Can your brand speak?

Just like words are the expression of our thoughts, to a brand they are the expression of its positions. What we say and how we say it says a lot about who we are. The values in which we believe, each story we live through, the culture in which we are inserted, the experiences that we’ve had. All of it helps to build our identity, which manifests itself in words every time we speak.

That’s the same for brands. Your words can reflect your values, stories, cultures, experiences. And when all of the discourse is aligned in terms of shape and content, it builds what, in branding, we call verbal identity. Therefore, the more the words of a brand are thought through to reflect its positions, the more real and credible they become. The more a brand is what it is, the more consistently it is able to evolve towards what it aims to be.

Think of how many people are in contact with you daily and how much you talk, explain, exchange messages and texts with them. Then imagine the size of the impact of a brand’s words. For the simple reason of having a website, for one, it already has the ability to speak to the whole world.

When a brand understands that the opportunities to express itself with words are opportunities to affirm its essence, it understands that it can take advantage of these moments to consolidate further and to be recognized. And they happen all the time, from the brand’s name to the way an employee answers the phone, from the president’s speech to the text in the products’ packages.

Speaking of which, what is your brand’s name? Does it have a name? What are the values for which it stands? How did it come about, with what purpose, what does it offer? How can that be expressed in words, in an original way, full of personality? You can’t run out of subjects. Because certainly, just like it is for us, a brand already comes with many stories even before it is born. But the way they are told can be created, built and renewed with several tools of verbal identity.

And since speech is also an exercise in self-construction, in addition to that type of work helping to consolidate a brand’s image, it also contributes to it questioning itself, understanding itself and maturing continuously, in regards to its purpose as well as in the bonds it builds with each word, with everyone that comes in contact with it. Because the more a brand speaks, the more it is spoken of, the more it knows about itself, the more it has to say.

• Tati Rossi is PANDE’s verbal identity specialist