Why Every Leader And Organization Needs An Influential Brand Message

What pops up in your mind when you hear, “Just Do It,” “Eat Fresh,” “Think Different,” or “Make America Great Again?” 

These are some great examples of branding done right — positioning a brand so effectively and skillfully that it connects the audience to a business, organization, or leader within an instant. This is exactly what brands and leaders need to stand out, maintain an edge and thrive in the pool of intensifying competition. 

Starting a business or organization is easy, but making it a brand is the harder part of the equation. You may be offering a couple of products, or services or trying to entice people into following you through a set of political objectives, but that’s what everyone else is doing out there too. So, how do you create a unique identity? 

The answer is: by creating a strong brand message and conveying it to your target audience. 

What Is A Brand Message?

According to Phil Knight, CEO of Nike, “A brand is something that has a clear-cut identity among consumers, which a company creates by sending out a clear, consistent message over a period of years until it achieves a critical mass of marketing.” 

In simpler words, behind every great brand, there is a clear, concise, core brand message. It is a statement that asserts the significance of your brand, circumscribes its unique value proposition and gives it a persona that’s larger than life. It positions your brand in the market and emphasizes what makes you different. It’s what makes your customers, stakeholders, and influencers connect with your brand, ultimately propelling them down the path where they identify with it and are compelled to be part of your solution, be it a product, a service, or an ideology. 

Why You Need An Impactful Brand Message

A brand message that is well-constructed, concise, and on-point is enough to give your audience, partners, and influencers good insight into your approach, scope of service as well as a plan of action. It reinforces your core values, mission objectives, and vision and serves as a vehicle to teleport your brand to the right audience. It gives a unique personality to your brand and allows you to align your content, portfolio, sales, and marketing endeavors accordingly, so your brand bears a consistent and uniform persona throughout the market. A brand message also allows you to streamline your tools and channels of interaction, such as your elevator pitch, public relations, cold-call interactions, sales and marketing material, slogans, and advertisements. 

In addition, it: 

• Fosters strong client bonding 
• Turns your employees into ambassadors 
• Drives a higher price point 
• Gives your brand leadership 
• Drives customer loyalty 

How To Create Your Brand Message

Creating your very own brand message isn’t an overnight task. It takes ample time, research, and effort on your part to understand your brand to its core. Here are some things you should consider: 

• Industry and market analysis 
• Competitor analysis 
• A summary of your offerings 
• Identifying your target audience 
• Analyzing the characteristics, behaviors, and pain problems of your customers 
• Seeking ideas from your audience 
• Extensive brainstorming 

Your audience connects with a simple message. To position the brand purpose in your potential customer’s mind, it has to cut through the clutter and pique their interest by hitting just the right notes. The clue to a significant, impressive, and impactful brand message is to unify, simplify and amplify. 

Here’s a helpful checklist when crafting a brand message:

• Stick to your core values. 
• Keep it short and simple. 
• Seek inspiration from industry leaders and competitors. 
• Include your unique selling proposition. 
• Keep it real. 
• Provide immense value and solutions that solve problems.
• Make it relatable for your audience. 

Maintaining Your Edge In The Field Of Competition

In the pool of market competition, where technology has made minnows and leaders stand on the same ground, it can be more difficult than you think to maintain your edge. After all, branding has become a buzzword for businesses and, regardless of size or market share, firms across the globe are jumping on the bandwagon of creating and sharing a strong brand message to gain an edge. 

It piques the question: Would it give you an advantage when you know you are not the only one doing it? The answer is yes and no. 

The key to staying unique and in the spotlight is to get the “story” behind your product or service right and squeeze it into a sharp statement that speaks volumes about your business. For that, you will have to: 

• Conduct a thorough, extensive and conducive brand audit.
• Identify and assert your unique value proposition. 
• Set up a communicative tone and create compelling messaging statements. 
• Add a persona to your brand through unique, creative visual elements. 
• Streamline strategies to establish your identity and optimize market perception. 
• Tweak, refine and polish your brand identity to perfection. 

Keeping track of the changing tides of trends is essential. The same brand message that has been doing wonders for your strategy for some time may turn out to be an epic fail in the coming years. You need to understand what’s driving the market. It could be your customers’ increasing demand, changing needs and growing expectations, or it could be your innovation fueling the competition. Is your brand message effectually circumscribing your current discourse while also reflecting your vision and goals? 

If yes, good for you. If not, it’s time to revamp!