Why some brands appeal to you and others don't (even though their products are equally good)
You land on a company's website and think: yes, this is right. Not because the design is so special. Not because the copy is so well written. There's just something about it. A feeling that says: these are people who stand for something.
And then there's the other version. Also professional. Also neat. But you click away with the feeling that you've just read a brochure.
I always had that feeling. But I couldn't explain it.
That turned out not to be a coincidence.
The part of your brain that has no words
Simon Sinek explains it in Start With Why, and it's actually surprisingly simple.
There are two areas of the brain that are relevant to decision-making. The neocortex: analytical, rational, and communicates with words. Then there is the limbic brain: responsible for feelings, trust, and loyalty. But the limbic brain has no language skills.
The limbic brain makes the decision. The neocortex explains why afterwards. Or at least it tries to.
That's why, after making a purchase, you say, "I just had a good feeling about it," and then half an hour later you list the features that rationalize your decision. Those features are real. But they weren't the reason. The decision had already been made.
And that's also why I always felt the difference between those two types of companies but couldn't put it into words. My limbic brain knew it long before my neocortex could formulate it. A bit frustrating when you're a writer, but oh well.
What a flea market experiment teaches us about brand value
In 2009, journalist Rob Walker and writer Joshua Glenn bought 200 knickknacks at flea markets. Average purchase price: $1.25 each. A plastic horse. A broken barometer. The kind of things you find at a flea market because nobody wants them.
They then asked 200 writers to come up with a short story for each item. These stories were fictional, but clearly labeled as such. They posted these stories as product descriptions on eBay, instead of the standard "in good condition."
Result: they raised $3,612.51 for $128.74 worth of flea market items.
That is an increase of 2,700 percent. Every object increased in value. The object itself did not change. They did not add anything. Only a story.
Story is not decoration. Story is value.
Academic research confirms this. In 2013, Lundqvist et al. conducted a controlled experiment in which two groups evaluated the same product: one group with a brand story, one without. The group without a story was unwilling to pay the actual retail price. The group with a story was willing to do so. All of them. Same product, different story, different willingness to pay.
(For those wondering why you don't just want to compete on price: this is why.)
The two types of companies
Sinek writes that there are only two ways to influence human behavior: manipulate or inspire.
Manipulation works. Discounts, FOMO, scarcity. They lead to transactions. But not to loyalty. Customers who come in through manipulation will also leave through manipulation as soon as someone else offers a better deal.
Inspiration works differently. It touches the limbic brain directly, not through logic but through emotion. And for that, you need something.
You need to know why you do what you do.
There are companies that know this. They started with a conviction, a problem that bothered them, an idea of how things could be better. Everything they communicate flows from that. Their website. Their emails. How their sales manager talks at a trade show. It sounds consistent because there is a core.
And there are companies that had a good idea, or saw a market opportunity, and started building. Fine. But they never stopped to ask themselves: why are we doing this? They know their what and their how, but their why has never been made explicit, not to themselves, not to their team, not to their customers.
The second group often makes excellent products. But their communication feels different. Not wrong, just empty. Like a well-designed apartment that you still wouldn't want to live in.
The nuance that most storytelling experts overlook
The second group doesn't have a bad story. They just haven't found their story yet.
Because a why isn't something you invent. Sinek says it himself: you discover it. It was always there, in why the founder ever got up to start this, in the decisions the company makes when no one is looking, in what the best employees say about their work in a café on Friday night.
Most founders are so busy building that they never stop to think about that question. From idea to launch to growth, and two years later, the website, sales, investor deck, and job postings all communicate something slightly different. It's not dramatic, but it's enough for customers to notice, even if they can't explain why.
Then they turn to a marketing agency. They write new copy. Neat, professional. But it still feels like nothing. Because the problem isn't the copy.
The problem is your foundation.
This is what I do
I spent two weeks in Rome building Airbnb's complete brand voice for the Flemish market. Not just translating. Really thinking about how this company, with all its values and uniqueness, sounds when it talks to someone from Ghent or Hasselt. Which words fit. Which tone works. When Flemish people roll their eyes.
That's what I do now for founders and scale-ups. Not as a one-off project where I deliver a document and disappear. As someone who thinks along with them about how a brand sounds as it grows.
Because that's when stories start to crumble: not because they're poorly written, but because a company grows and no one actively manages the story. New people, new markets, new campaigns—each one an opportunity to lose a bit of consistency.
This month, I am starting a new project with a graphic designer from Antwerp. We are not going to invent her brand story. We are going to discover it.
I'm curious to see what will come of it.
Conclusion
There are two types of companies. But the difference is not in their product, their price, or their marketing budget.
The difference lies in whether they know why they exist and whether they communicate this consistently.
Companies that know this don't need to convince customers. They attract people who already believe the same way. These customers are more loyal, more tolerant of mistakes, and they refer others, not because they are satisfied, but because they feel connected.
Companies that don't know this compete on features and price. Not because their product is inferior, but because that's all that's left when the story is missing.
And the thing is: almost every company has a story. They just never thought about it.
Perhaps now is the time.
Bram Vuylsteker is a brand storytelling consultant at vedetski. He helps founders and scale-ups discover their brand story and keep it consistent, from strategy to copy.
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Simon Sinek, Start With Why, Portfolio/Penguin, 2009
Rob Walker & Joshua Glenn, Significant Objects, significantobjects.com, 2009
Lundqvist, A., Liljander, V., Gummerus, J., & Van Riel, A., The impact of storytelling on the consumer brand experience: the case of a firm-originated story, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 20, pp. 283–297, 2013
Paul J. Zak, Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling, Harvard Business Review, October 28, 2014, hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good-storytelling
