How to Build Brand Messaging People Will Remember
By Stanley Meytin
When it comes to brand strategy, many business owners and marketing teams experience struggles, countless head-scratching moments, and woes over lost money. And that’s because they overlook one thing – their brand messaging.
What is Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging is everything you communicate to your potential and existing customers through writing, speech, sound, imagery, and video. This can be your tagline, slogan, elevator pitch, ads, blog posts, video content, and just about everything else.
Great brand messaging contains the promise of exceptional services and goods, showcasing distinct goals and values. But it’s less about being direct and more about using subtlety and implied value.
Brand messaging is also interconnected with many other aspects of brand strategy. This includes brand communication (the tools and methods) and brand voice (tone and attitude).
Why is Brand Messaging Important?
A solid brand messaging strategy is the backbone of every successful brand strategy. It’s the centerpiece in attracting, keeping, and renewing your stakeholder’s interest. So choosing what you say is very important. Focus on things that should resonate with your audience. Tackle their needs, issues, and interests.
If you’re doing it right, you’ll almost always get a response. And even if you’re not getting a response, don’t get discouraged! You simply found out what doesn’t work for your intended audience. So get back to the drawing board and try again.
Example of Brand Messaging Done Right
Brand messaging is one of those things we only notice when we’re consciously looking for it. But it’s something we’re exposed to everywhere we go. Practically anything with a brand on it carries some type of brand messaging.
The most common form of brand messaging is a tagline, so you can probably recall a few without much effort. Here are some to jog your memory:
Nike: “Just do it”
McDonald’s: “I’m Lovin’ It”
Dollar Shave Club: “Shave time. Shave money”
Canon: “Delighting you always”
Ford: “Go further”
Apple: “Think different”
Coca-Cola: “Open happiness”
Adidas: “Impossible is nothing”
Simple, catchy, easy-to-remember, and encompasses what their products are all about. But it doesn’t just stop there. Taglines are usually the core idea in a company’s brand messaging strategy. How much you can build on it is only limited by your creativity. So the more complex your medium, the more you can express that creativity and push your brand’s boundaries.
How to Create Effective Brand Messaging
Before you develop your own brand messaging strategy, you need to answer three important questions:
- What problem are you solving?
- What’s your goal?
- What unique approach makes you different from everyone else?
Take your time with this three question framework, evaluate and re-evaluate constantly because this will be the foundation for your success. And after a while, you’ll really zero in on how to perfectly describe your brand. To help you out a little, we can use Nike as an example, who:
- provides reliable and affordable sportswear to people of all ages,
- empowers people to achieve more in their lives,
- emphasizes the importance of every individual’s story.
Each answer is a different approach you can take in your brand messaging. The first is the product-focused approach. The second is the company-focused approach. And the last is the customer-focused approach.
The Nike video above had a mix of all three, with a heavy emphasis on the customer-focused approach. They told a story of overcoming our individual obstacles and succeeding. But you don’t have to make it that complex from the get go, so you can just pick one approach and stick with it.
Simple and Consistent Messages Stay in your Memory
No matter the brand messaging approach or overall strategy, there’s a way to ensure your audience remembers you. And it’s something many business owners and marketing teams fail to do. Mostly because they either make their brand messaging too convoluted or too inconsistent.
Either one is a major problem. Why? Because we live in the age of attention economy. No matter where we go or what we do, we’re constantly overloaded with information. So we filter out anything that is hard to understand. But the opposite is also true.
Simply put, don’t make your audience think, do the thinking for them upfront. Simplify your message as much as you can. Make it as concise as possible. Cut out all the fluff and embellishments and just say the important things.
Only then will they read, understand, and remember. But therein also lies the next problem. You might’ve heard about “The Rule of 7” in marketing, or how a customer needs to encounter your brand at least seven times before you take action. Simply because that’s how long it takes to form a memory.
If your audience hears, reads, or sees something drastically different every time they encounter your brand, they’ll be trying to remember different things. And in that case, there’s a very low chance of them remember anything about your brand. This is why your brand messaging shouldn’t change much or at all if you want to create brand recall.
Videos Bring your Brand Messaging to a Wider Audience
The most effective way to deliver your brand messaging is through video. Again, because we live in the attention economy, people are more likely to watch eight seconds of video than they are to read two sentences.
