No one can argue against the power of a distinctive symbol or a particular colour to stick in people’s minds. No one forgets that two golden arches mean McDonald’s, or that a black swoosh is Nike. Visual identity, when clear, meaningful, and attractive enough, can offer brands instant recognition.
Despite that, more and more brands are opting for verbal identity as their key differentiator, making their words – or rather their way with words – more ownable. Everyone from Oatly to Duolingo are putting words at the heart of how they interact with audiences.
In this article, we break down the fundamentals of verbal identity – from naming and messaging strategies to brand voice and storytelling.
Naming? Forget what you know.
Experts like to declare that naming a brand or a product is a science. Open any textbook on brand naming, and the following formula prevails: It must be short, easy to pronounce and spell, and culturally sensitive across all the brand’s markets. And it must somehow capture within it what the brand is or does.
But then, what makes names Grindr, Ugg and Vyrbo so successful? And what does Slack have to do with an application that promotes workplace productivity?
Awesome brand names don’t follow a formula.
The fact is: awesome brand names don’t follow a formula. Or at least not the ones prescribed in textbooks. More often than not, a memorable brand name today will be something seemingly random, or, dare we say it, utterly bonkers. So, we’d like to offer up a different set of criteria when it comes to brand naming: go for strange, bunk the trend, and make it impossible to forget.
Take this example. When Jomax Technologies rebranded as GoDaddy in 2006, the web hosting industry had long broken through. Where traditionally creating and owning a website was reserved for the tech geeks – now web hosting had become so cheap and accessible that every aspiring blogger with only a basic knowledge could have one.
The market flooded with the sort of names you’d expect – Bluehost, SiteGround, Network Solutions. Names that spoke of the services’ reliability, stability, performance. Names that captured the technical role the services played. But these were not things that the Average Joe noticed, or even cared about.
A fact which makes a choice like GoDaddy so effective. Since the brand needs to appeal to people who know almost nothing about web hosting, the name works precisely because the words don’t intuitively relate to it. And in an industry where many company names are literal or tech-focused, the quirkiness of “GoDaddy” makes it impossible to forget.
Messaging – The art of distillation
In an era where consumer attention is the most valuable currency – clarity is everything. Messaging that is singular and clear has a much greater chance of getting through.
In an era where consumer attention is the most valuable currency – clarity is everything.
But being clear about what you want to say to audiences begins by creating that clarity inside your organisation first.
Sure, in an ideal world, everyone would know and be able to communicate what you consider to be the most essential messages of your brand. But organisations are complex, constantly evolving organisms. And people can have diverging ideas on what constitute the essential messages, at any given time.
Doing the work to really get to know yourselves, inside and out, is the first step. Distilling this down to a set of clearly defined messages is next. This enables all of your messages to support your brand strategy. And it ensures that everyone responsible for communicating the brand is on the same page and can speak with clarity and cohesion.
One brand that does this really well, we think, is Duolingo.
As an app that makes language learning more accessible, Duolingo has a wider than average array of audiences. And with multiple audiences, comes a multitude of diverse messages.
For users in the developed world, globalised and short of time, the message is around ease and effectiveness. For users in the developing world, it’s about opening doors, creating opportunity. For universities and other language learning institutions, the message must show a level-up in learning. For employees or community volunteers, it’s about the difference they make.
But Duolingo needed to find a clear, succinct, and flexible message to cut through against a growing competitive market. One that could also celebrate the diversity of its users and demonstrate a sensitivity to local needs and aspirations.
(Read our article here about the art and challenge of communicating to diverse target audiences.)
Duolingo’s clever tagline ‘Everyone can Duolingo’ cleverly embeds a clear and universal message. Due to its vague syntactical formation, the word Duolingo can be used to mean any kind of interaction with the brand. Learning, selling, teaching – it’s all Duolingo. It’s a great example of the art of distilling your messages, into one key, universal idea.
Tone of Voice – Expressing your character
Tone of voice is incredibly important. Get it right, and it can be a powerful tool to drive distinctiveness and growth. Get it wrong, speak in a way that is incongruous with your identity, and your audiences will pick up on it. You run the risk of confusing them or losing their trust.
Defining your brand’s voice should begin with defining your brand’s character.
That’s why defining your brand’s voice should begin with defining your brand’s character. An appropriate, inspiring, and clearly defined brand character is the foundations for all expressions of your brand – voice and language, of course, but also your visual identity, sonic brand elements, and even culture. Getting character right helps you avoid dissonance between the way you sound and the way you look and act.
At SDA, we develop brand character through a proprietary methodology based on philosopher Karl Jung’s character archetype system. We match each of your audiences’ fundamental needs with one of these character archetypes – the maverick, the creator, the jester, the ruler – and create a three-dimensional character trait guide that informs all visual and verbal expressions of your brand.
By creating a distinct persona or a vivid set of traits, you help communicators maintain the voice of your brand, and ensure it comes through consistently in every interaction you have with your audiences.
