Branding Versus Brand Messaging- Huh? with Deb Goeschel

Join me and my guest, Deb Goeschel of the Message Artist Creative Group. In this episode, among many other things, you will learn  

• Why a logo isn't the sum total of a brand
• How Brand Messaging is the crust to your brand pie
• The core elements that makeup brand messaging

I am really excited about this episode and I hope you will tune in. Deb is offering her Rebrand Checklist as a free gift to all listeners.  You can learn more about Deb at http://www.MessageArtist.com.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_02 0:48

I am here today with my friend Deb Gachel. Deb is the owner and creative director of Message Artist Creative Group. And just to give you a sense of who she is, what she does, her tagline is your brand, your message, our business. I'm really excited to be here today with Deb, who's going to talk to us about branding. And with that, I'm going to say, hey, Deb, how's it going?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Hey, Ed's going very well. Happy to be here. I'm looking forward to the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Well, I'm I'm really pleased to have you here. And I and I know that you're the go-to person when it comes to branding, not to mention a number of other things as well. But I'd like us to talk about branding specifically and actually make a comparison between brand messaging and branding. What can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

That's a great question and a great place to start. So when people hear branding, they often immediately think of the logo. So they think of the visual identity as what branding is. And they're not wrong, but they're also not right. The logo is simply one little tiny piece of the branding pie, you know, and it's the visible piece, it's the piece that people really recognize, which is of course what we want to happen. But it's sort of the last thing that has to happen. So when I talk about brand messaging, that's where you start, right? This is the crucial ingredient if you're making that brand pie, if we keep with that little metaphor, you know. Um I think of it as the foundation of it all. So, you know, again, thinking of that pie, it's the crust, right? The pie is going to fall apart. You can't serve a pie if it doesn't have a crust, right? So it's it's the necessary beginning of what we're talking about. Um, and there are a variety of elements that go into creating one's brand messaging. Um, and I do want to differentiate. So you've got your your core brand messaging, right? That's the overarching piece of your company's branding. Um, any kind of campaign is going to have its own messaging, et cetera, but will be in alignment with the brand. But when we say brand messaging, we're talking about that, those core things. And I break it down into five key pieces. So, you know, we're talking your vision, your mission, your core values, the unique value proposition, your ideal customer or client profile. And of course, all of those five things sit on top of the business goals and objectives. So that's that's really what we mean when we're talking about brand messaging.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Okay, so brand messaging, and I appreciate the distinction here. I think you're right. The vast majority of us look at branding as that visual cue that we have to who someone is. Your brand message then uh is distilled into that visual uh token as well. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yes, yes. The brand, um excuse me, the brand messaging is you know, it's that peak behind the curtain, you know, of the business. If you're really seeing what's driving the business, what's informing the decisions, what's informing how you're going to operate. In essence, your brand messaging becomes your company culture. So that is a huge piece that a graphic designer or brand designer is going to take, and then they're going to create that logo, that visual identity that is the visual representation of your brand and your company, right? So it's that outward facing, um, but it it can't be effective if it doesn't have all those things behind it.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

And we we certainly have to acknowledge the fact without an adequate brand message, we cannot possibly attract uh prospective clients, customers, and such. Uh, we need to be able to put ourselves out there in a manner that they can understand. And that's and that is the basis of the brand message that my clientele, my customers will know who I am, what I have to offer, why would you want to work with me? Uh so I I can see that this is certainly a very big thing. And it and to think that many of us do and historically have looked at the the logo as a token of who we are, have really lost the point. Uh, there's so much more behind it uh than that. So, what's the ideal process? Uh, you know, what would you say are the two steps when it comes to uh approaching a branding or a rebranding project? Let's start with a branding project. Let's start with a new one.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

