felt more drawn to one of them?
I have noticed this in my own shopping decisions quite a few times. Sometimes the products are not that different. The price may be similar, the features may be similar, and both brands may look perfectly good. Still, one of them catches my attention first. Sometimes I already know the brand because I have seen it online many times. Sometimes I like the way the brand presents itself. And sometimes, I just feel like it is more suited to me.
That made me think about something I find really interesting in digital marketing. We often talk about why people buy a product, but I think there is another question worth asking.
Why do people feel connected to one brand more than another?
It is easy to assume that people always choose the best product. If one product has better features, better quality, or a better price, then surely people should choose it. But real buying decisions do not always work that way. We are not comparing every detail every time we buy something. A lot of the time, we already have an idea about a brand before we even consider buying from it.
That idea can come from an advertisement we saw a few days ago. It can come from a social media post, a video, a recommendation from someone we know, or simply seeing the same brand again and again. Over time, these small moments start creating an impression.
And I think that is where brand identity becomes really important.
We Notice Brands Before We Need Them
Think about how often advertisements appear in our everyday lives.
You might be scrolling through Instagram and see a brand. Later, you might see the same brand while watching a video. A few days later, you notice it again while searching for something online. You may not remember the exact advertisement or even pay much attention to it when you first see it.
But then you walk into a store and see that brand sitting among several others.
Suddenly, it looks familiar.
I notice this in my own shopping behaviour. If I have seen a brand several times before, I am more likely to notice it when I come across it in real life. It does not automatically mean that I will buy it, but it already has a place in my mind.
That is one reason I think advertising is more powerful than simply telling people that a product exists. Good advertising can slowly build familiarity before the customer is even ready to buy.
This is especially interesting in digital marketing because people are constantly exposed to brands. A person might not interact with a post, click on an advertisement, or follow a page. That does not necessarily mean the content had no effect. Sometimes the brand is simply becoming familiar.
And when the time comes to make a purchase, that familiarity can matter.
The Brands We Remember Usually Make Us Feel Something
For me, Dove is a good example of this.
I have always found Dove’s advertising interesting because it often feels like the advertisement is talking about people rather than just talking about a product. Instead of making every message about what the product does, Dove has built a large part of its communication around beauty, confidence and the way people see themselves.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty began in 2004 and challenged the narrow way beauty was commonly shown in advertising. Over the years, the brand has continued building its communication around real people and more realistic ideas of beauty.
One campaign that stayed in my mind is Real Beauty Sketches.
The idea was simple but quite powerful. Women described themselves to a forensic artist, and later, another person described the same woman to the artist. The sketches created from those descriptions were different. The campaign focused on the difference between how women saw themselves and how other people saw them.
What I find interesting is that the advertisement did not make me think about a Dove product first.
It made me think about the person in the advertisement.
That is probably why the campaign is easier to remember. It gave people something to think about after the advertisement ended.
I think this is where storytelling becomes important in branding. When a brand gives people a story or an idea that they can relate to, the brand itself can become connected to that feeling.
Instead of thinking, “This is a company that sells this product,” people may start thinking, “This brand understands something I feel.”
That is a very different kind of connection.
A Brand Can Start Feeling Familiar
This does not mean every brand needs to create emotional advertisements.
That is something I realised when thinking about Apple.
Apple’s communication often gives me a different feeling from Dove. When I see Apple campaigns, I usually think more about creativity, design, technology and what people can create with the product.
For example, Apple’s Shot on iPhone campaigns have focused on photographs and videos created using the iPhone. One of its campaigns brought together photographers from different parts of the world to capture low light scenes using the iPhone 7.
The message feels different from Dove, but the basic idea is interesting.
Apple is not only showing me a phone.
It is showing me what the phone can help someone create.
That creates a particular kind of brand identity. Apple can feel creative and minimal to one person, while Dove can feel more personal and relatable to another.
Neither approach has to work for everyone.
And maybe that is the point.
People Do Not Always Choose the Best Brand
When we talk about consumer behaviour, I think it is tempting to make everything sound logical.
