Your brand messaging is more than just words—it’s the promise you make to your audience, the way you connect with their needs, and the foundation of your brand’s identity. But what happens when your message falls flat? A weak or inconsistent brand message can confuse your audience, dilute your impact, and leave you struggling to stand out among thousands of businesses just like yours.
In this guide, we’ll break down common mistakes, share examples of what works (and what doesn’t), and give you ways to actually improve and refine your brand messaging into something that works.
What is a Brand Message?
Your brand message is the essence of what your business stands for, expressed in a way that connects with your audience. It answers questions like:
- Who are you as a company?
- What unique value do you provide?
- Why should people care about your company?
At its core, a brand message is about building trust and forging a connection. It’s about creating a narrative that aligns with your audience’s needs, values, and emotions.
Let’s say you sell shoes. Your brand message should go beyond saying, “Our shoes are comfortable.” Instead, it could say, “Our shoes help you feel confident and unstoppable, no matter where your journey takes you.” You see? It’s a story, a promise, and an invitation.
Brand messaging is the common thread that ties your brand’s identity together, making it easy for people to understand who you are and why they should choose you.
Brand Messaging Mistakes & How To Fix Them
Crafting an effective brand message is no easy task. But avoiding common pitfalls can help you connect with your audience and achieve your goals. Below are the most common brand messaging mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Talking too much about the brand and not enough about the audience.
Why It Fails: If your message is all about how great your brand is and not what value you bring to your audience, you’ll lose them fast. They don’t care who you are or what great features your product might have. People care about how your product or service helps them.
How To Fix It: Flip the script. Focus on what the audience gains from your offering. Speak directly to their problems and how you can solve them.
Bad Example: “We’re the best coffee roaster in the city, with state-of-the-art equipment and award-winning beans.”
Fixed Example: “Get your morning energy boost with coffee so good it turns Mondays into your favorite day of the week.”
2. Forgetting your target audience.
Why It Fails: Not knowing your audience’s values, pain points, or desires leads to a message that feels generic and out of touch. Your message won’t resonate if you don’t understand who you’re talking to. People will tune out if they feel your brand isn’t speaking to them.
How To Fix It: Invest in audience research. Define personas for your key segments and craft messages tailored to their specific needs.
Bad Example: A fitness brand advertising a premium gym membership in a student discount group.
Fixed Example: A targeted email to young professionals saying, “Unwind after work with flexible classes designed for your busy schedule.”
3. Being too reliant on trends.
Why It Fails: Basing your brand messaging entirely on fleeting trends might make you feel current, but it often sacrifices authenticity. Trends fade fast, and your message will age poorly if it’s too tied to something temporary.
How To Fix It: Use trends sparingly, and ensure your core message remains timeless and true to your brand identity.
Bad Example: Overloading messaging with slang like “YOLO” or “vibes only” to seem cool.
Fixed Example: A consistent voice: “Whether it’s for work or play, our backpacks are built to keep up with you.”
4. Being unclear (especially with CTAs).
Why It Fails: A confusing or vague message leaves your audience wondering what to do next—or worse, they leave altogether. Clarity is key to guiding your audience. If they can’t understand your message, they won’t engage.
How To Fix It: Make your message concise, with a strong CTA that leaves no ambiguity.
Bad Example: “Join us to see what we’re about.”
Fixed Example: “Sign up for our free trial today and experience the difference.”
5. Using too much technical language, jargon, or buzzwords.
Why It Fails: Overcomplicated language alienates your audience. If they don’t understand what you’re actually saying, they’ll leave. Buzzwords may sound trendy, but they often lack substance and authenticity.
How To Fix It: Simplify your message. Speak like a human, not a textbook. Focus on clarity and avoid overloading your message with “industry speak.”
Bad Example: “Our synergistic solutions leverage cutting-edge methodologies to optimize end-user engagement.”
Fixed Example: Our software helps small businesses attract more customers by improving how they show up on Google.
6. Overuse of numbers/stats.
Why It Fails: While numbers can build trust, overloading your audience with data makes your message feel dry and overwhelming. People respond better to stories than spreadsheets.
How To Fix It: Use one or two key stats to support your message and weave them into a narrative that connects emotionally with your audience.
Bad Example: “Our platform improves efficiency by 18.7%, increases engagement by 24.3%, and cuts costs by 15.4%.”
Fixed Example: “Our platform saves you hours each week, so you can focus on what matters most.”