And they're very similar actually in process. Um really, you again, you want to start with that brand messaging piece. Um, because when you have all that defined, then the visual identity is so much easier to develop, right? Because we know the who, the why, all of those things. We know what you're doing, we know what the company stands for, all of that kind of thing. So really start there with the core element. And I always tell folks, like, you know, if you're brand new out the door and you don't have a lot of funding, you're gonna be DIYing it. Like this is what we all have done when we started, right? But if you're lucky enough to have a little bit of funding, and I mean this really comes with the rebranding too, um, get outside help as much as possible. I mean, even if you're doing it yourself, you've got colleagues, you've got friends. Everybody buys something from someone, right? So they understand about what a company is, and everyone's got their favorites. So they understand at some level about branding. So, and the reason I say this is because when so many of us start our businesses, we're really passionate and we're really good at our piece, right? We know what we're doing. And I always liken it too. There's a reason that the um subject matter expert is not the one who should write the manual, right? The how-to manual, right? You're too close. You're gonna miss something, something isn't gonna be conveyed the right way. So you want to get some outside perspective. But start with those core elements and really define them, you know, really understand what you're doing, what your aspirations are, you know, that vision, where are you going? Like what's your big picture, your big why, you know, your mission, your mission, what are you doing? Who are you doing it for? All of those things. So once you have all of those elements um identified and defined clearly, then um then you're gonna also start looking at other brands. You're gonna go and do a little research. What are the colors you like? What are the, you know, logos? What are the brands that you like and why? What are the brands you don't like and why? And you don't have to like everything about a brand, you know. It's sort of like looking at what they're doing because it's really that market comparison that you're looking for here. You know, where do I fall in this? You know, is somebody doing something that I really like and admire? And how can I emulate that without copying that? Right. So um you want to you start understanding that persona that you want to portray to the world, right? For your that face of your of your business. Um and then once you're getting underway, um you're gonna also um take, well, this is really probably more for the rebrand, but then you want to look at everything that you're doing. So if you're starting out, you know, this is your first, you're creating this brand, you're creating a company, it's really about what do I need now? You know, what what do I have to have? What can wait until I have maybe a budget to get expert help? So it's that balance of determining how do I need to show up in the market so I can at least begin to sell my product or service, right? That's you got that's where it starts, right? We're in business. You've got to get the cash revenue beginning. And then you build up many, many, many businesses. I would say probably the majority of them. Um especially if you're new at this, somewhere around the two-year mark, you're gonna make a lot of changes. It's just you learn so much in the first couple years. So I actually always recommend people don't spend a ton of money on branding when you first start, right? Keep it super, super simple. Maybe don't even bother with the logo if if it's if you really don't need it, you know, like just it's your name or maybe it's the company name and just do a font treatment of that because you're gonna learn so much in that first couple of years. You may change your client profile, you may change your offerings or how you're doing business. So wait until you know a little bit more information before you spend the thousands of dollars that branding will cost you.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

So now that's an interesting point, Deb. Uh I I totally agree that we we evolve as we, you know, particularly when a business has just started. We evolved tremendously over that uh, you know, the first six months to two-year period. And provided we remain in business after six months to two years, which of course we strive to do, uh, we we want to have the greatest impact. Now, the idea of coming out there uh a little bit light on the branding side makes perfect sense, but is there something to fill in the gap between that and when you get to that full branding stage?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

I think it's just showing up consistently, right? So I'm I'm certainly hoping that as anybody who's starting a business, that's the point of that brand messaging piece. If you go through those pieces, you're going to one, answer a lot of your own questions, right? I mean, I have taken companies through through this who've been established for years and they almost always learn something new, right? Or if there's some sort of aha, or oh my gosh, that's why I've always done that. And then it's just it's been vague for them. So if you really take the time and you you go through that messaging process and you get that clearly defined, then you just need to start showing up, right? Whether that's you're growing your email list, you're on social media, and you're posting regularly, um, you're transparent as much as is appropriate, you know, in your business. Um you're sharing yourself. And because again, you're gonna learn. So you're out there, you're talking, and you will get better at it. You will find yourself honing your brand messaging. That's that's really what I say that first year or two needs to be, right? Before you you go, like I said, it branding a really good branding isn't inexpensive in and it's wildly varied in cost, but that's also because it's wildly varied in the expert levels, et cetera, et cetera.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So but the return on investment is is well worth it, of course. Let me ask you a question. How how does how does the idea of storytelling fit into brand identity, brand messaging?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

It's everything. I I when I say messaging, and for me, you know, I translate that into when I actually say that, I help my clients tell their stories, right? This is what brand messaging is. You are telling your story. It's your origin story if you're, you know, um, especially if you you read that kind of fiction, like you it's the origin story of your business. So why? Like why this, why now, why this way? Um that's the stuff that is that lovely, juicy personality that the company can have, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:06

