From a business perspective, it’s absolutely crucial to establish and maintain a clear brand tone. Ensuring that your business’s brand statement, tone of voice, and tagline are all on the same wavelength will do wonders for your company. If they’re all working together, then you’re in good shape. But they not only have to work together; they also have to work with your business.
THE BRAND STATEMENT
The brand statement is like a company’s secret decoder ring. If you hold it up to anything related to your business, it should tell you what works and what doesn’t. The tone of voice is more related to how you communicate with the public. It’s going to be a little more drawn out and longwinded. The tagline is the public brand statement. It’s a summary of the tone, but it communicates the message to the public without saying “this is our brand statement.”
It’s important for the brand statement to line up, because if it doesn’t, your brand integrity will be called into question. Think of it like this: at a restaurant, you see something on the menu and think, “Wow, that looks amazing. I want to eat that.” But when it comes to your table, it’s haphazardly put together. You were anticipating a gorgeous burger, but what you got was closer to Alpo. You have to make sure you are who you say you are, because if you don’t live up to your brand statement, you’re dead.
THE BUSINESS MODEL
A business like the restaurant above doesn’t set out to sell a false bill of goods, but they end up doing just that, because they’ve ignored their brand statement from a business perspective. They look at it as just a marketing thing: “I don’t have to actually live that in my company culture. I just have to live that when my marketing material goes out.” You really have to connect the business model to the brand statement.
We work for NAI, a real estate firm in West Michigan. What’s cool about them is they take a team approach to real estate. Emphasizing this aspect of their business sounds obvious now, but it wasn’t initially, because to them it was part of their normal business routine. I asked NAI and their clients why they thought NAI was special; working as a team was just one of the many reasons they gave me. But when I asked potential clients looking for an agent how they felt about having a team of realtors selling their property instead of just one, they said they would choose that option every time. So I crafted the NAI brand statement around the idea of commercial real estate with a team approach. The approach really started to become the backbone of the company. When they send out any correspondence now, it always says “from your real estate team.”
If everyone involved with your business feels the same way about the business, your continuity and your flow works so much better. The janitorial staff has to feel the same way about your business as the owner. If you have everyone in the company on board with the brand tone that’s been established, and if you’re able to maintain continuity, a strong, unified brand identity can be developed.
We've been helping small businesses brand and rebrand themselves for years, and along the way we've kept a few of the key ingredients that go into performing such an endeavor. What has resulted is a sophisticated branding approach that has lead to one successful brand after another. That brand strategy has now been release, and you can download your free Branding Guide today by visiting: Deksia.com/thebrandingguide
THE BRANDING GUIDE
We've been helping small businesses brand and rebrand themselves for years, and along the way we've kept a few of the key ingredients that go into performing such an endeavor. What has resulted is a sophisticated branding approach that has lead to one successful brand after another. That brand strategy has now been release, and you can download your free Branding Guide today by visiting: Deksia.com/thebrandingguide
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