Speak to your Customers, not your Industry

Over my 20 years building brand strategies I’ve regularly encountered instances where brands are speaking to themselves or their industry rather than their customers. And I think it goes without saying that brands need to speak to their customers if they want to connect.  Let me share what I’ve seen along the way, with some advice that could help you avoid this when crafting your brand messaging.

Some companies create their own languages.

I think those responsible for a brand, be they company leaders, brand managers, entrepreneurs, or others, are very focused on the product, service or experience they offer. They spend a lot of time thinking and talking about how they create and deliver the thing they sell. This dialogue often creates an internal language used in-house and with suppliers and industry partners.

This is overt in large or multi-national companies. For example, Diageo has an internal language that’s so extensive they provide a folder with acronyms and translations to all their agencies – one I had to learn and reference constantly when working with them.

These internal company languages are designed to increase efficiency, and they become everyday language for company employees and their industry partners. While these language shortcuts can help parties communicate more efficiently and effectively, it can and often does bleed into brand messaging for the customer.

Complicated and technical industries create their own language.

Another example where a non-customer facing language can come into play is in complicated and technical industries. I recently built brand messaging for a team of Engineering Management Consultants who work in the world of decarbonization. It’s a very complicated world with levels of technical understanding. One of their biggest communication challenges was articulating what they did in a way customers could understand.

In fact, it was so complicated that I was admittedly bamboozled in our initial discovery session, and it took us twice as many discovery sessions to uncover simple English descriptions together. It was worth the extra effort as now they have a wonderful, easy-to-understand and compelling brand promise and messaging. This has really helped their website stand out in an industry where most of the competition is confusing their customers.

Some industries create exclusive languages.

The wine world is a great example of an industry that uses ‘exclusive language’ or ‘language known to those in-the-know’. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of building brand stories for two wine brands and supporting another 4 brand managers in building their marketing plans at our recent Mindful Marketing Retreat. During the discovery process, myself & Bernedette Teo, a fellow brand strategist, uncovered two interesting things:

First, the wine world uses a lot of traditional French wine terms. ‘Terroir’ is a great example. It expresses the combination of environmental factors that can affect the taste of the wine such as the climate, soil, farming practices, terrain etc. They say it affects the character of the wine. This term is a leading message on many wine bottles on liquor store shelves and across brand messages.

Second, we uncovered in customers' interviews that they had no idea what 'terroir' meant, along with many other industry terms. After looking in-store and speaking to winemakers and winery staff, we discovered that the wine world speaks to itself a lot. There is a level of knowledge required to be able to taste, appreciate and speak knowledgeably about the wine a person is drinking. But we found that most customers purchased wine because they liked the taste (vs caring about words like Terrior). So, in this case, we got really clear on communicating how wonderful the wine tasted and why it tasted so great. And articulating that in simple English that is universally understood.  

What does this all mean? In short, customers will not buy if they do not know what you are selling.

What you can do to avoid these pitfalls.

An effective brand message or brand promise needs to be compelling to the customer, unique in the marketplace and something the brand can deliver well. (see 4 secrets of brand messaging). The message needs to be easily understood. I would go so far as to say instantly understood. No deciphering or translating needed. The customer just gets it and understands the value the brand is offering them.

To communicate your main brand message effectively, simple English is best. As the famous writer, George Orwell once said, never use a long word where a short word will do, and use two words where one would do.

This doesn’t mean your brand message should be simple or basic – you can and should create a smart, compelling, and unique brand message first, but be mindful to communicate it in a way that can be easily understood by your target customers.

It’s also worth noting that just over 9 million Canadians speak English as their second language. Just another reason that simple English is best, if English is your brand’s language. (2021 Census)

The basics of effective communication involve the communicator and the recipient sharing a similar interpretation of the message. The job of the communicator is to do their due diligence and design the message and communication of the message in the best way to support the recipients' understanding.

So, our jobs (yours & mine) as brand message architects is to gain an understanding of what the customers' care about, develop a unique brand message that resonates with them and articulate it in simple English and test it to see if the message lands the way it’s intended.

If you’re ready to build a brand story that articulates the unique value it offers in a way your customers understand, reach out to me at annabelle@ilikestorytelling.com. You can also learn about the brand story process and see case studies here.

Stories About Creating Brand Stories

This is the third story about interesting things I’ve uncovered on my journeys to create brand stories, from the pitfalls and red herrings to the ah-ha moments. For more, visit Stories About Creating Brand Stories