Why Brand Messaging is the Foundation for Visual Branding
Why Brand Messaging is the Foundation for Visual Branding
Recently, our studio partnered with a Brand Messaging Specialist prior to kicking off a design project with a client. Our signature process always takes a deeper dive than expected when it comes to brand values, voice, goals and messaging, but collaborating with Ashlee Sang Consulting offered an entirely new approach to our client's rebrand.
Working with clients over the past few years, especially as we've niched down to helping impact-driven businesses, I've noticed a few things when it comes to approaching their brand strategy and messaging:
Their mission statements are often too vague (we've been guilty of this too!)
They have an idea of who their target audience is, but the messaging that they are using isn't quite hitting home
If their core messaging strategy isn't established prior to starting to build out the direction of their visual identity, we risk going down a path that will not deeply resonate with their ideal clients/customers.
So, let's dive into each of these…
The strategy behind an effective mission statement
From my time in corporate to working closely with small business owners, mission statements are often thrown together without a whole lot of strategy, thought and intention behind them. While they should be the statement that sets you apart from others in your industry and clearly articulates why you exist, this is often not the case. In fact, I caught myself thinking a few years back: Are mission statements outdated and too predictable? This thought stemmed from the fact that the way in which we write our mission statements doesn't always add benefit to our copy and messaging, but rather, dilutes it in some cases.
During the Brand Messaging VIP Day that Ashlee took us through, she took a different approach to crafting our client's mission statement. She spent extra time digging deep into the brand voice, zeroing in on very specific words or phrases that their target audience may or may not identify with. From the adjectives used to describe their products to subtle nuances of how locals describe things in the Pacific Northwest, she was able to distill all of these details into a single mission statement that brings clarity around what they do and who they serve.
Honing in on your brand voice to attract your target audience
In addition to giving our client a renewed sense of confidence around their core identity, Ashlee continued to lead us through a strategic discussion regarding the shopping and purchasing behaviors of their target audience. Our joint process began prior to the VIP day with our client, as we combined our onboarding questionnaires into one that asked very specific questions about the target audience, such as:
How do they spend their free time?
What does their personal style look like?
In general, how does your audience dress? Where do they shop?
What are their dreams, desires, and aspirations?
What kind of home do they live in?
What brands do they follow and/or purchase from?
What influences them to make purchasing decisions?
Questions like these not only provide insight as to the values, behaviors and messaging that would resonate with this audience, but also allow us to get a sense of which types of visual elements would catch their eye. The question about brands they follow/purchase from is especially helpful for our team as we begin collecting inspiration in the form of branding, color palettes and typography styles.
Aligning your messaging with your visual strategy
Leading our client through these strategic exercises not only resulted in a thoughtful and intentionally crafted mission statement and brand voice, but it also allowed them to feel empowered to begin using new and fresh core messaging throughout their various marketing channels. Furthermore, spending an entire day solely focused on understanding their audience and the messaging that would resonate with them allowed our design team to get a crystal clear picture of the visual elements that needed to be included, right from the get go.
Having a Brand Messaging Strategist as part of our team for this project and for future rebrands is an exciting new partnership opportunity for our studio. Both strategic messaging and visual branding are a significant investment and are equally important in their own ways. Both go hand in hand when it comes to capturing the attention and more importantly, having a positive influence on the clients or customers that you serve.
You can visit Ashlee's website here to learn more about her Messages that Matter VIP Day, or get in touch with us to start your messaging strategy and branding refresh project.