Brands need a more strategic approach to design to build instant connections with customers
Writing Jean-Pierre Lacroix
The marketplace is witnessing the rapid adoption of new technologies such as AI, fueling a pace of transformation across organizations not seen since the advent of the computer. The acceleration of change is driving commoditization, forcing organizations to rethink how to sustain long-term competitive advantage, innovation and marketing. For brands, AI is also ushering in new sentiment analysis technologies, providing the ability to dig deeper into the emotional factors that drive purchasing decisions, shifting the narrative away from features and benefits, and putting a renewed emphasis on the need to create emotional shortcuts – on how brands make customers feel.
This acceleration demands that companies move beyond simply talking about values. To build instant, lasting connections, leaders need to embrace the science of visual design.
Snap judgements
Customers form their first impression of a brand in just 300 milliseconds, faster than the blink of an eye. While corporate values and mission statements remain valuable tools for leadership teams in shaping brand identity, growing evidence shows that visual design plays an even greater role in building meaningful customer relationships. We first identified this phenomenon in the 1990s and called it the Blink Factor, recognizing the rising importance of emotional instant connection in how consumers experience brands.
Now, thanks to advances in brain science, we know more than ever about the snap judgments made by the human mind. Our brains process visual information at an extraordinary speed – about 60,000 times faster than a computer. While it takes several seconds to read a value proposition, a brand’s visual identity makes its impact instantly.
These aren’t just academic findings; they reflect the reality of the marketplace. Consumers are confronted by overwhelming choice, with up to 47,000 products in the average supermarket, meaning they increasingly rely on visual shortcuts. Snap purchase decisions happen up to 3,000 times faster than rational ones – yet many companies still try to compete primarily on functionality and logic.
Emotional elicitation and the role of design
Rather than trying to win on logic, brands should focus on eliciting an emotional response to create a connection. A recent SLD/Customer Obsession study analyzing 2,000 customer reviews across 18 major chains revealed that emotional involvement is the consistent driver of loyalty, beyond price or convenience. Brands like Chick-fil-A and Texas Roadhouse aren’t the cheapest options, yet they stand out by delivering experiences that feel right from the start.
That makes design critical. Forty years ago, design was not seen as a fundamental business function; it was often treated as an afterthought or an appendage to strategy, rather than a driver of it. Today, the most successful organizations have flipped that mindset: design has become integral to planning and a core source of competitive advantage. The emergence of desktop computing accelerated design cycles, placing design leaders at executive tables and embedding design thinking into top-level decision-making.
The shift has been profound. Where classical branding focuses on articulating values and beliefs, appealing to conscious thought, design-driven branding is rooted in what customers experience, engaging the brain’s immediate, emotional processing. Apple exemplifies this transformation. While the brand champions innovation, what truly sets it apart is design: sparse layouts, intuitive interfaces and iconic packaging. Every design choice – what we call the code language of brands – acts as an image metaphor, triggering an emotional response long before a customer ever reads a feature list. Simplicity and elegance are not just Apple’s promise; they are present in every touchpoint of the brand.
Lego is another excellent example of the power of design as a transformational tool. The organization was on the verge of irrelevance due to declining sales and a lack of broad appeal until it adopted a design thinking approach. Transforming the brand through licensing agreements and refocusing on the power of creativity for both children and adults helped revitalize Lego as an iconic brand.
Competitive advantage
Images that instantly convey complex ideas, such as visual metaphors, remain underutilized in branding. Unlike verbal messages, they bypass rational thought and deliver direct emotional data, effortlessly crossing language, cultural, and educational barriers.
The strategic application of visual metaphors marks the beginning of a new era in brand identity. Research shows that color alone drives up to 80% of brand recognition, while shapes and other graphic elements can profoundly influence perception and emotion. Together, these cues create what researchers call “customer love marks” – deep emotional bonds with brands that rational messaging alone can never achieve.
While many brands still rely heavily on functional differentiation, market leaders recognize that emotional attachment is the real driver of loyalty and long-term profitability. Emotion influences up to 80% of purchase decisions, and emotional appeals are 24 times more persuasive than rational ones. An authentic visual shortcut can serve as one of the most powerful strategic assets a brand can own. Research consistently confirms that emotionally-connected consumers are more loyal, spend more, and advocate more. In banking, for example, emotionally engaged customers deliver 52% greater lifetime value than those who are merely functionally satisfied.
Capturing this competitive advantage requires a redefinition of brand strategy: shifting from internal strengths to customer emotions, from product attributes to image-driven narratives, and from rational explanations to compelling emotional appeals.
Putting the BlinkFactor into action
To enhance how your brand connects with audiences, follow these three tips.
Audit the brand for emotion Assess current branding on an emotional level, rather than focusing on message clarity. Explore factors the brand can own, beyond functional benefits. How does it makes customers feel?
Treat design as strategic Color, spacing, typography, and all other design choices must be understood as strategic investments in customer relationships, rather than being issues of ‘style.’ Brands that use design as a cosmetic tool undermine their ability to create consistent memory purchase shortcuts.
Measure emotional impact Measures such as Net Promoter Score or customer satisfaction only provide partial information about brand health. Customer relationships need to be monitored via sentiment analysis and emotional engagement scores to provide a full understanding of how design decisions affect relationships.
The strategic imperative
As AI evens out the playing field in terms of functional capabilities, the most sustainable competitive advantage is now emotional differentiation. Those companies that learn to create emotional relationships in the blink-of-an-eye will win loyal customers and dominate their markets.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix is president of Shikatani Lacroix Design and author of ThinkBlink Manifesto: Creating Deep, Lasting Emotional Brand Connections in the Blink of an Eye (FriesenPress)
