Guest blog by Deborah Brody
Branding is more than just a great-looking logo. Your brand is your mark of distinction. It’s how you differentiate yourself from your competition. A strong brand looks good, and sounds good too. In other words, it has good brand messaging.
There are two elements to creating a brand: a visual element, and a verbal element. The visual brand identity is formed by your logo, your color scheme, and even the fonts you use for your marketing materials. The verbal part of your brand identity is your messaging, which includes your company description, your slogan or tagline, and even your mission statement.
Many organizations spend lots of resources creating a beautiful visual brand identity, sometimes at the expense of their messaging. After all, people process visual information faster than written information, and respond emotionally to images and graphics. But, if you are only paying attention to your visual brand identity, and not to your messaging, you might as well have a pristine-looking house that’s hiding lots of junk in messy, overstuffed closets and drawers. In other words, it’s not enough to look good on the outside, you have to look good on the inside too.
In order to boost the messaging element of your brand (and clear out the messy closets in your house), here are three tips:
1. Look inside
Before you can tackle an organizing project, you have to assess what you have. Similarly, before you work on your brand messaging, you have to know what you do, what your strengths are, and what you stand for (your values).
2. Simplify and streamline
If you want to clean out a cluttered house, you’d start by getting rid of all the junk. Perhaps you’d donate some clothes that no longer fit or take a torn suitcase to the garbage dump. You have to do the same with your messaging. Perhaps you have too many messages. Or perhaps your messages no longer fit you today. All that’s messaging clutter you have to get rid of.
3. Be consistent
To create a strong brand, you have to be consistent. You have to use the same logo and colors on all your marketing materials. You should also be consistent in how you describe yourself, the tagline you use, and the value proposition you embrace.
Remember, strong brands need both great visuals and great messaging.
Visuals or graphics are designed to appeal to your emotions, and your messaging and written elements appeal to your rational side. Simple, clear and consistent messaging works in tandem with a beautiful visual identity to create a distinctive brand that you respond to both emotionally and rationally. When your messaging and your visual identity are in harmony, you create a stronger brand.
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Deborah Brody is the owner of Deborah Brody Marketing Communications, a communications consultancy that specializes in creating marketing materials and developing brand identities.