Why? Because it involves way less effort on their part. And also because videos tend to be more entertaining, having voiceovers, music, and interesting visuals. So before you double down on your copywriting efforts, consider delivering your brand’s messaging through a video. There are only upsides in doing this.
First, you’ll have an easier time conveying what your brand’s all about. Some things are simply too hard to put into writing.
Second, your video will reach way more people than it would as a piece of text. Honestly though, how many people like reading nowadays?
And lastly, you’ll have an easily shareable piece of content that could go viral on Facebook or YouTube. There’s a new viral video every day. But there is only a handful viral articles per year. So which one do you think is the better approach?
Tell a Story
Many brands have a very poor approach to brand messaging. They focus on describing their products, benefits, motto and all sorts of forceful marketing mumbo jumbo. But all that does is make the brand look like a faceless business that’s trying to rake in money. This, of course, causes distrust in their intended audiences, lowering responses and profits.
But there are also brands that take a more effective approach. They instead create a story about their brand, connecting their values, products, and people. The focus is usually to humanize the brand – to give it a face people can remember and to make it a person people can relate to. And it doesn’t matter if it’s the employees or the audience.
Let’s take Nike’s “Just do it” tagline as an example:
Everything you see in this video is brand messaging. From the soundtrack and the narration to storytelling and the overall message. Everything ties into the core idea of pushing yourself past the border of hesitation and “just doing it.”
The spotlight is on you, which makes it more personal and relatable. It’s about your future story, filled with ambition, determination, and success. And this can be applied to almost anyone’s life story, so it resonates with countless people.
That’s how Nike positions their brand as the embodiment of an active lifestyle. The quality of their products only comes after. And if you look at one of their competitors, Adidas, their tagline “Impossible is nothing” carries very similar values and ideas.
How will you Approach Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging will always be very important in any brand strategy. But it’s also something that’s very easy to mess up, that’s why so many businesses struggle to get their brand messaging right.
To avoid this, we built a video marketing strategy that helps your brand to truly connect with your audience. We tell your story in a meaningful and relatable way, ensuring your brand’s success and saving you loads of time and effort.
Contact True Film Production now to develop brand messaging through video people will remember! Your story matters, you just need the right way to tell it.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
By Stanley Meytin
When it comes to brand strategy, many business owners and marketing teams experience struggles, countless head-scratching moments, and woes over lost money. And that’s because they overlook one thing – their brand messaging.
What is Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging is everything you communicate to your potential and existing customers through writing, speech, sound, imagery, and video. This can be your tagline, slogan, elevator pitch, ads, blog posts, video content, and just about everything else.
Great brand messaging contains the promise of exceptional services and goods, showcasing distinct goals and values. But it’s less about being direct and more about using subtlety and implied value.
Brand messaging is also interconnected with many other aspects of brand strategy. This includes brand communication (the tools and methods) and brand voice (tone and attitude).
Why is Brand Messaging Important?
A solid brand messaging strategy is the backbone of every successful brand strategy. It’s the centerpiece in attracting, keeping, and renewing your stakeholder’s interest. So choosing what you say is very important. Focus on things that should resonate with your audience. Tackle their needs, issues, and interests.
If you’re doing it right, you’ll almost always get a response. And even if you’re not getting a response, don’t get discouraged! You simply found out what doesn’t work for your intended audience. So get back to the drawing board and try again.
Example of Brand Messaging Done Right
Brand messaging is one of those things we only notice when we’re consciously looking for it. But it’s something we’re exposed to everywhere we go. Practically anything with a brand on it carries some type of brand messaging.
The most common form of brand messaging is a tagline, so you can probably recall a few without much effort. Here are some to jog your memory:
Nike: “Just do it”
McDonald’s: “I’m Lovin’ It”
Dollar Shave Club: “Shave time. Shave money”
Canon: “Delighting you always”
Ford: “Go further”
Apple: “Think different”
Coca-Cola: “Open happiness”
Adidas: “Impossible is nothing”
Simple, catchy, easy-to-remember, and encompasses what their products are all about. But it doesn’t just stop there. Taglines are usually the core idea in a company’s brand messaging strategy. How much you can build on it is only limited by your creativity. So the more complex your medium, the more you can express that creativity and push your brand’s boundaries.
How to Create Effective Brand Messaging
Before you develop your own brand messaging strategy, you need to answer three important questions:
- What problem are you solving?
- What’s your goal?
- What unique approach makes you different from everyone else?
