We’ve come to accept clever taglines for strategy.
We’ve confused a consistent tone for a charming message.
This is the great failure of modern branding.
We prioritize how we speak over what we say.
Forgetting that a charming delivery of a forgettable message is still a forgettable message.
Your brand’s voice only matters after its words have earned the right to be heard.
Why structure matters more than style
Great work is rarely the product of one spontaneous stroke of genius. It is the output of a system, a framework that has been refined over time to create a repeatable process. It can be edited, adapted, and used to your advantage.
This is my foundational belief concerning work.
And it applies to your brand’s messaging too. Without a system, your brand message can quickly become an array of competing ideas.
The most common approaches to brand messaging are useless because they focus on the superficial. They’ll fixate on tone of voice, visual identity, or some fleeting “vibe.” And they mistake the container for the contents.
As you can guess, the result is a brand that sounds pleasant but doesn’t make sense. This happens particularly because many skip the fact that messaging is a product of positioning.
Before a brand can decide how it will talk, it must first define what it will say. Highly effective models are the ones that provide a foundational structure.
Real impact comes from structure. It comes from building your message on a foundation so solid that every piece of copy, every post on social, every sales pitch feels connected. What you don’t know is that this type of structure exists, and it is the silent engine running the world’s most resonant brands.
How many models are there
There are countless frameworks for messaging across different industries (from HR models like the Harvard Model or the Warwick Model to basic marketing templates that focus on competitor analysis or value props). Very few offer a simple and deeply effective system for brand messaging.
In this never-ending field of brand messaging models, one stands out because it is deceptively simple, delivers results across industries, and possesses massive psychological power.
It clarifies your message by placing the customer at the center of the narrative.
It is a system built on the timeless principles of storytelling, and the most persuasive model available for any brand that wants to genuinely connect with its audience.
It is the StoryBrand Framework.
What brand messaging really means
Before that, let’s get on the same page with our understanding of brand messaging.
Brand messaging is how your brand speaks. It’s the story you tell about who you are and why you matter.
In practice, this means every piece of copy, every post, and sales pitch should reflect a clear, consistent identity.
Messaging follows directly from positioning (the defining statement of what your brand offers and why it’s different). As Conor Bond from Crayon said, “without positioning, there is no messaging.”
In other words, you must first decide who you are and who you serve before you can craft words that connect. Only then can you shape words so that they truly resonate.
Here are the key elements of brand messaging:
- Positioning Statement: a beautifully concise summary of what you do, who you help, and what makes you unique. It’s the internal statement that guides all messaging.
- Brand Promise (why people buy): the central benefit or payoff clients get when they choose you (your “promise” to them). It tells the client why they should care.
- Key Messages: a short list of the main points you want people to remember (your key features, values, or benefits and the proofs that back them up). These are your talking points, repeated across materials, so every channel builds the same story.
When these pieces align, your brand speaks with one voice. In fact, consistency is crucial. It is the most effective way to build brand loyalty. A customer who sees the same core message everywhere will trust your brand and remember it.
All marketing efforts should complement each other, so every touchpoint reinforces the brand story.
The StoryBrand framework
One of the most widely used messaging models is Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework. Based on his best-selling book, StoryBrand is explicitly designed to clarify brand messaging.
Miller’s team even describes it as “the world’s foremost message clarification framework.” It treats your brand’s marketing like a story.
In StoryBrand, the customer is the hero of the story, facing a problem, and your brand is the guide who helps them overcome it. This flips the usual self-centered approach. The hero of your brand’s story is not the brand itself; it’s the customer dealing with a challenge.
The human brain is hardwired for stories, and every person is the hero in their own story. If brands adopt this view (positioning themselves as the hero and listing all the ways in which they are great), the brand has a flawed understanding of human psychology.
People do not listen (at least I don’t) when a brand talks about itself, but their attention (and mine!) immediately perks up when the conversation shifts to them and their problems.