7. Copying too much from bigger brands.
Why It Fails: Imitating a larger competitor erodes your brand’s authenticity. You’ll seem unoriginal and fail to stand out.
How To Fix It: Focus on what makes your brand unique. Develop your own voice, identity, and message that reflect your unique strengths.
Bad Example: “Be the best you—our way!” (clearly mimicking a competitor’s tagline)
Fixed Example: “Your goals, your story. Let us help you write the next chapter.”
8. Being boring and safe.
Why It Fails: Playing it too safe makes your brand forgettable. A bland message fails to capture attention or leave a lasting impression.
How To Fix It: Take creative risks. Use humor, bold statements, or unique angles that grab attention while staying true to your brand identity.
Bad Example: “We provide quality solutions for your business needs.”
Fixed Example: “Your business deserves more than ‘good enough.’ Let’s make it extraordinary.”
9. No emotional hook.
Why It Fails: Without emotion, your message feels cold and transactional. Audiences connect with brands that evoke feelings and show genuine care.
How To Fix It: Infuse your messaging with humanity. Share stories, use emotional language, and show your passion for what you do.
Bad Example: “Our products are affordable and effective.”
Fixed Example: “Because every family deserves products that work—and don’t break the bank.”
10. Inconsistency.
Why It Fails: If your website, social media, and email campaigns deliver conflicting messages, your audience will be confused about who you are and what you offer.
How To Fix It: Develop clear brand guidelines that define your purpose, tone, and positioning. Align all stakeholders on these principles and apply them consistently across every channel. Whether it’s your website, social media, or email campaigns, your messaging should deliver a unified, cohesive story.
Bad Example: A sustainability-focused brand running an ad promoting disposable plastics while social media posts focus on unrelated discount sales.
Fixed Example: A sustainability-focused brand consistently showcasing eco-friendly products and practices across all platforms, with a tagline like: “A better planet starts with better choices,” reflected in email campaigns, social posts, and website banners.
5 Examples of Brand Messaging Gone Right
Dollar Shave Club has mastered the art of combining humor with clarity. Their brand messaging cuts through the clutter by directly addressing the audience’s pain points—high prices and unnecessary frills in shaving products—while maintaining an approachable, humorous tone.
In their now-iconic launch video, the tagline “Our blades are f***ing great” grabbed attention while showcasing their value proposition: high-quality razors delivered affordably. The video explained the product’s benefits in simple, relatable terms and used humor to make it memorable, earning millions of views and catapulting the brand to success.
2. Zapier
Zapier’s messaging is all about simplicity and empowerment. They focus on the customer’s desire for efficiency and control, emphasizing how their product makes life easier by automating repetitive tasks.
Their landing page’s message, “Join millions who automate their work using Zapier,” leverages social proof to clearly convey the brand’s value. Paired with other messages like “We’re just some humans who think computers should do more work,” Zapier communicates their brand values and reiterates how their product helps make customers’ lives easier.
3. Timex
Timex takes what smartwatches offer and flips it on its head, turning what smartwatch companies would call a benefit into a Timex customer pain point. It’s immensely clever and funny. With this message, Timex shows that they know their target audience very well (likely older individuals who cling to the tradition of analog watches), demonstrate their value very clearly, and get their entire point across in a single line and image. Elegant, understated, and wickedly sharp.
4. Grammarly
Grammarly blends aspiration with functionality. Their messaging focuses on how the tool makes users look and sound smarter while keeping communication clear and polished.
The “Blow Your Workload Out of the Water” ad highlights the tool’s ability to reduce errors, communicate clearly, and improve productivity. It’s visually bold and emotionally resonant, tying the benefits of the product to the audience’s goals of professional and personal success all while related to audience pain points.
5. Mailchimp
Mailchimp, like their name, is quirky yet clear, balancing humor with professionalism to make their tools relatable and accessible. They consistently highlight how they empower businesses to grow.
The “Turn Clustomers into Customers” ad plays on a common typo to cleverly showcase Mailchimp’s email marketing expertise. It’s memorable, creative, and directly tied to their core value: helping businesses connect with their audience effectively.
4 Examples of Brand Messaging Gone Very Wrong
What went wrong with this iPad Pro ad is that Apple completely misunderstood their target audience here. Many potential iPad Pro users are artists or creators of some kind, so brutally crushing the various symbols of their passions or professions was a very bad idea and sent the wrong message. It was visceral in the worst way.
