Last time, I spoke about two people walking into the same restaurant — one feeling romance under candlelight, the other feeling grief. Same light, different meanings.
That story never leaves me, because it reminds me that perception isn’t passive. It’s creative. We don’t simply receive the world — we frame it.
Framing is how our minds make sense of things that don’t come with built-in meaning.
It’s why we can look at the same event, the same product, or even the same person, and walk away with completely different stories about what just happened.
If observation determines what becomes real, framing decides what that reality means.
Meaning Lives in the Frame, Not the Fact
The brain doesn’t store raw data; it stores interpretation.
Everything we see, hear, or read passes through filters of experience, emotion, and context before it becomes understanding.
Take something simple: a price tag.
“E99” might mean affordable to one person and cheap and unreliable to another.
Same number — different story.
It’s not the price that changes, it’s the frame that surrounds it.
The same happens in everyday life.
A parent who says, “You’re stubborn,” may mean determined.
A teacher who says, “You’re stubborn,” may mean difficult.
Framing transforms qualities into judgments.
In marketing, this is everything.
A product doesn’t live in its features; it lives in the meaning people attach to those features.
And meaning is always framed.
How the Frame Builds the Feeling
Psychologists like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky proved this decades ago through what’s called the framing effect — our decisions change depending on how information is presented.
People were more likely to agree to a medical procedure when told it had a “90% survival rate” than when told it had a “10% death rate.”
Same data, different frame, different outcome.
Brands do the same thing every day.
A telecom saying “Stay connected to those who matter” isn’t selling data — it’s framing the product as love and togetherness.
A bank saying “Own your future” isn’t promoting savings — it’s framing finance as freedom.
And a fast-food chain saying “Made fresh every morning” isn’t selling buns — it’s framing familiarity as freshness.
We don’t respond to the thing itself.
We respond to the meaning the frame gives it.
Frames as the Invisible Storytelling Tool
Here’s what most marketers miss: framing doesn’t start in the ad; it starts in the world around the ad.
The cultural climate, social language, and emotional temperature of your audience are already shaping how your message will be read before you’ve even said a word.
Think of it like a picture in a gallery.
A gold frame makes the art feel valuable.
A cracked wooden frame makes it feel rustic.
Same image, completely different aura.
Now apply that to Eswatini.
A brand promoting “luxury” in Mbabane might frame it as quiet sophistication, while in Nhlangano that same message might read as out of touch.
The difference isn’t the product — it’s the context in which the frame hangs.
That’s why marketers must study culture as closely as they study their own product.
The frame isn’t decoration; it’s translation.
Revisiting the Candlelight
Let’s go back to that restaurant.
The candle didn’t change — the people did.
One’s life story framed the light as love.
The other’s story framed it as grief.
And both walked away convinced their perception was true.
Now imagine that candle is your brand.
You can’t decide how everyone will feel about it — but you can design the room around it.
You can choose the tone, the color, the story, the setting.
That’s what framing really is: building the environment in which perception takes place.
The Art of Conscious Framing
So how do we frame consciously? A few guiding ideas:
1. Name the feeling before the message.
Decide how you want people to feel before you decide what you want them to know.
If your campaign is about empowerment, your visuals, copy, and timing must all support that emotional frame.
2. Keep one truth per frame.
If you mix messages — humor and sadness, luxury and cheapness, corporate and friendly — the frame collapses.
Every great brand is clear about what its light should mean.
3. Align the internal and external frame.
How your staff experiences the brand is how your audience eventually will.
If the team feels under pressure, the tone of your brand will leak that stress.
Internal culture frames external perception.
The Frame Shapes the Choice
Remember the experiment where the act of watching changed how particles behaved?
Framing is how language and context change how people behave.
It’s what decides whether a consumer’s next step is interest or indifference, love or avoidance, curiosity or mistrust.
Think about your own experience:
You can watch two identical ads — same visuals, same voice — but if one says “Join us,” and the other says “Don’t miss out,” your brain interprets them differently.
One frame invites belonging; the other triggers fear of exclusion.
Frames are emotional lenses.
And the frame that fits your audience best is the one that feels like their truth.
Your message shouldn’t force its meaning — it should reveal what already exists in the observer’s mind.
Framing and the Limits of Control
You can’t control how everyone will perceive you, but you can influence where their perception starts.
You can plant the right cues, colors, and words that whisper the meaning you hope they’ll find.
A youthful brand can use motion, brightness, and rhythm to frame energy.
A heritage brand can use stillness, texture, and warmth to frame trust.
A financial brand can use clarity and rhythm to frame stability.
The key is not to paint a new reality, but to illuminate the version of reality that best reflects your truth.
The Quiet Power of Intention
In the end, everything we create — an advert, a post, a shop window, a social campaign — is a frame for perception.
And every consumer, in turn, is framing us through their own biology, culture, and emotion.
The magic of marketing lies in that meeting point — between what we intend and what they interpret.
That’s where meaning happens.
Because just like that candlelit room, the light stays the same.
But the story that surrounds it changes everything.
Looking Ahead: Priming the Subconscious
If framing gives meaning to what people see, then priming prepares the mind for what they’re about to feel.
It’s the quiet setup that happens before the message even arrives — the color, rhythm, or sound that tilts perception one way or another.
That’s where we’ll go next: how subtle cues, often unnoticed, steer the choices people believe they made freely.
Next in the series: Priming the Subconscious — The Mood Before the Message.