The Role of Brands in the Buying Process

Part of the reason brands are so important is that they simplify customers' buying decisions.

Making a decision to buy can be complex. Imagine what your customers would have to do to be thoroughly informed about their buying decisions:

• Carefully consider all of the features that are important to them.
• Spend time to determine all of the competing products.
• Spend time collecting information on all of the different products.
• Compare and contrast all of the information.

To be truly informed, a customer almost has to perform an exhaustive competitive analysis. Even if your customers were qualified to perform such analyses, it would take them days, if not weeks or months.

Brands simplify the buying decision. A trusted brand is like a trusted movie director. It's by no means full-proof, but can get some idea of whether a movie is good by whether a movie director you trust directed it.