Brand language is the words, phrases, and terms that an organisation uses to communicate with its consumers. Brand language helps the consumers to connect with a brand and its promise. Using high-quality brand language in a competitive market is the perfect way to turn customers away from your competitors.
Sharp and precise brand language with a touch of creativity can significantly impact and differentiate your brand from the rest. For example, when industries, ranging from healthcare to banking, make slight changes in how they communicate, it distinguishes them from their competitors and wins the consumers’ minds.
Language is a crucial element in your brand strategy because it frames the entire experience for your customers. It tells them how to interact with your brand and what they can expect from you.
Find your brand’s voice and then shout it loud.
Every industry has an existing language. For example, the cancer medicine industry uses the vocabulary of struggle – the war against the big C, being brave and conquering to get the message across. The manufacturing industry uses the language of efficiency – quality, value, hard work, output, craftsmanship, and history-to communicate about their brand. For the banking sector, it is all about financial safety, economic focus and stability. The beauty industry uses the vocabulary of positive ideals – the purity of youth, cleanliness and western notions of femininity, to attract consumers to their brand.
Brands can choose to carve a niche in that industry language or be entirely different. The language you choose to communicate about your brand impacts everything, including your products’ values, the way people feel, and what they believe after using it. Think of how Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ motivated people to act or how Virgin’s challenger brand language helped them stand out in the stale aviation industry without losing the crucial brand aspect of safety.
To develop an effective brand language, you will have to put all the following pieces together;
1. What is your industry’s language?
2. What is your business’s brand promise, values and product range?
3. What are the needs, wants, fears and goals of your customers?
4. What value does your brand create for your customers?
5. How, when or where do your customers experience that value?
6. What behaviours are you planning to change?
7. What expectations are you planning to change?
8. What beliefs are you planning to change?
9. What has and has not worked in the previous communication pieces? Why?
Once the answers to these questions are obtained, it is easier to evaluate the intersecting points and opportunities and leverage them to creatively design a brand voice, tone and language, to communicate with your target audience. These can be tested across various channels to ensure that it can withstand the pressure of being stretched across all applications. The final outcome of this is to come up with a plan that can attract, engage and motivate your target customers.
Read also: A case for brand and culture alignment
What is the best type of brand language?
The best brand language connects your brand and promises to speak with customers, in a way they can relate to you. It helps to connect your brand and brand promise to the aspirations of your target customers. When a user learns about how to use you, understands that using your brand creates value for them and is convinced that none can do it better than you, their attention begins to shift towards you.
Brand language is the terms, phrases, and words that a company uses to describe themselves and their products. It is a marketing strategy used to help consumers find connections between specific words and a given product. Creating a solid brand language and identity builds brand awareness and differentiates it from your competitors. Making this language bold and recognisable is essential.
A brand language becomes hugely successful when people use it as a generic way of referring to something. For example, do you search online or do you Google it? Do you send a package, or do you FedEx it? These are examples of brand names that have entered the common lexicon and now used as verbs. For example, “Google” was a numeric term until a few years ago, but it is now ingrained in our everyday lives. Similarly, you hope that people use your brand language or associate it with your brand and give you ownership.
What are the benefits of owning a specific Brand Language?
The power of owning a specific brand language. If you are just another “another” eatery or” another” clothing outlet, you are not leveraging your brand and brand language enough to deliver something of value, of need, to your customers. And that will limit your growth. It is time to find your brand’s authentic voice
Language is clearly important to businesses: it can either steer a consumer through choosing a brand’s products or services or put them off, and the experience will determine whether it is a name they notice, will buy from and whether they will repeat that purchase to become brand advocates.
Last line
Your brand is more than just a logo design or a product – it’s an entity with its own distinctive voice. This voice has the power to shape your brand identity and leave a lasting impression on your audience. But it’s up to you to find the right tone, language, and messaging.
Words have the power to evoke emotions, create associations, and establish credibility. The way you communicate can make or break how people perceive your brand.
The language you use can set you apart from competitors or make you just another business out there. So, before you set goals of conquering the world with your amazing product or service, figure out the language part first.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
