Lost in Translation: When Brand Messaging Loses its Meaning

“What is it and why should I care?”

 

Two questions everyone asks when a brand tries to sell them something. 

Answering them convincingly is a daunting challenge. With so many brands touting similar-sounding offerings it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. To survive, let alone thrive, it’s vital to carve a core message that meets a key need for your audience. And to communicate it with clarity and consistency.

Here, we explore the common pitfalls brands face and how to overcome them to create brand messaging that rises above the clamour of your competitors.

Don’t try to please everyone

Great advice for life, and more specifically, brand building. Because it’s tempting to try to appeal to a broad audience. But trying to be all things to all people loses what makes you different in a sea of same-sounding brands.

Take edtech, for example. These brands have a vast audience – encompassing students, teachers, administrators, parents, business owners, NGOs, under-served communities, and self-educators of all ages. If they attempted to reach everyone all of the time, their core message would get muddled, and their distinctive benefits lost.   

They would end up with generic statements like, “We help leading b2b brands in the tech space transform their businesses and ambitious individuals level up their career through experiential learning.” The sort of vague, jargon-filled messaging that engages no one.

Instead, pinpoint your primary audience, understand their specific needs, and tailor your messaging accordingly. 

This is how to nail a value proposition: “Girls Who Code is an international non-profit organisation working to close the gender gap in technology by teaching girls computer science, bravery, and sisterhood.”

A clear, focused and empowering message targeted at a specific audience.

Assign a messaging manager

So you’ve got some brand messaging. Now it gets handed from department to department to be ‘refined’ before roll-out. The problem? Conflicting visions puts the kibosh on clarity. Your message becomes watered down, weakening your impact. 

Take Coca Cola’s disastrous rebrand to New Coke in the 80s, a misguided attempt to compete with Pepsi. In the end, too many cooks spoiled the cola broth. Unsurprisingly, the change caused confusion among its loyal customers and they soon reverted to the classic formula and name. 

The lesson? Don’t mess with the integrity of your brand message by passing it round the boardroom. Assign a dedicated team or person who has the final say on messaging and create comprehensive guidelines that cover tone, language, and key messages to maintain consistency. That way, you preserve your brand’s authenticity and keep the core audience engaged.

Focus on your core strengths

When it comes to copy, your customers want clarity, not jargon-laden word salads. 

Cramming everything in your messaging at once will only overwhelm the very people you’re trying to engage.

We get it – your brand has a lot to offer. But an all-you-can-eat buffet of every conceivable benefit won’t entice your audience. “Our cutting-edge platform offers personalised learning paths, gamified assessments, AI-driven analytics, real-time progress tracking and 24/7 customer support.” See what we mean? The brain just can’t handle that much information in one go.  

Instead, serve up a main dish of core strengths that make you different. Duolingo’s “Learn a Language for Free. Forever” makes it easy for the audience to grasp their value proposition without drowning in technical jargon and features. Sure, they could mention that they offer multiple languages, downloadable lessons and community forums. But these secondary benefits would pull focus from their biggest benefit – the fact Duolingo is free and always will be.

Know your brilliance

In the world of tech, the power of effective brand messaging can’t be overstated. The most successful players in this space know the stakes are high, that miscommunication can mean game over. They know who their audience is and ignore the rest. They establish ownership and create clear guidelines so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. 

And they focus on their core strengths, carving precise, focussed messaging that tells their audience exactly what ‘it’ is and why they should care.

Want to be one of those brands? Talk to us