Can your ideal customer find you through your brand vocabulary? You might be wondering what brand vocabulary is. It is the words – the nouns, verbs, phrases, and sentences your organization uses to distinguish itself in the marketplace to attract both new and existing customers to your business. It sounds pretty simple but from our experience very few organizations take the time to actually define the key vocabulary everyone in the organization needs to use consistently.
A case in point, I was talking to a business owner and asked them to explain what their business was all about. The person proceeded to give me a variety of words and statements which all sounded interesting and crafted a picture in my mind of their business. I then asked to speak to one of their sales team and asked the same question. Oddly enough it was a totally different set of words and phrases to describe the business. Although the picture I formed in my mind had some similarities from the two different versions of the business description, the final picture had some gaps or voids in the description of the business.
I had already done my research before engaging the owner and the salesperson but was curious to hear what they would say to describe the business. The result was two similar but different stories of the business. Each one having certain things each person wanted to emphasize but not necessarily covering the whole picture.
I took it a step further and had the three of us review their website. The holy grail of the words the company puts out into the marketplace. That too was very well crafted but had another set of vocabulary. To a degree you could see how they played together but the website was tweaked by a marketing wordsmith which neither the owner nor salesperson reflected the same language back to me in our conversation. Maybe the website and other social media efforts were using “Key” words to optimize SEO or other search or campaign related efforts. The bottom line was in a very short period of time the consistency of message was a bit all over the place.
This week do yourself, your team, your business, and your target audience a favor and focus in on the Brand Vocabulary to be used across conversations, technologies etc. Start by identifying the words and phrases everyone already uses which have had positive feedback. Narrow in on tag lines and elements which you want to be emphasized to potential customers. Build a set of phrases and or statements which everyone in the organization will adopt and use consistently moving forward. You may need to tweak your website, your sales collateral, your proposals and even contracts. Yes, your vocabulary should run throughout your entire flow of business.
This is why some organizations never go here because it takes a bit of work and some focus to weave a consistent communication approach across all aspects of your business. Oddly enough if you get this accomplished earlier in your business efforts the more time and energy you can bring to focus on all the other aspects of your organization’s growth. I do want to point out that this model does not and should not feel like you are removing the creativity or personal conversational styles of your people. I highly recommend that you let your team be creative in applying the vocabulary, but they stay to the key words and phrases of the vocabulary for consistency crafting the same picture of the business.
Looking to get your words and verbs narrowed in on your business to help it grow? Give your Promise Guide at JKL Associates a call at FL (407) 984-7246 or MI (313) 527-7945.
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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS – EMAIL US AT PARTNERS@JKLASSOCIATES.COM OR CALL OUR OFFICES – MI AT (313) 527-7945 FL AT (407) 984-7246
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