Why do you reach for one particular brand? Why do chocolate sprinkles feel like such a normal breakfast food to many Dutch people, while someone from another country might find the idea surprising? And how do some products come to mean so much more than what's inside the package?
These are exactly the kinds of questions that fascinate Janina Schaumann, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Twente. She studies how brands acquire meaning. Not only through what companies do, but through the interaction between businesses, consumers, supermarkets, governments and many other stakeholders. According to Janina, a brand doesn't emerge within a single organisation. It grows through a network of people, experiences and traditions.
Why does one choice feel so natural?
When you choose a particular product, you might think the decision is mainly about taste. But according to Janina, many more factors are involved. "Many of our preferences don't develop in isolation," she says. "They are shaped by memories, habits, and the people and environments we grow up in."
Maybe the same box of chocolate sprinkles was always on the breakfast table when you were growing up. Maybe it reminds you of staying with your grandparents or of slow weekend mornings. Those experiences become attached to a product, often without us even realising it.
That also explains why chocolate sprinkles seem perfectly ordinary to many Dutch people, while people elsewhere may see them as more of a dessert than a breakfast food.
How does a brand become part of a culture?
Some brands grow into much more than just a product. They become part of everyday life and of moments people continue to remember.
The Dutch brand De Ruijter is a good example. When Princess Beatrix was born in 1938, the company presented orange muisjes (sugar-coated aniseed sprinkles) to the royal family. Later, it released special editions to mark royal events. The familiar pink and blue muisjes also show how a marketing idea can grow into a national tradition. Today, serving rusks with muisjes after the birth of a baby is a tradition that many Dutch people simply take for granted.
According to Janina, that's where the real strength of a brand lies. Brands acquire meaning because people connect them to shared memories and rituals. Eventually, a company hardly has to tell that story anymore. People pass it on themselves, from one generation to the next. That is exactly what Janina finds so fascinating: in the end, it is people themselves who give a brand its meaning.
Why do brands have so much influence?
A brand is more than a product. Its packaging, colours, a recognisable mascot or a commercial you've seen for years all contribute to the meaning people attach to it.
Where a product is placed in the supermarket also matters. Products that are displayed more prominently are more likely to catch your attention than products that are less visible. Eye-catching packaging stands out more than plain packaging. Limited editions and temporary flavours can spark curiosity simply because they won't be around for long.
That doesn't mean brands make your decisions for you. But they do make some products more visible, recognisable and appealing than others. An apple usually doesn't come with distinctive packaging, a mascot or an advertising campaign. Chocolate sprinkles often do.
As a result, some products already feel familiar before you've consciously decided what to buy.
Who decides what a brand means?
Many people assume that a company determines what its brand stands for. According to Janina, that's only part of the story. In her research, she compares companies to spiders in a web. They pull on different strands, but they don't control everything that happens.
Consumers share experiences on social media. Supermarkets decide which products are displayed more prominently. Influencers introduce products to new audiences. Parents pass habits on to their children. Governments and public organisations also shape the environment in which brands exist.
A brand emerges from all of these interactions. It's not only about meaning, but also about value. For a company, that value may be commercial. For consumers, it may lie in familiarity, trust, convenience or a sense of belonging. Different stakeholders can therefore derive different kinds of value from the same brand.
Chocolate sprinkles illustrate this well. Their meaning doesn't come from packaging or advertising alone. Childhood memories, family traditions and Dutch food culture all contribute. That's why, for many people, a slice of bread with chocolate sprinkles doesn't feel like a marketed product. It simply feels like breakfast.
Can marketing also encourage healthier choices?
Marketing is often associated with selling unhealthy products. Yet the same insights can also help make healthy and sustainable choices more attractive.
What if fruit were just as visible as sweets? Or if healthy products created the same positive associations as well-known brands?
According to Janina, achieving that requires collaboration between businesses, supermarkets, governments and consumers. If brands emerge through networks of people and organisations, those same networks can also help create healthier food environments.
Look at tomorrow's breakfast differently
Tomorrow morning, you'll probably sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on your bread just as you always do. But perhaps you'll look at that familiar box a little differently.
Not simply as a breakfast product, but as something whose meaning has developed over decades through advertising, memories, traditions, supermarket shelves and the people around you.
Understanding that interaction between people, brands and society is exactly what Janina Schaumann's research is about. Not to prove that people don't make their own choices, but to understand how those choices come about. That knowledge can help businesses, supermarkets and governments create environments in which healthy and sustainable choices become the natural ones.