And I've always been one that believes in stories. And I and I refer to things as simple as you know, let's say you go to the store and you're in a a Tchotsky store and you and you see a pet rock. Now there's a pet rock, and then the pet rock next to it has a little card attached to the story behind this particular pet rock. Which one do you buy? The one with the story. Okay. Absolutely. And that's and that's just that's just a retail story, if you will. That's not even, you know, touching upon the the uh the breadth of the storytelling in business, but I know for me, a story provided up front is a powerful attraction tool and a powerful engagement tool. So I definitely can see where that fits in. And let me ask you this then. Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead then.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

No, I was just gonna say to that point, um, when all things were equal, because none of us are doing something brand new, right? There's somebody else always doing what you're doing, and sometimes there's a lot of other people doing what you're doing. Um, but when you think about all things being equal, where's the unique piece, right? And again, we go back to the brand messaging. What's your unique value proposition? Or maybe it's values. I use this example all the time. So when we made a switch, we're trying to be more um ecologically friendly and sustainable in the products we buy. I wanted to buy the wool dryer balls. I wanted to get rid of the stinky dryer sheets. I didn't like them, don't want them, right? So I'm looking to buy these wool dryer balls. Pretty simple stuff. There's a lot of companies selling wool dryer balls now, right? So I was like, and they're all roughly the same price. So I'm like, well, what company am I gonna buy from? And I just kind of clicked through a couple of them, looked at their websites, and the company I bought from was the one whose core values aligned with mine and they were giving back to their community. So that little bit of value that they showed me was what got them the sale, right? So it's not that they were doing something different with the wool dryer balls, right? It was something that they did in their company culture that I wanted to support. So that is an important thing to think about, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

