Watch This Episode of MwahTV About marketing and brand statements
Do you feel like you’re choking on all the marketing and brand statements, “lines” and magic sentences you’re supposed to have figured out as a business owner these days? This WILL HELP!
I’m going to take you from this… 😭🍝
To this... 😃🍝
All The Marketing And Brand Statements Covered
This is a clear-cut, no holds barred breakdown of exactly what all of the different statements, lines and magical sentences people like me go on about, that end up creating a tonne of confusion.
Find out for once and for all what they are all supposed to do. Then we can get to prioritising which ones you need to focus on first within your business. I’m going to be explaining:
- Tagline
- Slogan
- Short Bio
- Long Bio
- Elevator Pitch
- Positioning Statement
- Mission Statement
- Value Statement
- Vision Statement
Behind-The-Scenes of This Episode of #MwahTV
A few months ago, I was at an in-person event where a lady across the table from me joked that “Oh that could be one of my taglines, I suppose”
And it really infuriated me that:
- She thinks you have more than one tagline.
- The example she was referring to was nowhere near what a tagline is or does.
- I got the sense that she was subconsciously indicating to me that she knew all about what I did by telling me and the rest of the group this with her joke.
My Annoyance
She clearly didn’t and I let that really tick me off.
But I’m a civilised British lady. I smiled and choked back my frustration. And in typical British etiquette neurosis fashion, I let it continue to infuriate me more and more inside for the rest of the event.
It wasn’t until I was on the drive back home that I ended up having an out loud chat with myself in the car, and that’s when I realised.
It’s not her fault she doesn’t know what a bloomin’ tagline is, is it?
The Resolution
“It’s highly probable that what she said was in no way to directly insult me, my years of studying and my chosen career path at all.”
And that got me thinking in a totally different way!
If this lady who was a Bonafede expert within her field has misunderstood what a tagline is, then there is a very strong chance there are many more business owners out there in the exact same position as her.
So, I got into running some incognito searches online when I was back in my office. Turns out the internet is doing a bad job of really explaining the finer differences of my industry's seemingly endless use of statements.
Here is my attempt to fix this, clean it up and help you get on with running your business and building a more creative and effective brand for yourself. WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Tagline
Is geared more towards public relations to support creating a clear image of the whole brand essence. It’s a memorable motto or phrase.
Brand Example: Skittles
Skittles – Taste the Rainbow.
Brand Example: L'Oreal
L'Oreal – Because You're Worth It.
Brand Example: Kellogs
Kellogs – Snap, Crackle, Pop.
The Tagline is Often Confused with...
The Tagline is often mistaken for a short bio or sometimes for The Slogan.
Prioritise Your Tagline if...
If you are trying to command your position in your market prioritising this fundamental is a good shout for you right now. If this is missing and your top priority is building an audience and authority, you might want to nudge this up your to-do list.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Slogan
Is supposed to be shorter-term, so more in line with summing up a specific product or campaign.
This is an Advertising-Focussed tool. The point of this is to sell, sell your product or service.
Prioritise Your Slogan if...
If effective ads and multi-platform campaigns are something you’re looking at making your priority, it’s time to focus on your slogan or slogans for the year ahead in your business.
Brand Example: Covergirl
“New Wet Slicks Lip gloss. It’s your shining armour.”
Then this slogan would be followed by the time-honoured tagline “Easy Breezy, Beautiful Covergirl”
The Slogan is Often Confused with...
Slogans are often Confused with Taglines.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Short Bio
The short bio is also known as the Personal Brand Statement. These are the same thing.
It’s extra short. You see some incredible ones used in people’s headliner bios all over social media. It usually follows the format of:
“I help/work with ________________ to __________________”
If you want to get fancier with this that can be built up into:
“I help/work with __________________ who want _____________________ by _________________ “
The Short Bio is Often Confused with...
When a short bio has not been lovingly word-smithed into a succinct and punchy couple of sentences this can easily end up becoming a long bio. People try to shove their elevator pitch into a short bio sometimes.
But you’re going to see why that is not a good remedy in a sec.
Prioritise Your Short Bio if...
If you’re working hard on developing a consistent social media presence, prioritising this is a good idea for you right now.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Long Bio
Your Longer Bio is just your short punch bio with lots more context and detail, especially about the transformation you guarantee. In addition to this, you need to be explaining why you exist in the current time and justify how your existence contributes to improving the time we live in or to a specific big world issue.
This is used in places like on your about me/us page on your website, and in the longer bio portions of social profiles like on LinkedIn. It’s also great to include this in your calling card and media kit documentation as well as a reference point in your branding guidelines and the training documentation connected with your branding guidelines.
The Long Bio is Often Confused with...
Long bios are often Confused with the Elevator pitch.
Prioritise Your Long Bio if...
If appearing on other people’s content as a valuable guest expert, and getting booked as a pro speaker is on your priority list, it's time to get your long bio polished up now.
You can see how the short and long bios twist the narrative into speaking to the people you want to work with. I have a whole episode on how to make it never really about you. You can watch that here.
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Marketing And Brand Statements: The Elevator Pitch
A blend of your bio content. With the addition of a specific call to action from the audience, you are pitching to. This can be as simple as “watch my YouTube channel” or it might be
“Gimme £6Million and I’ll give you 0.5% equity in my business.”
