Brand language: Don’t expect a standing ovation
“We knew we’d landed on our ‘why’ when we formally announced it to our employees. It wasn’t met with a standing ovation. Equally, no one said: “that’s bollocks”. If, when you speak your ‘why’ out loud, the response is, “well, yeah, of course”, then you know you’ve cracked it.”
So said the CEO of Dow Jones when describing the purpose statement we wrote for them. It’s a quote that perfectly describes what a great brand language agency does.?
Whether it’s a purpose statement, tagline or customer promise, the perfect brand language isn’t about originality. Or cleverness. Or the copywriter’s way with words.?
The response you should be aiming for isn’t surprise. Or excitement. Or bedazzlement.?
It’s recognition.?
Your brand language should feel like coming home — like it’s what you were trying to say all along.
Perhaps, even, what you and your team have been saying all along, but were too close to the work to see as perfect.
Recognition was exactly the response we had from a client to whom we recently presented a new purpose statement and customer promise.?
Their own attempts, drafted by committee, had felt clunky and inauthentic even to their own ears.?
Our proposed statements felt right and beautiful in their simplicity. That’s because they weren’t invented, but reflected the language of real-life human beings: the org’s customers.
Our clients realised some of our words they’d actually used themselves in conversations about what matters to customers — but hadn’t ever written down.
We got there because we live by the principle that the most persuasive copy uses the words of those you want to reach, whether it’s investors, customers or employees.?
These groups rarely speak in the multi-syllabic abstractions that characterise so much corpspeak. Nor do they speak what one famous copywriter we know calls “marketing bollocks”.
So to land on your brand language, listen to what people are saying.
Brand promise? Read your customers’ feedback (the verbal kind, not just the NPS scores).?
New values? Take note of every comment in that employee engagement survey (not just the highlights or quant data or sentiment analysis provided by your survey software).?
Pitch deck? Listen to interviews with investors. They’re usually straight talking types who aren’t shy about telling you what they’re looking for in an investment.
We guarantee that what these groups are saying is pitched slap-bang in the centre of that standing-ovation-to-bollocks spectrum.
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