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Ensure everyone in your company sings from the same sheet of music when it comes to communicating a consistent brand message.

Imagine one of your customers calling six different people in your company. The customer asks why they should consider purchasing your product. What do you think these six people would say? Would their explanation be consistent?

That’s where brand messaging comes into play. In the audio book, “Sound Advice on Brand Marketing,” author Tom Miller says brands need to speak with a single unified voice in every communication with customers and prospects.

“Brand messaging is a formalized document that captures the most important points about your brand,” says Miller. “It is then used to create all of the various brand communications, such as ads, press releases, web sites, literature, and so forth.”

The best place to begin the brand messaging process is with the elevator pitch. “Think about getting on an elevator with a senior executive from a great prospect company. He asks you to tell him why your product or service is so special and better than all the others are. You’ve got 30-seconds. Go!”

Distilling your brand message into a short, memorable description or value proposition sets the stage for the rest of the brand messaging to flow in a logical, informative fashion. “It may take a little hard work now, but it pays big dividends in the future,” says Miller. “Not only is your message consistent, you should also realize major time savings in developing communications pieces. The heavy lifting from a messaging perspective has already been done.”

Tom Miller offers brand marketing advice each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz – http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92 – and is president of the branding firm, Miller Brooks.

About The Author

Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

Tags: advertisements, advertising, branding, Marketing, target market

The purpose of the strapline or slogan in an advertisement is to leave the key brand message in the mind of the target (that’s you). It is the sign-off that accompanies the logo. Its goal is to stick: “If you get nothing else from this ad, get this..!” A few well-known examples of these slogans include:

American Express: “Don’t leave home without it”

Apple: “Think different”

AT&T: “Reach out and touch someone”

Timex: “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”

Wendy’s: “Where’s the beef?”

Wheaties: “The breakfast of champions”

Unfortunately, ad slogans don’t always work, usually because they are generic, ready-to-wear, off-the-shelf lines that are taken out and shined up, ready to be used again and again when the creative juices have stopped flowing. Dozens of advertisers use them without blinking. Their ad agencies should be ashamed of themselves!

Slogans Around the World

Slogan nomenclature varies from place to place. So, what’s what, where? In many parts of the world, and generically, they are “slogans.” In the USA, they are tags, tag lines, or taglines. In the UK, they are end lines, endlines, or straplines. Germany prefers claims while France uses signatures. In the Netherlands, they are pay-offs or payoffs. To the unimaginative, they are rip-offs or ripoffs. And at ADSlogans Unlimited, we call them slogos (the slogan by the logo). Slogans are often treated as trade marks (

Tags: Advertise, branding, business identity, logo, market, Marketing, slogan, strapline

1. Ensure your mindset is one that is focused on the possibilities rather than impossibilities.

2. Produce and distribute postcards.

3. Advertise – radio, T.V. newspaper etc.

4. Draft news releases and circulate to appropriate publications.

5. Network. Network. Network.

6. Write advertorials.

7. Link your business to current news items.

8. Create quizzes/competitions.

9. Become an expert in your field.

10. Write articles for your Trade Journal.

11. Participate in cross-promotional marketing – that is, find a business who will advertise your products and services and you do the same for them for mutual benefit.

12. In your written materials use words that will draw people in, e.g. `how to’, `the 10 hidden
secrets of’ etc.

13. Give people what they want – having done your market research you’ll know what this is.

14. Sponsor charitable events.

15. Promote the benefits of your business, what will your customers get out of it?

16. Make sure all the risk is on your side. Customers want products and services that are risk
free.

17. Offer `freebies’ with great perceived value, e.g. website developed free of charge

Tags: Advertise, brand, branding, business, expert, Marketing, networking, press-release, selling, sponsorship