Brand Communication: What it is and How to Do it Right
MHC Team 
January 9th, 2020
According to statistics, up to 89 percent of marketers surveyed claim that building brand awareness is their number one goal. However, before you dive headlong into building brand awareness, you need to know about something that is key to the process. This is brand communication.
Properly orchestrated brand communication is crucial for brands to solidly and establish their identity. Without it, your brand awareness efforts could lead to more confusion than loyalty, and could even harm potential brand-customer relationships.
Have we caught your attention? If so, read on, because we are about to share with you everything you need to know to get started with top-notch brand communication.
WHAT IS BRAND COMMUNICATION?
Brand communication is defined as all communication that brands perform with their stakeholders. Stakeholders are basically anyone who has anything to do with the brand, such as investors, customers, and employees.
Brand communication can take the form of any type of communication from a company, such as:
- Newsletters
- Logos
- Promotional mails
- Ad campaigns
- Interviews
- Video content
- Blog content
- Instructions
- Social media posts
- Customer communications
- Company documents
- Company emails
While all these forms of communication can be quite different, it is important for the brand’s voice to shine through clearly in each. Whether it is an annual report or a tweet, effective brand communication should remain consistent and recognizable no matter what the vehicle.
This is achieved through a few important things. One of these is brand identity development.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND COMMUNICATION
Before we get into how to implement effective brand communication, let us take a look at why it is important.
Coherent and cohesive brand communication is essential for good branding. Without it, your brand’s messages and tone could be all over the show. This will not work to build your brand’s identity in any way, in fact, it can look like your brand is having an identity crisis!
One unfortunate example of this is JCPenny. Whose taglines have included, over the years, everything from “When it fits you, feel it,” to “It’s all inside,” “Every day matters,” and “We make it affordable. You make it yours.”
From these assorted, fluffy and generic taglines, do you get a clear image of the brand and what it is about? No, you don’t.
To avoid these kinds of mistakes it is imperative to get clear on the things that inform your brand’s communications.
We will discuss what these are below.
Discover the Differences Between Brand Tone and Voice
HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
To achieve cohesive and effective brand communication that truly ‘brands’ your company, and establishes customer loyalty and relationships—you need to clarify three important things.
These are:
- Your brand’s personality
- It’s unique value proposition
- Your target audience
Getting crystal clear on these three elements will be invaluable for effective brand communication.
FIGURING OUT YOUR BRAND’S IDENTITY
With these areas fleshed out, you can progress to formulating a brand identity. This identity will act as your North Star when it comes to brand communication.
If you have not yet figured out your brand’s identity, here are some areas that will need clarification:
- The type and tone of messaging that will appeal to your adience
- What your target audience cares about
- The things that make you stand out from the competition
- The specific value that your offering holds
- The story of your brand
- Company goals and values
Solidifying these areas will go a long way in helping to establish your brand’s identity.
With a solid brand identity in place, you can start to measure up communications to gauge whether or not they fit the feel of your brand. For example, if your brand’s identity is caring and nurturing, you might want to start a social media campaign supporting a charity initiative.
On the other hand, if your brand is contemporary and cheeky, you may wish to retweet the latest Kevin Hart one-liner.
Staying consistent and on-point in your brand communications in this way inspires trust and creates likeability. According to research, we relate to brands almost exactly as we do to people. And we are capable of liking them just as much.
Staying on-brand with your communications is one of the surest ways to inspire these feelings in your target customers.
Additionally, consistent and clear brand communications will also impact your brand’s employees. Turning them into brand ambassadors instead of mere employees working for a paycheck.
CREATE A MASTER DOCUMENT FOR BRAND MESSAGING
Once you have outlined your brand’s identity and established its target audience, you need to commit this to paper. Or to document, more precisely.
Without proper documentation, your brand identity will still be a nebulous thing. So will your target audience.
Therefore, compile a master document that storehouses all of this information. At the same time, create a set of customer personas. These typify the average target customer of your brand.
With these concepts recorded, you can then move on to figuring out all the ways in which your brand and your target customers intersect. This can then be used to identify effective messaging opportunities.
FORMULATING MESSAGING OPPORTUNITIES
With the above master documentation to refer to, it is time to formulate when to communicate to customers and how.
To ascertain this, keep in mind:
- Your brand’s values
- Your audience’s likes and tastes
- Your brand’s tone (funny, caring, reliable, quirky, etc)
Also, when crafting messaging opportunities, avoid trying to sound perfect. People are imperfect, and so are brands. Customers know this.
Trying to come across as perfect, can cause brands to alienate themselves from their audiences.
FOCUS TIME ON BRAND COMMUNICATION TO REAP SUCCESS
Brand communication is not rocket science. However, it does require a great deal of thought and input to perfect a brand’s message.
Although brand identity and messaging is probably the most key element of birthing a brand—not all business owners have the time to truly focus on these processes.
Bogged down with routine tasks and admin, many entrepreneurs neglect brand messaging, and with that their ultimate market success.
Do not let this happen to your brand. If you need more time for integral brand work, browse our selection of communication automation tools. Communication automation tools not only save time, but they also ensure consistency in branding communication across multiple channels.