Take your time with this three question framework, evaluate and re-evaluate constantly because this will be the foundation for your success. And after a while, you’ll really zero in on how to perfectly describe your brand. To help you out a little, we can use Nike as an example, who:
- provides reliable and affordable sportswear to people of all ages,
- empowers people to achieve more in their lives,
- emphasizes the importance of every individual’s story.
Each answer is a different approach you can take in your brand messaging. The first is the product-focused approach. The second is the company-focused approach. And the last is the customer-focused approach.
The Nike video above had a mix of all three, with a heavy emphasis on the customer-focused approach. They told a story of overcoming our individual obstacles and succeeding. But you don’t have to make it that complex from the get go, so you can just pick one approach and stick with it.
Simple and Consistent Messages Stay in your Memory
No matter the brand messaging approach or overall strategy, there’s a way to ensure your audience remembers you. And it’s something many business owners and marketing teams fail to do. Mostly because they either make their brand messaging too convoluted or too inconsistent.
Either one is a major problem. Why? Because we live in the age of attention economy. No matter where we go or what we do, we’re constantly overloaded with information. So we filter out anything that is hard to understand. But the opposite is also true.
Simply put, don’t make your audience think, do the thinking for them upfront. Simplify your message as much as you can. Make it as concise as possible. Cut out all the fluff and embellishments and just say the important things.
Only then will they read, understand, and remember. But therein also lies the next problem. You might’ve heard about “The Rule of 7” in marketing, or how a customer needs to encounter your brand at least seven times before you take action. Simply because that’s how long it takes to form a memory.
If your audience hears, reads, or sees something drastically different every time they encounter your brand, they’ll be trying to remember different things. And in that case, there’s a very low chance of them remember anything about your brand. This is why your brand messaging shouldn’t change much or at all if you want to create brand recall.
Videos Bring your Brand Messaging to a Wider Audience
The most effective way to deliver your brand messaging is through video. Again, because we live in the attention economy, people are more likely to watch eight seconds of video than they are to read two sentences.
Why? Because it involves way less effort on their part. And also because videos tend to be more entertaining, having voiceovers, music, and interesting visuals. So before you double down on your copywriting efforts, consider delivering your brand’s messaging through a video. There are only upsides in doing this.
First, you’ll have an easier time conveying what your brand’s all about. Some things are simply too hard to put into writing.
Second, your video will reach way more people than it would as a piece of text. Honestly though, how many people like reading nowadays?
And lastly, you’ll have an easily shareable piece of content that could go viral on Facebook or YouTube. There’s a new viral video every day. But there is only a handful viral articles per year. So which one do you think is the better approach?
Tell a Story
Many brands have a very poor approach to brand messaging. They focus on describing their products, benefits, motto and all sorts of forceful marketing mumbo jumbo. But all that does is make the brand look like a faceless business that’s trying to rake in money. This, of course, causes distrust in their intended audiences, lowering responses and profits.
But there are also brands that take a more effective approach. They instead create a story about their brand, connecting their values, products, and people. The focus is usually to humanize the brand – to give it a face people can remember and to make it a person people can relate to. And it doesn’t matter if it’s the employees or the audience.
Let’s take Nike’s “Just do it” tagline as an example:
Everything you see in this video is brand messaging. From the soundtrack and the narration to storytelling and the overall message. Everything ties into the core idea of pushing yourself past the border of hesitation and “just doing it.”
The spotlight is on you, which makes it more personal and relatable. It’s about your future story, filled with ambition, determination, and success. And this can be applied to almost anyone’s life story, so it resonates with countless people.
That’s how Nike positions their brand as the embodiment of an active lifestyle. The quality of their products only comes after. And if you look at one of their competitors, Adidas, their tagline “Impossible is nothing” carries very similar values and ideas.
How will you Approach Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging will always be very important in any brand strategy. But it’s also something that’s very easy to mess up, that’s why so many businesses struggle to get their brand messaging right.
To avoid this, we built a video marketing strategy that helps your brand to truly connect with your audience. We tell your story in a meaningful and relatable way, ensuring your brand’s success and saving you loads of time and effort.
Contact True Film Production now to develop brand messaging through video people will remember! Your story matters, you just need the right way to tell it.
What story would you like to share?
Whether you want to launch an idea, spark a movement or simply get people talking about what you do, you have one shot
at delivering your message in a way that matters. Let’s make sure you do it right.
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