Building a brand with meaning is a difficult thing to do. But there is one hack which tells us more than any other signal, and it takes less than a second to give that signal.
The price.
If it’s super cheap or outrageously expensive, it tells a stronger story than any other feature immediately.
It tells us where it sits in the scheme of things, the consideration set of where I could cast my dollar votes. It tells me if this is option is in my range or not for me. Sometimes the price is most important feature, we want people to know how much we paid. The story I tell myself has already began. I make a decision based on the price which tells me I’m being smart and frugal, or I deserve this most expensive option. In some categories like apps and software, these days there’s an expectation of no price at all.
If our price stands out, then even before our product or service has been trialled we have a brand perception. The only challenge of course, is making sure that after consumption the experience lives up to what was expected.