Take the Oatly example we mentioned earlier. When they rebranded in 2014, Oatly realised they needed to turn oat milk into a lifestyle choice based on a belief in sustainability, rather than a rational choice based on a dietary requirement. So, instead of focusing on health benefits, they positioned themselves as an activist brand – on a mission to take on the big dairy players head on.
But being an activist brand is a bold move that requires total commitment. You can’t just say it; you have to be it. The only way to do this successfully, and authentically, was to fully embrace and embody the activist in their character. They developed a brand character that, if we use Jung’s archetypes here, is clearly based on the ‘outlaw’ and the ‘jester’ – a character that that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but seriously challenges the unsustainable practices of the dairy industry.
This informed every element of their identity – from their tag graffiti design style and overly wordy packaging ‘packvertising,’ to their guerrilla marketing medium and intentionally adversarial copywriting. The result is a brand who’s irreverent, playful way of speaking is in step with its commitment to always do the unexpected, for the sake of the planet.
An effective brand voice must resonate with the people you communicate with. Oatly realised that the key to getting people to buy and drink alternative milk, which by definition broke from the norm, was to appeal to people’s ‘alternative’ side – the simple idea that when done right, different can be cool. Oatly tone of voice had to be cool enough to wear on a T-Shirt.
Telling stories – creating brand love
Marketing messages have the potential to make us buy from brands. Stories have the power to make us love them.
Marketing messages have the potential to make us buy from brands. Stories have the power to make us love them.
Like any good storybook, brands that communicate with their audiences by attaching their benefits to a powerful narrative, have the chance to hook people’s attention and stimulate their emotions. Draw on the cues that stories provide – relatable characters, compelling plotlines, authentic values – to make audiences care about what you have to say. It helps to establish a relationship of trust and credibility.
Moreover, research from Stanford School of business found “a story is up to twenty-two times more memorable than facts alone.” As our channels become more cluttered, a powerful story is key to standing out and remaining in people’s minds.
For brands who do storytelling really well, look to the sportswear industry. Nike, with their motivating tagline ‘Just do it’ feature athletes and real people overcoming challenges in their campaigns. Founded on the idea that anyone, regardless of age, gender or physical ability can be an athlete – the stories are relatable, but also aspirational. Everyone loves it when the hero of a story pushes through adversity and wins. It taps into our innermost desires to achieve greatness beyond ourselves.
The North Face too are excellent storytellers. Part of the broader “More than a Jacket” initiative, The North Face’s “Stitched in Stories” campaign draws on the unique power of storytelling to connect people to the things they love. Consumers and media were invited to the Regent Street store to create and customize their own clothing patches by selecting a memory or a location that spoke of the adventure the item of clothing had been on. They were printed and stitched into the jackets to remind us that it’s not the things themselves we love, but the stories attached to them.
What’s next? … The awkward ‘AI’ question
If you’re reading this article, at some point, you were bound to ask: couldn’t we just get Chat GPT to write our brand copy? To which we would answer, rather brazenly, with a question of our own:
In all the examples sites above – what is the one characteristic that ties great verbal identities together? They are human. Written by humans, for humans.
The charm, the sense of uniqueness, the personal touch … these are the things that make people love (not like, love) the way a brand speaks to them. They are intrinsically human, and they work well because they are specific, special, different. Chat GPT can only work to the guardrails of specificity set – through the command you type, and the vast sea of available data on the internet (and therefore not different).
The brand world will always need brand thinkers to come up with the thoughts that no one has conceived before – the kind that can’t be found in the existing thoughts machines have access too. It will always rely on real people understanding what will make people tick. And there will always be a need for real, untold stories to capture people’s imagination.
We’re not saying AI can’t help us create winning verbal identities. When used right, it really can. And here’s where it gets really interesting.
The future of verbal identity will be found at the intersection between brand strategy and brand automation, between human creativity and artificial productivity.
The future of verbal identity will be found at the intersection between brand strategy and brand automation, between human creativity and artificial productivity, between artists and machines. It will come in the many fascinating and useful ways that brand thinkers come up with to incorporate this new tool to make their work more efficient and effective. Not a replacement; a helping hand.
At SDA, we use AI and natural language processing tools across a variety of our processes to develop winning verbal identities – from analysing how audiences want to be spoken to, to developing strategic commands that enable our clients to produce simple copy on-brand and consistently.
Creating Sense™
Whilst a powerful visual identity is important, investing time and effort into developing a unique verbal identity should not be an afterthought. Whilst visuals attract, it is through words that you offer clarity and deeper meaning in the things you want to communicate. But far from being distinct realms, visual and verbal identities should work together in harmony. The strength of your brand depends on how well you marry the two.
In a world where consumers are bombarded with information, a well-defined verbal identity and compelling storytelling are key to standing out and forging lasting relationships. Brands that master these elements will not only capture attention but also earn trust and loyalty, ensuring their place in the hearts and minds of their audience. As we move forward, leveraging AI as a supportive tool can enhance this process, blending human creativity with technological efficiency to create truly memorable and effective brand identities.
At SDA, we support organisations big and small by creating sense™ through their brand. If you’d like a free evaluation of your brand language, and its performance with some of your core audiences, get in touch.
