By the marketingSHOWCASE Editorial Team, Featuring insights from Ben Hoque, Brand & Partnerships Manager at I Love Manchester
If you ask ten different marketers to define a ‘brand,’ you’ll likely get ten different answers. Some will talk about typography palettes and vector logos. Others will drone on about style guides, core colour codes, and tagline consistency.
But if you strip away all the corporate design jargon, what is a brand actually made of?
On a recent episode of the marketingSHOWCASE Podcast, host James sat down with Ben Hoque, Brand & Partnerships Manager for I Love Manchester, live on the exhibition floor at Old Trafford. While discussing how I Love Manchester grew from a local campaign into an iconic, region-defining media powerhouse, Ben dropped a beautifully simple piece of branding wisdom that every marketer needs to pin to their desk:
“It’s not just a logo, it’s not just a name – it’s a feeling.”
It’s a massive concept wrapped in a simple phrase. Here is why refocusing your marketing on the feeling is the ultimate shortcut to building brand loyalty.
The ‘toilet cleaner’ principle
As James pointed out during the episode, this rule doesn’t just apply to flashy lifestyle brands or luxury cars. It applies to the most mundane, everyday commodities on the market – even your household toilet cleaner.
When a consumer interacts with a brand, they aren’t evaluating the geometric symmetry of the logo on the bottle, nor are they just thinking about the chemical scent. What they are actually buying is the feeling of relief and satisfaction that comes with knowing their bathroom is completely clean and hygienic.
The product is just the vehicle. The feeling is the brand.
Turning transactions into trust
In B2B and B2C marketing alike, features and specifications are incredibly easy for competitors to copy. If you sell software, someone else can build a similar dashboard. If you offer professional services, a competitor can match your pricing.
But what a competitor cannot replicate is the emotional equity you build with an audience.
- The Transaction: “I bought a digital marketing service from this agency.”
- The Brand Feeling: “I feel completely confident and secure knowing my digital presence is handled by experts who genuinely care about my growth.”
When I Love Manchester builds commercial partnerships, they aren’t just selling digital ad space or social media impressions. They are giving businesses a chance to align themselves with the pride, community spirit, and unique energy of the city. That isn’t a visual asset; it’s an emotional connection.
How to audit your brand’s ‘feeling’
If you want to move your marketing strategy past aesthetic design and into true brand building, ask yourself these three foundational questions:
- What is the immediate emotion a customer feels when they land on your website? Is it confusion, or is it instant clarity and relief?
- Does your visual identity match your customer experience? If your logo screams “cutting-edge innovation” but your customer service feels slow and outdated, the feeling breaks.
- Are you selling the tool, or the outcome? Stop spending 100% of your copy explaining what your product does. Start explaining how much easier, safer, or more successful your customer’s life will be once they use it.
The verdict: logos fade, feelings stick
A great logo is important, but it is ultimately just a flag planted in the ground to show people where you stand. The true weight of your brand is carried in the emotional wake you leave behind after every single interaction.
If you focus on perfecting the feeling, the brand equity will take care of itself.
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