Defining Brand Messaging 101

Brand messaging isn't just a snappy tagline. It's everything you do and say.

It's what makes you stand out in a crowded social media feed. It's what stops people from turning the page on a print advert, hit like on a social post, or hold their attention on a web page, just long enough to make a difference.

It's what makes you reliable, identifiable and most of all, credible. Because if people believe, deeply believe, in the things that you say and do... well that's a powerful thing.

But this kind of thing doesn't just spring out of the ground. It takes time, effort and strategy to create. 

So, what do you need to consider when defining brand messaging? 

Developing A Brand Messaging Framework

Purpose & Goals

With a clear sight of your mission, values, purpose and goals you'll have a much more solid foundation to build your brand messaging. 

With the ever-growing importance of authenticity in communcations, you must set these foundations and establish your purpose. This will set the tone for everything that is to follow. 

Target Audience

Once you're purpose and goals are established, you need to know who you're trying to reach. 

What are their likes and their dislikes? What are their preferred channels of communication? What kind of content are they most receptive too? 

Having a clear understanding of these things, will not only help set your messaging, but help build your channel strategies as well. But an understanding of your audience goes deeper than this.

By deeply understanding your audiences, you can create more meaningful connections... which ultimately leads to great brand loyalty.

Competitor Analysis

How do you, or how can you stand out from the crowd?

Standing out from the crowd, in theory, is rather self-explanatory. But the practicality of it can be challenging. Without stringent competitor analysis, there's every chance you could end up falling into a pattern of doing and saying the same things as your competition. Which doesn't help anyone.

Take the time to see what your competition is doing. With this insight, consider how you can do things differently. Once again, this comes back to articulating your messaging via your purpose.

What makes you and your organisation different? 

If you can demonstrate that in clear messaging, then that's a great starting point. 

Brand Personality

Something of an offshoot of your purpose is your brand personality.

Are you affable, contemplative, light-hearted or straight to the point? 

In these stages, it can help to think about your organisation as if it were a person. What would the personal characteristics of that person be? 

These are more tonal guideleines than a specific brand message - that comes next. But this stage is nontheless crucial, becasuse this is where you can start to be truly unique in developing your brand messaging. 

This is your brand voice... and in just a few words, you can really hone in on your brand positioning, brand identity and make the next part of your messaging strategy a whole lot easier. 

Key Terms and Key Messages 

Now we get into the details of things. 

We've established purpose, goals, target audience and the brand voice. What is it you're going to say?

This is about taking your unique value proposition and interweaving it with your brand promise, your purpose all the aspects of personality and brand positioning and entering the phase of developing key messages. 

It's far easier to develop these points after you've established all of the prerequisites we've covered here. By establishing the shape, scope and tone of your brand positioning earlier on, the specifics of your messaging will fall into place a lot easier.

Look at it like painting by numbers. It's a lot easier when you can see what colour goes where. 

Review and Renew

Times change... and appetites, preferences and needs change with it. 

We're in a constantly evolving world. Businesses are rarely granted the luxury of standing still, so why should your brand messaging framework do this?

Once you've established your brand messaging framework, don't stop there. Markets and audiences shift and when they do, you need to move with it. 

That means taking the time to revisit your messaging strategy. Which could be for all manner of reasons.

Perhaps your target audience has shifted; let's say you've entered a new market and you have an entirely new target audience. You can't expect to communicate with them in the same way as your existing audience.

Or maybe you're noticing a shift in the values of your target audience. Look at the motoring industry and how much of its messaging and marketing is shifting towards electric vehicles. 

A brand image is not eternal... it has to change. 

So why is brand messaging important?

From a customer journey perspective, authenticity and trust are critical factors and the numbers around this paint an interesting picture:

• 81% of consumers say they need to trust a brand before considering a purchase.

• 88% of consumers say authenticity is an important deciding factor in this process

• 82% of people want to buy from brands aligned with their values

Value alignment is becoming increasingly important & consumers aren't afraid to make a change:

• 39% of shoppers said they’d permanently boycott their favourite brand.

• 24% would break ties at least temporarily. 

• 28% would openly share their concerns with friends and family.

• 15% would voice their concerns on social media. 

So staying on brand and on message can be the difference between gaining and retaining customers and losing them outright. 

With a strong messaging framework, your marketing messaging becomes all the more effective. 

But you have to stick to it.

Ensure that your brand story is your own. Make sure that everything you do and say - whether it's emails, social media posts, blogs or entire campaigns, lives and breathes everything your brand story stands for.

If you'd like to find out more about the role of brand and why brand-building is a non-negotiable in 2025 then you can download our Insight Report here: https://www.ambitiouspr.co.uk/our-insight/