Every Business Needs Verbal Branding. . .

Is Your Identity Statement ‘The Missing Piece?’

Are you aware that a few verbal inventions are the coin that buys your business identity in the mind of your market? Certainly you’ve heard about elevator speeches, tag lines, mottos, and slogans. And possibly you’ve heard the word ‘mantra’ used in this context.

Like any coinage, the value is portable. It’s usable in many different ways.

Let’s say you bump into an old friend in a restaurant. After the usual pleasant surprise talk, she asks you what you’re up to these days. You’d like to not only tell her but also make a good impression, since she’s with a venture capital firm that could be the financing source for your new business brainchild. But you’re not quite articulate when you try to explain. You stammer a bit but get through a few sentences, and then realize she’s looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Well, heck, your big deal is all rather technical. You just lost a significant opportunity. This nightmare will recur until you apply the remedy.

New scenario – you bump into an old friend in a restaurant. After the usual small world talk, you ask her what she’s doing lately. She smiles and beams as she recounts how she just secured venture financing to launch a new business. Then she quickly and articulately presents her company in a totally coherent statement. Even though it’s all rather technical, she conveys the essence eloquently in 20 seconds. You’re blown away, because this woman who used to work for you has accomplished something you’re still daydreaming about – finding financing to do the idea that will set you free.

The cure for stammering in the clinch is preparedness combined with astute writing. Every business needs a great elevator speech deployed throughout the staff. This pithy statement of your main selling points quickly and understandably covers your essentials, end to end. Then your staff is ready to seize the moment when opportunity arises to promote your company.

They can easily impress their listener by saying –

~ what you do for customers,
~ how you do it,
~ who you are,
~ and why you’re better than your competition.

How long is your moment in front of your viewer, listener, or reader?

Use it!

No matter if it’s one second or half a minute, you can seize the day, if you do the advance work. Maybe there’s only time to flash them a word or two. It can be a brand name or company name that speaks volumes about who you are. It can be a product name that nails the benefit it provides.

Given a longer moment, say a few seconds, you can flash your cogent company name, and follow it with a crisp tag line -- a few words that perfect a mental image and pull on the emotions like a new direction for gravity. Then your language about yourself is dressed for success.

At NAI, Inc., they have Nutrition Knowledge Stream – knowledge for a healthier world through nutrition.

Many successful companies manage to boil down their essence into a few powerful words. This compact word or phrase becomes a mantra that constantly guides everyone on the team to pull together toward their common goal. No matter how diverse their individual tasks.

At Nike, they say “Just Do It.”

At Nordstrom’s, they rally around “Customer Service.”

My tag line is “Marketing that works through writing that sells.”

I can have as much of this sales candy as I care to create. You’re not the professional writer but I’d be glad to help you achieve cogent eloquence in all you say about your business -- in your brand names, tag lines, mantra, and elevator speech.

My writing fee’s not an expense. It’s an investment in your own success.

Because “the money is in your message.”