And they were able to articulate their story, their core values were shared in a you know, a story type sense that you were able to identify it. They made that visible to you, yeah. Um, and therefore you became a customer of theirs.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Let me ask you another question here. What about brand authenticity? And I and I want to tell you something. Um, when I think of brand authenticity, once again, my head goes back to storytelling. You know, my telling my story, but that's that'd probably take us down the wrong path. What is brand authenticity? And and and you know, we throw it around, but what does it mean?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Um, well, the concept is fairly straightforward. It's basically you're honest, transparent, and trustworthy with your brand, right? At at the base level there. Um delivering on that can be a little more complex, obviously. Um, but in essence, it's actually fairly achievable when you know all your components and you act accordingly on them, right? So I always say that building the authentic brand, it's it's the backbone, right? It is the backbone for building trust and developing long-term relationships with your customers. Um, this is what turns them into fans. It's what makes them come back, right? Um, in essence, just like what I was just talking about, this the Will Dryerball example. If the your customers get to know you and what your business stands for, like your mission, your values, they can feel connected. It's a it's a way for them to, you know, it's like meeting a new friend, right? So you you have this emotional connection which builds loyalty over time. Um, and that is, of course, what we all want and need as as business owners. But yes, we always need our new, but the reality is what's the best, right? It's your recurring customers, your recurring clients that keep coming back to you because they love you and they talk about you, right? That's the other thing. They they're they're gonna share how happy they are. Um, but to really work on true authenticity, I mean, that's that's the buzzword of the day these days, but it's still a good thing to aim for, right? Because in today's age of everything out there, information overload, the bottom line is if you lie, if you you skirt the corners, it comes out. That's it's almost every time, right? It comes out. And then you're doing damage control and you're never gonna gain the trust back that you had before. So the things to look at is which I've mentioned, you know, in the previous um points, know your why, right? You want to know the big why, like why this business, why now, why how, you know, all of those things. But also when you're making decisions in your business from you know, marketing tactics to what you're offering, understand the why there too. Like you don't, it's not about just throwing spaghetti at the wall. I mean, if you're doing a legit A-B test in a marketing way, great. But you gotta know why you're doing it in the first place, right? Um you also really need to work to create value for your audience, right? So that's where that's sharing and showing up consistently. You offer them tips, you offer them inside views, you know, and this is really where the the emails, the blogs, the social media posts um really become crucial because you just you just keep showing up and people get to know you and you engage. And that means also engaging with other people in ways that show your expertise, that show your viewpoint, right? You're just showing up um without, you know, this feels like it shouldn't have to be said, but I'm I'm gonna say it is you've gotta be honest. You've got to be honest, honest, honest all the time. Um you know, as transparent as possible. Um, obviously, depending on your business, certain things you can't put out there, but be transparent when you can, like if and and allow vulnerability to show sometimes. So if somebody makes a mistake, you know, you don't have to call it out necessarily, but if it's impacted your customers or if it's impacted your vendors in a negative way, you need to go, so this happened, we're working to fix it. Apologies, like just own it, you know, just own it because it's it's human. It's a human piece of the business. Um, and that really helps with that loyalty, that really helps with that human connection piece. Um which of course comes right out down to understand who your audience is, right? Um, that's really understanding who it is you are trying to target, you know, whether it's customers, clients, businesses, you know, individual customers, whatever it is, know who you need to talk to, know who you need to reach out to because you are not talking to everyone. That's the key thing here. When you're building brand authenticity, you are not trying to please everybody in the place. You're trying to please your small piece of that audience, right? So, you know, you build that that persona, that client, that customer persona. Um you can do, um, you know, again, I can go back to that will dryer ball example where they aligned with a cause. They were giving money to a specific cause, right? So if that's appropriate for your business, you can do that and say, I'm donating time or money or, you know, whatever it may be. Um, it could even literally be putting in your um, you know, somewhere in your about us section of your site, saying, this company is uh, you know, passionate and supports diversity and inclusion. It's it's like you don't have to necessarily be out there on the streets with the, you know, the the protest signs, but let people know what you stand for. And I think that all of these pieces really help uh your audience understand your authentic position in in the marketplace. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Deb, I think you've done a great job of giving business folks insight into not only the value of brand messaging and branding, but also the steps that they have to consider uh to you know to effectively achieve this. I think we can both agree it is not an uh easy process, it's a deliberate process, requires a lot of thought. And there are certainly people like yourself to support folks in this, at the very least, I think it's critical that people recognize it is not just something to which you give uh a partial uh analysis and then you know put something out there. It it is your story, it is your authenticity, it is your uh the message you're trying to deliver is it has to be uh personal. It is not about the business, it's really coming from the source itself, from the individual.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Absolutely. You know, anybody who's worked in a corporate environment will understand this statement. You know, it comes from the top down, right? The morale, the motivation, it's top down, always has been. And as the business owner, you know, or the marketing director who's coming up with this, like whoever is in charge of helping develop this, it is creating this authentic piece. It's it's not for show. It shouldn't ever be performative. And I always say to clients, this is an organic. piece of your business. This is not something you do once and file away and never look at it again. Right? This is something you you you revisit. It's it's a living breathing. Your mission, your vision should be on everybody's, you know, in office space because your employees, your your subcontractors, your vendors need that part of how you do business. And you're going to want to be sure that anybody that you hire or work with is aligned with you. Right? Otherwise it's very uncomfortable and can get messy.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

So absolutely. So Dad, we're we're going to have to wrap up here. I was just wondering if you have any closing uh comments you'd like to make and after which I'd like you to please share the the best ways to contact you and learn more about you as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

So please um I think you know as far as this goes it it is a big branding is a big project, right? Branding and messaging, rebranding all of it it's it's a it's an effort. It takes effort. And um you know what's the saying the devils in the details and you you really do have to take some time with it. But that said it's also as I find it anyway lots of fun lots of fun um to go through and really be deliberate because I think when you are you can you can create something fantastic. I think it it really makes everything so much better to move forward and grow. And that of course is what most of us want as business owners right we want to grow that um help us reach our our dreams uh in the reason we started you know our own businesses. As far as reaching me um probably the best way is either my website messageartist.com or I can be found on LinkedIn. My name's Deb Gaishel so no no mysteries there. And um yeah I'd love to connect and uh certainly shoot me an email if anybody has any questions about any of this. I'm always happy to answer them. And this is this is my passion, right? I love I love talking about brand messaging and and how it impacts all of your your marketing and and decisions in your business.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

So well Deb, I want to thank you not only for your service but also for your passion and I'd have to I have to say if one was not passionate about what you're doing uh it's not the place to be. And and your client and your clientele should also be passionate about this again so thank you for providing both an education and a tremendous insight into what you do. My name is Ed Drosd of the Small Business Doctor and I want to thank my guest Deb Gaishel and we will see you all soon. Thank you folks.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Thank you, I'm not sure if you're not going to be