2. 1st Bank
This is a prime example of unclear messaging. The headline of the ad states that it’s about mortgages, but the bulk of the text is focused on instructions to play Dominoes. The result is a very confusing message. How does a mortgage connect to Dominoes? What is the point of this ad?
3. TiVo
This TiVo ad very proudly bragged about its various features…and forgot to explain exactly how those features made people’s lives better. Instead of just saying things like “records multiple shows,” they could have said something like “Watch what you want, when you want—no more family fights over the remote.”
4. Alteryx
This is what happens when a brand tries a little too hard. The language used on this page is chock full of technical jargon and phrases that sound good but don’t mean much. This is also another example of how a brand might focus too much on product features while failing to explain why those features would help a person out.
Brand Messaging Strategy: Building a Framework for Better Messaging
Now that you’ve seen the mistakes and how to avoid making them, it’s time to build a messaging framework for your brand. You can take this framework and apply it to all of your marketing going forward, or use it to reassess your current messaging and see if there are any changes needed.
Step 1: Clarify Your Mission Statement
Your mission statement is the foundation of your brand. It answers three critical questions:
- Who are you? Define your brand identity.
- What do you do? Articulate the products or services you provide.
- What are your values? Highlight the principles and purpose that guide your brand.
Step 2: Conduct a Competitor Analysis
Checking out your competition helps you figure out where you best fit in the market and how you might stand out. Analyze:
- Their messaging: What tone, value propositions, and key points do they emphasize?
- Their strengths: What resonates with their audience?
- Their weaknesses: Where do they fall short, and how can your brand fill that gap?
Step 3: Craft Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Your UVP is the cornerstone of your messaging framework. It defines what makes your brand distinct and compelling. You can use this formula:
We help [target audience] [achieve goal] by [unique approach or offering].
Simplified,
We help X do Y by doing Z.
Step 4: Develop Your Brand Positioning Statement
A brand positioning statement is your internal compass, guiding how your brand is perceived in the marketplace. It’s not a tagline or slogan but rather a clear and concise declaration that articulates your brand’s unique place in the market. While your UVP broadly communicates what makes your business special, the positioning statement narrows the focus, emphasizing why your target audience should choose your brand over competitors.
This step is important for internally aligning your team in all customer-facing messaging. When everyone understands the essence of what your brand stands for and how it differs from the competition, it’s easier to create compelling and cohesive content, campaigns, and customer experiences.
Key Elements:
- Target Audience(s): Specify the primary group(s) of people you aim to serve. Who are your ideal customers? What are their key characteristics, pain points, and needs?
- Category or Market: Identify the industry or niche your brand operates in. This context helps to clarify your focus and establish your brand’s relevance.
- Differentiation: Highlight what sets your brand apart from competitors. What unique benefit do you offer that your audience can’t get elsewhere?
- The Benefit (Emotional or Functional): Clearly define the core benefit your audience gains from choosing your brand. This can be functional (solving a problem) or emotional (offering a feeling or experience).
- Proof Points: Subtly integrate elements that validate your claim, such as awards, certifications, or other distinguishing factors.
Step 5: Further Develop Target Audience Personas
Audience personas represent the diverse segments of your audience, detailing their demographics, goals, pain points, and values. They help your messaging speak directly to each group.
For each persona, ask: How does your brand solve their problems?
Step 6: Set Key Messages for Each Audience Persona
For every persona, develop 2-3 core messages that combine your understanding of their needs and aspirations with how your brand can help them out or solve their issues. These messages should be clear, consistent, and aligned with your overall brand story.
Step 7: Establish Brand Guidelines
Using all the information gathered in previous steps, you can now set your brand guidelines. They promote consistency in how your message is communicated across channels. These should include:
- Tone of voice: Is your brand formal, friendly, humorous, or authoritative?
- Language style: Avoid jargon and adapt to your audience’s vocabulary.
- Visual identity: Logos, color palettes, and imagery should align with your messaging.
Step 8: Evaluate and Optimize
Remember: great brand messaging is not static. Regularly evaluate its performance and adjust as needed based on audience feedback, market changes, and analytics.
- Monitor engagement metrics like clicks, shares, and conversions.
- Conduct A/B testing on CTAs and key messages to see what resonates best.
- Stay attuned to evolving customer needs and preferences.
When you invest the time and effort to get your messaging right, you create a foundation for lasting connections and sustainable growth. Your message matters—so make it count.
