Let’s cut to the chase. Marketing and branding? They’re way deeper than a flashy logo, a sleek design, or a viral social media post. Sure, those things help, but they’re just the surface.

Coke is just soda, the iPhone is just mobile, and Mavi is simply jeans. Yet, consumers will go out of their way to pick these specific brands over others. An economist might wonder, “Why would a rational person spend more for the same thing?” We love to think of ourselves as logical beings, but that’s not the whole story.