always try to go with something else / siempre intenta ir con algo más

I´m going to give this one a shot.

Perception. I prefer that brand, that´s my brand, that´s the brand that talks to me, says something about me, knows my world, it´s closer to me. Brand perception.

But it´s not the only way to get there. I like to think of observation as the spark for this strategy. Watch out, it´s not (just) built on “imagery associated with the product or service”, it´s culture and the world (imagery, values, codes) that surrounds certain (target, ugly word this) people. That´s why observation is key, again, for this particular brand building strategy. Example: W+K, Nike. Mother London´s strategies differ sometimes, it´s good to take a look there too.

Branding builds perception, belief. Cognitive dissonance come in play when information conflicts (internal) with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs.

So, branding and cognitive dissonance (internal conflicts) work together, all the time. Think of branding as a force, like when a “person identifies”, this would be a positive conflict.

To answer your question i would say that branding and cognitive dissonance are inevitably together. Cognitive dissonance is an affect that belongs in lower level, as an effect, of a branding strategy because it conflicts (internally) with beliefs. A branding strategy would try to build or reinforce (force = comms) perception/belief and try to avoid cognitive dissonance, but it certainly is unavoidable. It´s always present, no strategy is perfect and people aren´t robots.

Metaphorically, branding is the playground. And cognitive dissonance are the foot prints that kids leave after using the monkey bars. Because, as you tied together cognitive dissonance and promotional marketing, promotional marketing would be a tool, a tactic and branding would play in another other level as it relies on a strategy.

From a comms point of view it´s hard to rely on reductionist = action-belief / belief-action terms. It reminds me of needle theories, and they are dead. Linear is dead. Most definitions are too.

I gave it a shot. Not sure i hit anything.

Cheers!

comment on advertising for peanuts.