In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Social Media Relations is featured as one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in the United States. Check out their profile!
On average, most small businesses fail within 5 to 15 years. Why is that? If people make up a business, then would our best guess be it is a people problem? Wrong. What may be the underlying issue, then?
The answer: brand messaging.
Whether a company operates online, offline, in Europe, or Latin America, brand messaging truly matters. Let’s review the top seven key messages every business should have.
7 Key Messages Every Brand Needs
Brand Purpose
A brand’s purpose details WHY the company exists.
Successful businesses establish their purpose based on the audience’s needs. This is one strategic formula for world disruption and high performance.
For example, Apple’s brand purpose is to empower creative exploration and self-expression. When searching on Google, this will pop up right away.
Aim for that power. If someone looks for your WHY, a simple search should let them know.
Key Questions to Find Your Brand’s Purpose
- Why are we here?
- Why does the business exist?
- If my business were ultra-successful, what would it achieve along the way?
Brand Vision
Many of us have dreamed at a young age to be an astronaut, firefighter, doctor, and so on. We ultimately had a vision…a dream!
Overall, the vision stands as to how you see your company in the medium-to-long term.
What is it doing? How can it help the world?
As a leader or CEO, keeping the vision to yourself helps no one. While bringing people aboard will hardly benefit the company unless everyone is inline with the same vision.
For Coca Cola, the vision is simple. “To craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body & spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better shared future that makes a difference in people’s lives, communities, and our planet.”
Key Questions to Identify Your Brand’s Vision
- How does our work align with our core values and ethics?
- Where do we want to be in 5 to 10 years from now?
- How do we want to be perceived by the world?
Social Media Relation’s Vision:
We are in this business to make an impact. To help establishments grow online. To help companies reach a larger audience through stories and connections. This allows us to always be creating and leave an emotional imprint in the world.
Brand Mission
A mission statement is what the company is doing right now to achieve its vision.
Therefore, the difference between the vision and mission is that the mission is in the present while the vision points to the future.
Since a business contains a group of people brought together to support the same mission, every single employee must learn and live by it at all times.
Home Depot’s to-the-point mission statement is “to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products, and the most competitive prices.”
Key Questions to Determine Your Brand’s Mission
- Who are we right now?
- How are we making the world a better place?
- Who do we want to help?
- How are we unique?
Brand Values
Core values are the traits a company acts upon. Although big corporations may not express them often, they do have behavioral guidelines for all employees to abide by.
Have you brainstormed and determined 3-5 words that best describe how to achieve your goals?
Key Questions to Determine Your Brand’s Values
- How must we behave to achieve our vision? (Notice it says “vision”, not “mission”)
- How must the CEO lead while making an impact on the company? (once they’re chosen, verify them)
- Are these the guidelines we need on a daily basis?
- Will living by these values lead us to where we want to be in the future?
L Brands’s Brand Values:
- The Customer Rules!
- Passion Leads to Success
- Inclusion Makes Us Stronger
- It Matters How We Play the Game
Brand Positioning Statement
Apple fans relate their iPhones to the best in technology, following their positioning statement: “Apple emphasizes technological research and advancement and takes an innovative approach to a business’s best practices”.
A positioning statement designs how a company differentiates itself in the consumer’s mind.
It could be as short as two or three words or as long as three to four sentences.
Key Questions to Create Your Brand’s Positioning Statement
- What do our customers want?
- What capabilities do we have?
- How are we different from our competitors?
Brand Promise
“30 minutes or it’s free!.” Does that sound familiar?
The customer expects something when interacting with a brand. A promise fulfills that expectation, connecting with the customer’s emotions, and nurturing the relationship with every single interaction.
Notice how the customer awaits, but the company has built the expectation already.
Key Questions to Find Your Brand’s Promise
- What do we offer?
- Whom do we serve?
- How do we serve?
- What environment do we serve in?
Starbucks’s Brand Promise
“To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
Brand Tagline
The tagline came as the last key message of your business because it relies on the position statement and core values. It’s a punchy, one-liner that compresses the company’s benefits while appealing to emotions.
Stay alert on the difference between a tagline and a slogan. Taglines talk about the entire business and last longer, while slogans are more flexible and often change with marketing campaigns.
Key Questions to Determine Your Brand’s Tagline
- How do we make our customers feel?
- How do we evoke emotions?
- In 3 words or less, what is our greatest benefit?
ToughBuilt’s Brand Tagline
Our name says it all
(ToughBuilt offers superior tool solutions for everyday builders)
You may have noticed that goals, strategies, and tactics play no role in the 7 key messages every business should have. The reason why is that they come afterward.
Crafting the perfect business identity will take days, weeks, or even months. It requires a full mind and collaboration with your family and partners.
The best advice for you today is the following:
Do NOT operate a business without these 7 key brand messages. No matter how many times you may feel it’s not a big deal… it truly is. These will grant you the guidelines to grow and achieve your ultimate business goals.