What is your brand message? And how do you create it? With so much competition these days, not every brand will make its way through the noise.
Some brands fail because they don’t provide that promise product or service. And others fail because they aren’t able to convey the value of what that offering is. Or they fail at showing how different they are from others in their sphere.
So your brand message is how you can help make sure you don’t fall by the wayside like the companies that make those mistakes. Your brand message ties together your product and your communication message. So it aligns everything to your value proposition.
But what exactly is your brand message? And how does it change from your brand voice? And why is it so important to have a brand message?
Here’s a quick game – match these slogans with their companies:
*Save Money. Live better
*Eat fresh
*Just do it
*Open happiness
Do you know what companies these slogans or taglines belong to? Here are the answers:
*Walmart
*Subway
*Nike
*Coca-Cola
Why These Taglines Great Examples of Good Brand Messaging
People go to Walmart because it helps them save money, and you guessed it, live a better life. They know they can get more bang for their buck when they shop there.
Subway is known for delivering fresh food. When you go to a Subway, the sandwich is made in front of your very eyes. And you can even see the bread baking. And smell it as well!
So here, you can see how your brand message is the communication of your brand promise. Which is illustrated in the taglines above. It allows you to consider your internal perspective, your customer’s perspective, your competitor’s promise, and how you stand out from all the others, so they see you above the competition.
The ‘just do it’ tagline for Nike is what the company is all about. You know when you wear their exercise gear, you will have the motivation to ‘just do it.
When Nike pulled out this tagline, it released a massive marketing campaign to illustrate its values. And it was used to motivate using all athletes nationwide across all sports and all levels of play.
Can you think of the sport that Nike doesn’t have a hand in regarding its products? It then used various films motivation posts and endorsements by celebrity athletes. In fact, they were one of the first brands to use celebrities to endorse products in the sports world.
And by getting athletic celebrities to wear Nike, they gave the brand even more validity and credibility.
Coca-Cola has always been perceived as part of happiness. Remember the ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke?’ That will go down as one of the most powerful brand messages in advertising history. Then it had the 2009 global open happiness campaign.
And also, its 2016 global takes the feeling campaign. Although these taglines these campaigns are slightly different, the feeling that Coke gives you is always expected to be the same you open happiness, and you enjoy a good experience when you drink a Coke.
You can see from these two examples that your brand message has to be connected to your brand, your audience, and the experience your audience has and associates with you as a brand.
What Is Your Brand Message?
The brand message is your value proposition – it conveys your brand personality to your target audience and demonstrates your brand positioning.
Putting it simply, it’s the message communicated to your audience through your products and your verbal and nonverbal communication messages. So you can describe what you do and how you are different from everybody else in doing what you do.
Brand Message And Taglines
Your tagline is what’s crafted to give you a voice to your brand message. However, it doesn’t have any value if your products aren’t delivering the promise. What’s the point of a 4 to 5-word sentence which people use to recognize you if it doesn’t actually illustrate what you do.
Your brand message needs to resonate with the needs, wants, and luxuries you are offering to your target audience. It is why people choose you over and above any other product or service in your market.
How Do You Make Your Brand Message Resonate?
You need to make sure your brand message is easy to understand, communicates what you do, and tells an authentic story. If you’re working on your brand message, you should use voice of customer data by speaking to your audience. You can then really understand what they want to hear what they want from you.
And you should also have done research on what your competitors are already providing, so you can stand out from them.
Five Ways To Dial Into Your Brand Messaging
Focus On Where You Want Your Brand To Be Positioned
Of course, you probably want to sound cool, sexy, funky, and stand out from the crowd. But if that’s not what your brand is about, don’t go for that in your tagline. You need to craft your tagline to sound relevant to your customer. Because otherwise, they aren’t going to get you.
Look at the following three angles:
*What matters most to your customer?
*What is your company’s vision or pain?
*Where do your competitors stand? And how do you want to be different from them in the market?
Make Sure You’re Relevant To your Audience
You need to make sure you resonate with your target market’s needs, desires, and wants. This is why they buy your products above everybody else’s
Make sure you dial in on research with your customers to know precisely what they’re looking for from you. And let them tell you what they want you to provide. This is the bedrock of a well-drafted brand message. It’s why having brand messaging for your business product or service is absolutely essential.
Ideally, you do this when you first create your business. But you should be looking at your brand messaging every five years. Why? Because you will find your audience changes and grows, as you do as a company or brand.
Don’t Overpromise
If you promise too much, you will let down your audience. There’s nothing wrong with going big and going bold. But if you cannot deliver and you overcompensate, it will make your audience feel cheated. The result? They will go elsewhere. And that means your competitors are going to be getting money from them instead of you.
It’s a bit like being at a restaurant and being promised a big chocolate cake with 20 cherries on top. Then when it arrives, all you get is a tiny cupcake with one cherry on top! You feel a bit cheated, don’t you? And then you don’t want to go back to the restaurant again.
Make Sure Your Tonality Is Aligned With Your Personality
The tone is fundamental when it comes to your brand personality. Your tone should be the same across all of your platforms – your social media, website, emails, newsletters, and any written or marketing content. This is where having succinct brand messaging can enable you to create a roadmap for the tone and personality that you use across your brand.
This is, of course, why copywriting is so important. Here again, you can use voice of customer data, interviews, and research. Talking to your audience and your customers can help you decide what that tone and personality are for your brand. You want to be speaking their love language (there’s that phrase I use all the time. The reason is it’s so important!)
For example, if you have an audience of children and parents, you could go for a playful and caring tone. However, if your audience is C-level executives, you might want to sound polished professional, and perfect.
Your Brand Message Needs To Be Everywhere
Your brand message needs to be absolutely everywhere, all over your business, in any writing and marketing that you do. It needs to be in your website design, your product packaging, your social media, the list goes on. That way, you know you are keeping a unified message to your audience. What does that do? It makes them raving fans, demonstrates your authenticity, and when it’s time for you to make them an offer for them to purchase whatever is your offering, they’re more than happy to do so.
If you would like a free consultation on brand messaging for your business, click on the link here.
And if you would like to have a go at my free brand message questionnaire, you can get it here now by clicking on this link.
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