Giving Voice to Your Brand

Developing Your Brand, One Element at a Time

By: Kimberly Grant

Finding one’s brand is like trying to find one’s voice in a crowded room.  You know what you’re saying, but you can’t hear yourself and neither can anyone else.  To help develop your voice or brand, there are elements.  Brand elements are situations that will help you differentiate your voice when you aren’t able to speak loud enough.

Parable aside, there are 10 brand elements to assist in making your brand, well, a brand:

1. Brand name
2. URL
3. Logos & symbols
4. Characters
5. Spokespeople
6. Slogans
7. Taglines
8. Jingles
9. Packages
10. Signage

Finding Your Voice

Every writer has their own unique voice.  This “voice” is typically made up of a combination of word usage, sentence structure, and habitual phrases.  With branding, you must first find your brand name, which should be, at least, memorable and meaningful.  For instance, if I said Marvel Entertainment, you would already know what company I am referring to; especially if you have been reading this blog.  This brings me to URLs.  Marvel, a giant of a company, has the right URL: Marvel.com. 

Visualizing Your Voice

For a logo and symbol, you want your brand to stand out, but not be overly complicated.  Your logo can be as simple as words in a distinctive font/format or a design.  You can see Marvel’s logo/symbol on their website.  My logo/symbol can be viewed above.  For characters, some companies opt for symbols or animals with human characteristics.  These characters increase brand awareness, are likable, and don’t have “human” problems like behaving badly off camera. 

An example of a good character, who’s actually never been seen, is Apple’s Siri.  Siri may not have a body, but she is the type of character that is synonymous with a brand.  Not only is she a strong brand element of Apple (by way of the iPhone), but she increases brand likability as a personal assistant, is updatable (like British Siri), and she plays a central role in the iPhone experience.

Quite a few brands have spokespeople, who are actually human and not characters.  For Marvel Entertainment, they’re spokespeople are all of the actors who have created or reinvigorated their careers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  These actors are a major part of marketing Marvel films and television series.  You can see a few of Marvel’s most iconic spokespeople (as their characters) on their website. 

Hearing Your Voice

Slogans and taglines seem interchangeable, but there is a difference between the two.  A slogan is a short phrase that is synonymous with a brand.  My slogan, which is featured on my logo, is “A writer being chased by her characters”.  It is the hook I use to convey that I am a writer who is steeped in character development.  Good character development leads to increased reader engagement.

Conversely, a tagline is campaign specific.  A tagline is temporary and conveys the brand’s messaging for a singular ad campaign.  An example of a great tagline is “Progressive can’t save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us.”  While that is a mouthful, Progressive’s current campaign and tagline (available on Youtube) are memorable.  The last way you can hear your voice is with jingles.  Those are the musical messages that help increase brand recall.  One of the jingles synonymous with the Marvel Entertainment brand is the Avengers theme music that plays at the end of their film scores; at 1:56 for this video.  Hearing that jingle makes me excited for the next Marvel film.

Last, But Not Least

A brand’s packaging is almost as important as its name.  The packaging, which can be the container your product comes in, needs to be connected to the brand, facilitate product transport (like from the store), and aid in consumption.  What better way to convey your brand than with a package of premium coffee with your logo on it, like Starbucks?  Then there’s signage.  A sign is usually something that tells your consumer: “I am here”.  Have you ever gotten lost trying to find a movie theater?  Probably not.  Movie theaters, like AMC Theatres, usually have large, neon signs that stand out and above the buildings and businesses around them.  These signs are referred to as “marquees”. 

Time for Voice Building

Now that you know what elements make up a brand.  It’s time to find your voice.  And, don’t worry if you haven’t figured out what that voice is yet.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were the brands you see in this post.  Happy branding!

Wondering about other posts in the K. A. Grant brand?  You can read my last post here.