We compare prices. We compare features. We read reviews. We check ratings. Then we choose the best option.
Of course, we do some of these things. But I do not think buying decisions are always that simple.
Imagine two products sitting next to each other. They have similar prices and similar features. You have never heard of one brand before, but you have seen the other brand several times online.
Which one are you more likely to pick up first?
For me, it would probably be the familiar one.
That does not mean I will blindly buy it. I might still compare both products. But familiarity has already changed where my attention goes.
This is why I find consumer psychology so interesting. People are not machines making perfectly logical decisions. We bring our memories, preferences, emotions and experiences into the decisions we make.
Sometimes a brand feels premium.
Sometimes it feels affordable.
Sometimes it feels fun.
Sometimes it feels trustworthy.
Sometimes it simply feels like something that belongs in our world.
And those feelings can influence the way we see a product before we even try it.
We Connect With Brands That Reflect
Something About Us
I think this becomes even more noticeable when a brand has a strong personality.
People have personalities, so it makes sense that brands can have them too.
Think about a person you enjoy being around. Maybe they are calm and thoughtful. Maybe they are energetic and funny. Maybe they are creative and different from everyone else.
You probably would not describe every person in exactly the same way.
Brands work in a similar way.
Some brands feel serious and professional. Others feel playful. Some focus heavily on technology and innovation. Others focus on community and everyday experiences.
The interesting part is that customers may be attracted to different personalities because of who they are themselves.
Someone who loves minimal design may naturally be attracted to a brand that communicates in a simple and clean way. Someone who values sustainability may pay more attention to a company that talks about environmental responsibility. Someone who wants products that feel luxurious may respond to a brand that communicates exclusivity.
This is why saying that a brand should appeal to everyone can actually create a problem.
If you try to speak to everyone, your brand can start sounding like everyone else.
Your Content Is Creating an Impression
This is where I think the idea becomes especially relevant to digital marketing.
When creating content, it is easy to focus only on what we want to say.
We think about the caption.
We think about the image.
We think about the video.
We think about the offer.
But there is another question that matters.
What does all of this make people think about the brand?
A single Instagram post might not change someone’s opinion completely. But hundreds of small pieces of content can slowly create a picture in their mind.
The way a brand writes captions matters.
The way it responds to comments matters.
The kind of images it posts matters.
The stories it chooses to tell matter.
Even the things a brand decides not to talk about can become part of its identity.
That is why content strategy is not only about posting regularly. It is also about being recognisable.
If someone sees your content without seeing your logo, can they still get a sense that it belongs to your brand?
That is something I would personally look for when working on a brand’s social media presence.
Being Relatable Does Not Mean Trying Too Hard
There is one thing I think brands need to be careful about.
Trying to make a brand relatable can sometimes make it feel less relatable.
People can usually tell when something feels forced.
A brand does not need to use every trending phrase or copy the communication style of another popular brand just because it is getting attention. What works for one company might look completely unnatural for another.
The goal should not be to make everyone like the brand.
The goal should be to make the right people feel something when they come across it.
That could be trust. It could be excitement. It could be comfort. It could be curiosity. It could even be a feeling of belonging.
And that feeling does not have to come from a huge campaign.
Sometimes it can come from a simple post that sounds like a real person wrote it.
Sometimes it can come from a customer story.
Sometimes it can come from showing something that the audience genuinely understands.
The important thing is that the message feels believable.
So, What Makes a Brand Feel Like Us?
After thinking about this, I do not think there is one formula for creating a brand that people connect with.
Dove and Apple are very different brands, yet both have managed to create strong identities around the way they communicate.
Dove often makes me think about people, confidence and beauty.
Apple makes me think about creativity, design and possibility.
Neither brand needs to communicate like the other.
That is what makes this interesting to me.
A strong brand identity is not about making a brand attractive to absolutely everyone. It is about creating something clear enough that certain people can recognise themselves in it.
And once that happens, the relationship can become bigger than the product.
The customer is no longer looking only at what the brand sells.
They are also looking at what the brand represents.