We all like to think we make logical buying decisions. But more often than not, it’s emotion, gut instinct, or that little voice in our head saying “Ooh, I need this.” Like the time I bought a pair of French designer Francis Klein frames, they were red, bold, daring.

I had no need for a pair of $300 glasses, seeing as I didn’t even wear glasses back then. But that’s exactly when consumer behavior kicks in — a fancy term for how people make buying decisions, and a mix of emotional, social, and psychological reasons that drive how we shop and why we choose one brand over another.

In 2025, these reasons are shifting fast. Buyers are looking for more than just a good product or fair price, they want something that feels right. They want brands that reflect their values and treat them like humans.

The gist...

Your customers aren’t just buying a product, they’re buying you—your vibe, your values, your bold red metaphorical glasses. Which means your marketing has got one job: figure out what makes your customers say yes.

Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy Around What Truly Matters

A solid marketing strategy centered around consumer behavior means you've got to use real customer insights to guide your positioning. This involves:

• Conducting interviews with your customers to learn what alternatives they considered, what hesitations they had, and what finally tipped the scales.
• Mining what people already say about you in reviews, testimonials, feedback. What words do they use? What emotional outcomes do they mention (relief from frustration, confidence, status, peace of mind)?
• Partnering with your frontline teams—sales, support—to capture the objections, the turning points, and the “aha” moments.
  
  

Why is this so critical?

Because customers don’t usually buy purely off rationale. Emotional triggers and perceived identity often matter as much or more — as well evidenced by Apple. No one camps out overnight just to get a slightly better camera or faster chip. They do it because owning the latest iPhone says something about them. It signals taste. Creativity. Status. It whispers, “I’m part of something smarter, cooler, better.”

Building a winning branding and marketing strategy takes some time to dig into what really moves people.

Using Insights in Your Brand Strategy and Marketing Messaging

At the decision stage of the customer journey, your prospects are comparing, evaluating, and choosing. Here’s how to use your insights:

Brand Strategy

Align your overarching brand strategy around the emotional and functional benefits that drove past customers. Ensure your positioning makes it explicitly clear what makes you different in ways that matters to your target audience. For example:

Instead of:
“I’m a lifestyle photographer.”

Try:
“I help busy families capture real, unscripted moments—so they don’t just remember what it looked like, but how it felt.”

That’s positioning that speaks to emotion, outcome, and what matters most to the customer.

Messaging

Reflect the language your customers use (their emotional rewards, their hesitations, their alternatives) in your copy—website, ads, sales decks.

Branding and Marketing Strategy

Use those insights to define every touchpoint. From visual identity to user experience, every detail should reinforce your position. Consistency builds trust. For example: A wellness brand that positions itself around “calm in the chaos” uses soft, neutral colors, minimalist packaging, soothing website copy, and a smooth, clutter-free checkout experience— every touchpoint reinforces the feeling of calm. 

Proof & Social Evidence

 Show testimonials, case studies, stories that embody the why. Make them central—not buried. At this stage, proof removes friction.

What Is Brand Positioning — and Why It Changes Everything

One of the most confusing but powerful concepts at this stage is a marketing term known as brand positioning.

Brand positioning is the process of defining how you want your brand to be perceived in the mind of your customer, how you differentiate yourself from your competitors, and what value you provide. 

Take Liquid Death, for example.

They sell water. In a can. That’s it. No magical minerals. No elite filtration tech. Just plain still or sparkling water.

But here’s the genius: their brand positioning isn’t about hydration, it’s about attitude. They positioned themselves not as a wellness product, but as a rebellious, in-your-face alternative to boring bottled water. With heavy metal-inspired branding, edgy humor, and slogans, they made water feel like a lifestyle choice for the punk rock crowd.

That’s positioning done right:

• They defined how they wanted to be perceived (bold, irreverent, cool)
• They differentiated from competitors (not another crunchy eco-brand)
• And they created value by making plain water feel fun, expressive, and socially shareable.

Their results have generated over $100M in revenue and a cult following—all for something people could get for free from a tap.

A carefully designed brand positioning strategy becomes a filter. It shapes your messaging, your visual identity, your promise—it’s what helps customers decide why us, not them.

Brand Positioning Strategy in Practice: Simple Steps

To pull this together, here’s a quick roadmap for applying a brand positioning strategy that converts:

• Define your ideal buyer: Who they are, what they believe is important, what problems they face.
  
• Map your differentiators: How you solve their problem, what others don’t, why your way is uniquely valuable.
  
• Craft positioning statement(s): One sentence that says “For [ideal customer], we are the [type of company] that [key differentiator], because [reason to believe].”
  
• Align your messaging, branding, marketing strategy around that statement. Test headlines, value propositions, and visuals that reflect it.
  
• Collect feedback and iterate. Use fresh customer feedback to refine or adjust—brand positioning isn’t static.

Why Brand Strategy Matters Most When Customers Are Ready to Buy

When a lead is deciding, they’ve already compared features, prices, and perhaps even competitors. What often tips the scale is trust, clarity, and emotional fit. If you can show prospects why people buy from you—not just what you offer—you help them choose with confidence.

Brand positioning that reflects real consumer behavior, shaped by trends in 2025, backed by a powerful brand strategy, gives you that edge.

Understanding what people want, what they’re feeling, and what influences them before they click “buy now” is how you get customers to choose you.

If you want help uncovering those real purchase drivers in your business, I can walk you through a custom workshop to find why your best customers pick you—and help you use it to win more.