Brand voice, brand messaging and general brand wordery

1. Strategic Wordery
Talked through by
Amanda C. Peterson, brand strategist & geek

3. By the time we walk out of here, you:
 Will have taken one 10-minute break across multiple hours
 Done at least one writing exercise with a partner
 Will know the difference between brand voice and brand
messaging
 Will remember at least 3 major elements of building a brand with
words
 Will understand how verbal communications can set a brand apart
from its competition and bring a brand closer together with its
target market

4. What are we doing?
 Credibility – Who is Amanda and why should we listen to her?
 Definitions – What is brand voice? What is brand messaging? Show
us some examples? How do you start to actually do them?
 A model – Every PowerPoint needs random diagrams
 Implication vs. statement – Demonstrate don’t state
 Pop quiz – Spot the brand
 Exercise – Learning by doing
 Report out – Embarrassing by sharing
 Wrap up – The only things you’ll actually remember

6. Amanda C. Peterson
 15 years in marketing
 Titles: Copywriter & planner  Naming & writing  Brand
architecture & verbal strategy  brand strategy  Marketing and
communications
 Workplaces: Ad agencies  Target  Landor  Logitech  HP
 Education: Advertising, advertising, advertising  real world
 Teaching, awards & always employed

7. What is brand voice?
 Brand voice is the strategy around using words to build a personality
and a relationship with the audience consistently
 It’s how you say it
 It’s the reason marketers will have a seven-hour debate over whether it
is:
 Awesome
 Cool
 Great
 Amazing
 Groundbreaking
 Best-in-class
 Awe inspiring
 Magical

9. What does brand voice do well?
 Brand voice creates a personality
 Brand voice reinforces a relationship
 Brand voice is cheap (relatively)
 Brand voice works in social media, PR, media training, text
messaging, advertising
 Brand voice reflects the brand positioning

10. What does brand voice do terribly?
 Brand voice is not easy or cheap to measure
 Brand voice does not globalize well (without lots of money)
 Brand voice does not do broad/untargeted brands well
 Brand voice is hard to execute well
 Brand voice is not legally protectable
 Brand voice cannot remain static

11. essential
orange-orange (c + calcium)
ah, orange juice commercials. funny stuff. mom
cheerily prepares some huge breakfast while
the rest of her family sleeps. sure, this could
happen. but every morning? please. maybe if
mom were heavily medicated, in which case,
we wouldn’t condone operating a stove or any
electrical appliance.
for those of us who don’t live in an orange
juice commercial, there’s still a way to get your
morning nutrition. this product has calcium and
lots of vitamin c, so you can get your day
started right, minus the whole stepford mom
thing.
vitamins + water = all you need. for best
results, stick it in the fridge. the inside is
natural. the outside is plastic.

12. Men talk about
women, sports and
cars.
Women talk about
men inside sports
cars.

14. How do you establish brand voice?
 The words you choose
 Slang, casual, formal, common, obscure, academic
 Variety of vocabulary
 Grammar rules
 How you address your audience
 Third person vs. first person
 Second person vs. third person
 Questions vs. statements
 Presumption vs. standoffishness
 Calls to action
 Speed of the read
 Length of sentences
 Clauses and phrases
 Use of punctuation

15. How do you establish brand voice?
 Story structure
 Inverted pyramid
 Hero’s journey
 Problem/solution
 Conversation
 Storytelling
 Details
 Pop culture references
 Quotes
 Characters
 Memorability
 Alliteration
 Rhythm
 Repetition
 Rhyme

16. What is brand messaging?
 Brand messaging is the foundational story your brand tells with
every communication piece
 It’s what you say
 It’s where your brand actually has to have substance

18. What does brand messaging do well?
 Brand messaging creates a territory
 Brand messaging builds a realm of expertise
 Brand messaging helps establish strategies for advertising, PR,
partnerships and social media
 Brand messaging gives people reason to believe the brand
driver/promise
 Brand messaging works hand in hand with the voice

19. What does brand messaging do
terribly?
 Brand messaging is hard to get alignment on
 Brand messaging is hard to train old teams on
 Brand messaging cannot just be “done by the agency”
 Brand messaging needs to come from and reflect product
 Brand messaging is SLOW to establish

21. Coca Cola

22. Accenture
High performance

23. How do you establish brand
messaging?
 The combination of:
 What the brand wants to stand for (brand positioning)
 What the brand actually does (products or services)
 What needs they fulfill

24. Ever PowerPoint needs a vague model!

25. The Means-End Chain
 Finding the intersection of product attributes and customer needs to
establish what you state/demonstrate and what you want to
imply/strategize about

26. FedEx – absolutely, positively
On-time
delivery Reassurance I won’t lose
my job
Safety and
security

27. Show, don’t tell
 No one who says they’re cool is cool
 Otherwise known as:
 Why state when you can demonstrate?
 “Whoops, your strategy is showing!”

28. We have always been about using
less. And not because it’s topical. Or
fashionable. Or because everyone else
is doing it. We were small when
everyone else was going big. We were
fuel-efficient before anyone else was
thinking about it.
 Volkswagen
 Cooper Mini
 Kia
 Toyota

29. Good skills and constant training are half
the battle. If you want to keep the pace up
with your teammates or competitors make
sure you have a can of _____at your side
to take your game to a higher level. Even if
you slip into the role of a virtual hero your
real body needs energy and you need
presence of mind to react fast and furious
until the game is over.
 Vitamin Water
 Mountain Dew
 Jolt Cola
 Red Bull

30. ______ is committed to building
positive self-esteem, and inspiring all
women and girls to reach their full
potential—but we need your help.
We're building a movement in which
women everywhere have the tools to
take action and inspire each other and
the girls in their lives.
 Girl Scouts
 Tampax
 Dove
 Avon

31. Questions?

32. Digital music player
 Write a summary paragraph for a webstore
 X GBs
 3 inches x 3 inches x 2 inches
 Charges via USB through your computer or wall adapter
 How much is it?
 Where can you buy it?
Reflecting the brand you’ve been
assigned

33. Bottled water
Write the back of the bottle
Reflecting the brand you’ve been
assigned

34. Summary
 Brand voice is how you say it
 Rhythm, word choice, punctuation, repetition, familiarity, POV
 Brand messaging is what you say
 Topics, how you connect to a larger story
 The marriage of what you do and what the audience wants to believe
 Demonstrate, don’t state
 Words are your friend

35. Thank you for listening to me rant.