How can I put this?

Brand communication isn’t just about logos, colour pallets and pictures, it’s also about finding the right words and the right tone to connect with your target audience – your verbal identity. It might seem fairly obvious, but it’s something many brands struggle with. Done successfully, your verbal identity is what gives your business it’s unique personality. It makes you stand out from your competitors, helps make your brand instantly recognisable and memorable.

As well as presenting your business to the outside world, a successful verbal identity also helps you communicate clearly to your internal audience. If everyone understands the values and offerings of the business, you can delegate to your team, trusting them to deliver without needing to be micro-managed. You won’t have to worry that your intentions will be misconstrued!

At 52eight3 we like to think we are pretty good at the alchemy of creating stories from mere words to craft a narrative and verbal identity. And we also believe in the value of working with other small businesses: together we are so much more than the sum of our parts. So we were pleased when the opportunity arose for us to work with one of our office neighbours who needed help defining their verbal identity. They are fabulous designers and have worked with some of the biggest brands in Sussex to develop visual identities and branding… but when it came to marketing themselves, they quite literally struggled to find the right words.

We spent time listening to the founders and directors of the business to understand how they worked with their clients and to learn what was really important to them, what they prided themselves on and why they were successful in delivering on their briefs. As John Ford might have put it, we wanted to listen to the “message of [their] hearts”.

We then set to work creating a compelling narrative that would introduce the business to new clients, explaining where they had come from and why they are here. We created a value proposition for the business, with a high-level strapline, and gathered together case studies with great examples of their work. Our neighbours have been able to use this material on their website and in their sales documents and – we’re pleased to report – have already won a new client this year as a result of using this content.

For us, this is a great example of how we can use our expertise to help other small businesses grow. To quote another great Ford who summarises our own belief, “if everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”