I strongly recommend you never use this in an actual elevator scenario. “Play it cool trig” Go with more of a short bio and concentrate on asking the person you’re trying to impress in the elevator some good questions instead.
Prioritise Your Elevator Pitch if...
The elevator pitch has a very precise place in the world of marketing and promotional statements. Working on this is a vital part of your arsenal if you are planning on trying to secure investment in your business. Investor panels, pitch mike nights and similar events like this will all require a timed pitch. Taking the time to work on this and having a version that is 1 minute and 2 minutes long will stand you in good stead at trade events and on the networking circuit. You might even find yourself trotting it off at more social events where a chance meeting may happen.
If that sounds like your business now, make this your priority right now.
The Elevator Pitch is Often Confused with...
This is often confused with the full history of your business beginning with your first day at school. It's all about getting right down to the point, fast and with assertiveness.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Positioning Statement
A well-written Positioning Statement makes it crystal clear how you have differentiated as a brand from the other brands you share a market with.
This statement often hangs around mainly within a brand guidelines document. But if you can remember this episode, you need to work to keep your brand guidelines living and breathing. This is more of an internal statement to give you that immediate litmus test on how you compare to the rest of the competition.
Prioritise Your Positioning Statement if...
If you’re feeling a little bit lost and confused about the right next step in your business, working on this will give you that return to focus.
The Positioning Statement is Often Confused with...
The Positioning Statement is Often Confused with a Value Statement.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Value Proposition
The Value proposition statement on the other hand is more outward facing. This is about articulating why you matter to your ideal customer.
A Pretend Example: A Seaside Brasserie
If you were a seaside brasserie your value proposition might be something like:
“Offering organic and locally sourced ingredients inspired by our PLACENAME heritage dishes”.
Whereas this type of brands Positioning Statement would be more like:
“The only local seaside eatery that works with local produce suppliers in a respectful and mutually beneficial way to give our community a healthier eating option whilst also delivering the taste of our town from the last 500 years to the tastebuds of our future”
See the difference there?
Extension into Community-Building Totems
It's normal to see pieces of a quality value proposition throughout different touchpoints of a well-thought-out brand. This might be the clever use of buzzwords from the wider statement as their own feature words in caption copy on say a single social media post, or even turning a buzzword into a totem that a community of that brand can use and hone as their own to build collective belonging.
Using this pretend seaside brasserie, you could hope to get the surfer community of that same town to start referencing PLACENAME Taste in their subculture and content creation. I can imagine the tourist tees and signature ice creams for sale now!
Prioritise Your Value Proposition if...
If differentiating from your competition is a top priority now, focus on this one first.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Mission Statement
A mission statement is essentially your business plan for the next 3-5 years in a concise nutshell.
A Brand Example: Laura Pearman Creative
“Supporting 75 female owned businesses with the launch of an intensive in-a-day service”
Brand Strategy In A Day
I actually have that in-a-day service by the way y’know. You can find out more about how it works here.
Prioritise Your Mission Statement if...
When you’re getting started or seeking out investment this mission statement is going to show up in your business plan and your pitch deck.
If these outputs don’t really relate to you, consider having this up on the wall of your office or as your screensaver to be that focal point when it comes to planning and prioritising your week ahead.
If you are too much about the big ideas and not enough about what needs to happen in the hours and the minutes of your day – this is the one to focus on right now.
The Mission Statement is Often Confused with...
The mission statement is often confused with the vision statement.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Vision Statement
A vision statement goes way beyond 3-5 years. Because of this, it’s a bit more big-picture and ethics driven. This is why it’s a more common one with PR activity.
Here’s how my vision is bigger than my current mission:
“Creative Articulation that supports women to lead with more confidence and clean up the planet”.
Due to its nature, you can expect to see the vision statement greeting guests in the reception. It’s going to be featured in presentations, and in press releases.
Prioritise Your Vision Statement if...
If you’re not sure what needs to come next after the current big project is done in your business, it’s probably time you focus on prioritising this one.
The Vision Statement is Often Confused with...
Vision gets confused a lot with values and mission statements.
Marketing And Brand Statements: The Value Statement
I like to think of the values statement as even more of a zoomed-out view of the core principles and ethics of a brand. In its most basic form, what is this brand about?
“More powerful women. Refined memorable creativity”.
When you look at these three together you can see how they fit into each other and work together.
Prioritise Your Value Statement if...
You can expect to see this on corporate stationery and merchandise, or the on the homepage of a website. Because it’s so big this is a good one to focus on at the beginning of a new business, but then keep coming back to it on an annual basis.
If your north star feels a bit foggy in your line of sight – it’s time to work again on this one first.
Timestamps for this Episode of #MwahTV
00:00 Episode Begins
00:35 Bloopers
02:16 Everything I'll cover right now
02:31 A quick #BTS Story
05:30 The Tagline
06:36 A Slogan
07:52 The Short Bio
09:01 The Long Bio
11:11 An Elevator Pitch
13:17 The Positioning Statement
14:17 Value Proposition
17:04 Mission Statement
18:26 Vision Statement
19:41 Value Statement
Why It's NEVER All About You (Even with a Personal Brand)
I mentioned this when we covered The Long Bio. Keeping it all about you is a really common branding mistake. Here's how to make sure it's ALWAYS about your ideal customer.
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