4 Steps to Creating a Strong Brand Message that Sticks

In my blog "The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus," I discuss the need to be one thing in the minds of your customers. But what is an effective brand message?

To be effective, a brand message needs to communicate a single idea that connects on both a rational and emotional level — because that's what motivates behavior.

How do you determine what that one clear message should be?

The answer is to triangulate—Look for the intersection of three perspectives to identify your promise: the customer perspective, internal perspective and marketplace perspective.

The basic notion of triangulation is that you can figure out a location if you know its distance relative to three distinct points. This is how ship captains stay out of the Bermuda Triangle..

Take, for example, a case study for a pro bono project Traction did to help position the Oakland, Calif.-based non-profit organization Cat Town that helps troubled cats find homes. It helped them shape a vision that led to them opening the first "cat cafe" in the United States, and reducing euthanasia rates in Oakland by over 70%.

Maybe you sell advanced AI technology, or you sell vacation cruises, or kumquats, and you're asking yourself, "what does saving cats have to do with my business?" It doesn't matter what business you're in — the same fundamental marketing principles still apply.

Cat Town's challenge was developing messaging that makes it stand out from the many other places where people can get cats, particularly shelters.

Here are four essentials it looked at to create its brand message:

Step 1: Define your brand message from the customer perspective.

First, you need to get into your customer's head. What matters to them? Don't presume. Interview customers, survey them, pay attention to them on social media, follow them around the mall. Start thinking about what your customers most value and keep track of keywords you hear repeatedly from them.

This kind of observation revealed to Cat Town that it wasn't for just anyone wanting a pet. The cats it works with are often sick, older or shy. It realized its customers value getting animals out of cages more than bringing a cute kitten home.

Step 2: Define your value proposition with an internal perspective.

For a brand promise to be effective it must be true. What is it about your product or service that makes it unique? Where do you create value? Talk to people inside your organization. As the founder, what is your vision? What is your top sales person doing to close sales? What's unique about your manufacturing process?

Cat Town wanted customers to know that not only their cats, but the process for finding them homes, was unique. Rather than being picked up on-site as cats are at most shelters, they are delivered right to people's homes and have access to various at-home services.

Step 3: Differentiate your brand with a marketplace perspective.

Only one brand can own a position. How do your competitors position themselves? Look at their tag lines. Read the "about us" copy on their websites. Palmolive positions itself as the only dish soap that softens hands while you do dishes. You want to make sure your value proposition is distinct.

For Cat Town, maintaining a positive relationship with shelters, which could be considered as both competitors and partners, was important to its business. It needed to distinguish itself without disparaging the competition.

Step 4: Create a brand message with a Venn diagram.

Once you have your insights written down, divide them on a Venn diagram—using three overlapping circles to determine where these perspectives intersect and how.

Ultimately, Cat Town decided its message would be: "Open the Cage." It wanted to connect emotionally with customers interested in helping troubled animals. It also wanted to touch on its unique process of bringing cats right to people's homes and differentiate themselves from competitors in a positive way.

That brand message became a catalyst for the idea of Cat Town creating a cat cafe that doubled as an adoption center. In 2011, 42% of cats that entered Oakland shelters had to be put down. A decade later Cat Town started working with Oakland Animal Shelter, that number was down to less than 10%.

Another key aspect important for your brand messaging: looking to the future and your potential for growth. For Cat Town, that meant having a message that didn't just describe its organization, but also sparked the potential for a movement.

Whether you're involved in something overtly humane like finding homes for cats or you're selling software or motor oil—that's the ethos you have to get across through your own branding message.

Donate to Cat Town here.