Here's what most people get wrong.

They think brand building is logos, visual identity, and color palettes. The stuff you can see and touch.

That's an important part of it. But it's not the core. Brand building is creating associations in people's minds. And those associations are why people pay premium prices for functionally identical products.

The Association Premium

Take Yeti. There's nothing inherently unique about their coolers. Functionally, they do the same thing as a $10 option from Walmart. But people pay 4x the price for the Yeti logo. 

Why? Because Yeti doesn't sell coolers. They sell rugged, outdoorsy, indestructible. They sell the association with serious outdoor culture. The kind of people who chase adventure, not comfort.

That association is what makes people happy to pay the price.

Nike built their entire empire on this. Jordan, Tiger, LeBron. Those associations make you feel like a winner when you wear the swoosh. That feeling is why Nike can charge 4x the price for the same quality t-shirt as a competitor.

You're not buying cotton. You're buying the association with greatness.

How to Build the Right Associations

Here's the playbook.

Step 1: Define the story you want to own.

Freedom. Prestige. Rebellion. Performance. Heritage. Pick one big theme and commit to it. You can't be everything. The brands that try to own multiple narratives end up owning none.

Step 2: Put every creative choice through the brand story lens.

Visual identity, copy, campaigns, packaging. Every single touchpoint should reinforce the association. This is where most brands fail. They nail the positioning, then let execution drift. Consistency compounds. Inconsistency confuses.

Step 3: Align with people or moments that already carry your association.

Partners, influencers, collaborations, events. Tell your narrative through them. The right association accelerates trust. The wrong one destroys it.

Take Fortune Flavours. We positioned cannabis as fuel for performance, not escape. Then we built associations to prove it. We brought on world-class athletes: James "Woodsy" Woods, a freeski world champion, X Games gold medalist, and three-time Olympian. Tony Laureano, seven times the youngest big wave rider in the world to be nominated for the WSL Big Wave Award. Athletes who actually use the product and live the brand ethos of ‘Fortune Flavours The Brave’.

Then we made Fortune Flavours the official partner of Jib League, rolling out the brand across freestyle skiing events in Innsbruck, California, and Norway. Not as a logo on a banner. As part of the culture. The identity showed up in athlete gear, on-site experiences, and content that captured the energy of performance at the edge.

Those associations transformed Fortune Flavours from a CBD brand into a performance culture brand. The athletes weren't just endorsements. They were proof.

When Associations Go Wrong

Bud Light made the wrong association and sales tanked. They then pivoted to the UFC and partnered with comedian Shane Gillis. Both associations are closer to their base. Sales recovered.

The lesson isn't about politics. It's about intentionality. Branding is always happening. Every partnership, every piece of content, every decision either reinforces or dilutes the associations you're building.

You don't get to opt out of this. The only question is whether you're building associations intentionally or letting them form by accident.

Why This Matters for Growth Brands

Associations are how you create pricing power. They're how you turn customers into believers. They're how you build brands people want to follow, not just buy from once.

Most founders focus on product differentiation, as they should! Better features, better quality, better price. But in crowded markets, product parity is often inevitable. Someone will match your quality. Someone will undercut your price.

Associations and the right brand story can't be copied. It’s built through consistent storytelling over time. Through strategic choices about who you align with and what you stand for. Through the accumulation of every brand decision reinforcing the same narrative.

That's the moat. Not your product. Your associations.

The brands winning right now understand this. They're not just building better products. They're building narratives that make people want to buy in, stay loyal, and follow them anywhere.

Ready to build associations that create pricing power? Get in touch