🧠 The ONLY Thing People Care About

Hey there,

Welcome back to the 49th edition of Brandish,

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand.

It’s one of those days again…

One of those days where I spent way too long thinking about what I wanted to write.

Doing it for the real ones though because this one’s going to be heat.

So without further ado,

Kick back, 

Grab a Brez or two,

And get ready to learn the truth of what people REALLY care about.

Who Cares?

I’m gonna be real for a second,

Nobody cares what you’re trying to sell them.

So drop everything you’re doing right now and shut down your store.

Just kidding… 😐

I’ll stop..

All jokes aside, What do I really mean?

Picture this:

You’re watching YouTube, and a stupid ad for a fitness tracker interrupts you mid-video.

If you’re a normal human being like me.

You spam the skip button and pay ZERO attention to what you just saw.

Matter of fact,

You probably don’t even remember what the ad was about.

A few hours later, 

You open up social media and then see LeBron James using the same fitness tracker you saw earlier.

Suddenly, it’s not just the boring fitness tracker that interrupted your video.

It’s the fitness tracker that f*cking LeBron uses to stay on top of his game.

Before you realize, 

You’re already at the checkout page and the rest is history.

Before we move on,

Ask yourself this one question.

What made me go from spamming the skip button to literally throwing my wallet at them?

Maybe you said - Because LeBron James is using it.

Well, other than your little crush on LeBron James (you do you brother)

There's a scientific reason behind this.

Psychology Masterclass (taught by me)

Okay, I’m not a psychologist,

But we all know that you wouldn’t ask a doctor for tax advice or your accountant for medical advice.

Naturally, people are more inclined to take advice from so-called “experts” in their field.

It’s the same reason you’d rather buy the same shoes that Kyrie hoops in.

And cook with the same skillet that Gordon Ramsay uses.

Alright Ankit,

So how do I use this method?

It’s simple really,

The first step is identifying your message.

And making sure it’s solid.

If that’s a yes, 

And your leads still don’t get the memo.

Don’t change the message,

Change the messenger.

🤫 Steal This Tactic (the messenger effect)

If you’re asking me what the messenger effect is.

Are you even paying attention, smh,

I literally just explained it up there 👆

To be fair, 

I didn’t exactly say what it was called hahah.

The Messenger Effect: 

The phenomenon where the credibility of a person delivering a message influences how the message is received.

Cool? Cool ✔

Moving on to step two.

The next step is picking the messenger.

Celebs vs. Micro-Influencers

Both have their pros and cons so let's dive into both.

Collabing with celebrities:

✅ Pros

Wide reach and Lots of $$$

Celebs have an insane amount of following,

Insane following = insane amount of people seeing your brand.

❌ Cons

It’s expensive. Hella Expensive.

If you don’t have the bread, consider yourself dead.

That’s a bar.

This option is pretty much out the window for most brands.

Collabing with Micro-Influencers:

✅ Pros

They are genuine and authentic and usually collab because they truly like the product.

This one’s also affordable

❌ Cons

Since micro-influencers have smaller audiences, 

Your campaign only has a limited amount of people it can reach.

I hope that clears everything up.

But just a heads up,

It’s not all smooth sailing.

WARNING SIGN ⚠

Just now I explained how you could use the messenger effect to more or less print cash.

But it would be wrong of me not to give you a little heads up about what could go wrong. 

Scandals and Controversies

Usually when celebrities collaborate with brands and are involved in negative publicity.

It’s usually something like politics or something controversial they tweeted about.

Let’s be honest, that’s kind of boring…

So here’s a funny one I found as an example.

Some context about this tweet) 

10 long years ago Samsung gave LeBron James a new phone.

Long story short it ended up erasing everything.

He did what any other influential person would do in a situation like this…

He tweeted about it 🤣

This one is probably just really bad luck but you get the point.

Just because you made one wrong move.

You put your brand's reputation in danger. 

Adding insult to injury,

This doesn't only apply to your brand.

But things you purchase as well.

Depending on the messenger,

They could be straight-up lying about the product, 

Kinda like those memes online that go like,

What I expected — What I actually got…

So stay safe out there.

Wrapping Up

That’s a wrap for this week!

Hopefully, you learned something new about how people see things and the psychology behind the messenger effect. 

And LeBron lol.

If you knew everything already, 

You’re a savage.

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them.

And as always, thanks for tuning in.

And see you next Sunday,

Ankit