There’s more to a brand than what we see. The narrative carries through to the culture, beliefs, and attitudes of a company to influence its way of being in the world.
The answer to this question should culminate in a single mission statement communicated throughout the brand. This message should define your primary objective, core values, and brand personality while remaining concise enough to be remembered. This statement is often used both internally and externally to communicate how and why your brand exists.
Here’s an example of a brand statement in practice:
“To help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly.” (Asana)
This vision/mission statement is so effective because it identifies what they do, why they do it, and how they do it.
What they do:
Why they do it/what they value:
And how they do it:
To lay the foundation for your statement, create a bullet list similar to the one above. Identify your who, what, and why, then weave in other critical details that are relevant to the narrative of your brand. Remember, you want to make this as specific as possible while remaining concise. It should be easily memorable for everyone on your team.
If you’re struggling to condense the entire essence of your brand into one statement, that’s okay—zone in on the most important elements. You can communicate the secondary values and themes through other parts of your brand messaging, like the website copy or tone of voice. The mission statement should contain only the essentials.
As your company grows, you may consider hiring an in-house graphic designer to support the day-to-day design needs. It’s crucial that whoever you hire is briefed on the guidelines of the brand. Having access to digital assets is not enough, they need a framework for how to implement those assets across all channels. If you’re not at the hiring stage, then you should consider how you will implement your new branding. This is where a brand style guide becomes relevant.
This asset, created and provided by us, details how your brand should be displayed. It outlines the minimum dimensions for your primary brand elements, the purpose of your secondary elements, your primary and secondary color palettes, a guide to using those colors, an overview of your brand fonts, and more. It helps you confidently and cohesively utilize your brand assets in every scenario.
We recommend sharing this brand guideline internally with all present and future executors on your team. If you are handling the design, we encourage you to get intimately familiar with every detail of this style guide. We aim to make it as practical as possible so you can feel comfortable implementing it on your own. If you don’t have an in-house designer but still need support, we happily offer VIP Days to current and former clients. This day is used to tackle the quick, one-off projects that you don’t have the time or energy to handle on your own.
Finally, you need to be in alignment with your tone of voice. What language do you use as a brand? What phrases do you avoid? How do you aim to make people feel when they interact with you? These questions will lead you to your brand’s tone of voice, which will be applied across internal and external communications.
Duolingo, a language learning platform, has become infamous for its chaotic and playfully informal tone of voice. They’ve been known to take to the internet with the latest slang, pop culture reference, or trending audio before it’s even caught on with the general public. They are unashamedly resonant with a young Gen Z audience and don’t shy away from being ridiculously bold. This has resulted in a viral online presence in touch with its target consumers.
On the flip side, Apple is esteemed for its minimalistic and confident tone of voice. They use simple sentences with formal grammatical structures and aspirational wording. There’s a boldness to their voice but unlike Duolingo, it is quiet and assured. It doesn’t come across as arrogant. They are direct, clear, innovative, and professional.
Here is Duolingo’s mission statement in contrast with Apple’s.
Duolingo:
“We think learning a language should be nothing to fear and should feel all about fun. We’ve combined technology with the power of play to make language learning a joy, not a chore. And because Duolingo is free, it IS open to everyone.”
Apple:
“Apple strives to bring the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals, and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software, and internet offerings.”
To form your brand voice, we encourage you to think about how you want your clients to feel. Then determine how you need to speak to evoke those emotions. We uncover all of this during our brand strategy package.
In conclusion, your brand greatly impacts your day-to-day operations. That’s why it’s essential for your brand to feel like you. If it feels forced and inauthentic, it will show up in your client interactions or marketing. Our goal as an agency is to truly listen during our initial explorations so we can land on a final concept that reflects who you are as a founder, team, and company. We want the result to feel like a yes on all fronts.
To build a cohesive brand from the inside out, we encourage you to inquire about our services or learn more about our work here. We would love to walk with you through this process.