A story about a character with a problem is 10x more compelling and memorable than a brand having a grand monologue about its revolutionary features. If you cast the customer as the hero, a brand can enter their story and provide them with the tools and guidance they need to win.
If anything, this is what brands already do. This approach does not diminish the brand’s role; instead, it lifts it to the level of a trusted advisor, a mentor who understands and has the expertise to help them overcome it.
Flipping the script is what allows this framework to build trust quickly and influence decisions on an emotional level.
The framework breaks down into seven parts. In brief, first you identify the hero (your target customer and what they want). Then you define the problem they face (their pain points). Next, you position your company as the guide (show empathy and authority, like Yoda). You outline a clear plan of how the customer can solve their problem, and give a strong call to action. Finally, you show the stakes — what success looks like if they work with you, and what they avoid by doing so.
To put this in context, a fitness coach might tell customers: You (the hero) want more energy and confidence (goal), but you’ve struggled with motivation and time (problem). I’m a certified trainer with quick, science-backed workouts (guide identity). Follow my 6-week program plan (plan), and sign up now (call to action). Imagine feeling strong, energized, and confident (success if they join) instead of staying tired and frustrated (failure if they don’t).
This could use more work, but it shows the usage well. Every sentence is designed to show the customer as the hero and your service as their trusted path forward.
StoryBrand’s focus is on outcomes and transformation instead of listing a golden list of features. Most messaging strategies tell you to attack the pain point. The real ones tell you to show the reward (I’m talking soul-level desires).
One example I found compelling is a call-to-action button: “Download our free guide…and start impressing your guests tonight!” Notice how it highlights the benefit (impressing guests) rather than the guide itself. It paints the positive outcome and taps into deeper desires. Today, as modern marketing wisdom would put it: customers want to see how their life improves by choosing your brand.
No wonder StoryBrand caught on. Many, many agencies have used it, going as far as saying “it is the most effective approach to storytelling in a business context.”
The experts’ table
StoryBrand is a leading framework, but it is not the only way to think about messaging. Many other frameworks contain similar principles.
Take Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, for instance. It is a popular model. He says that brands should articulate why they exist before explaining how and what. The idea is that people connect first to purpose. The “why” behind a brand “should define the overarching purpose of the company, giving your team and clients a meaningful reason to support your business.”
Take Apple’s slogan “Think Different.” It is fundamentally a “why” statement because if Apple had settled on ‘we make computers,’ they would be unrecognizable as the brand we know today. They doubled down on inspiring values and actually live up to them. I, too, use his “start with why” thinking when creating positioning statements.
Another classic example is the brand pyramid (or brand ladder rather). It visually layers a brand’s identity from the DNA (mission, purpose, vision, values) up through personality and benefits. The goal is to keep every message tied to the brand essence. The main benefit of this model, I think, is its consistency. If everyone follows the same “pyramid,” all communications naturally relate to each other.
Then there’s the 3 Cs of brand messaging: Consistency, Clarity, and Character.
Consistency, we’ve covered. Clarity means your message is focused on one thing, and it should be easy to understand. Character is about the brand’s personality. This overlaps with tone because, remember: tone is how you say things, messaging is what you say. Still, presenting an authentic character can make messages memorable.
Across all these beautifully built models, there are a few truths that reappear:
- speak to real human beings (and their needs!),
- be clear and simple,
- and be consistent.
The framework you choose to use (StoryBrand, Golden Circle, brand pyramid, etc.) is less important than following these principles.
Putting your messaging into action
Once you’ve chosen a framework, the next thing you need to do is operationalize your message. Here’s what I usually do, but tailored for you:
- Research your audience: talk to your audience (offer something in exchange for their time), use the insights and market data to understand their struggles and desires. In StoryBrand terms, discover who your “hero” is and what problems keep them stuck.
- Define the core story: draft the core narrative (see that example above).
- Draft key messages: free-write a suite of messages of varying lengths. This can include: a one-line tagline, a one-paragraph brand story (see LinkedIn headlines). Where possible, represent facts with emotional language — highlight the positive outcome as well as solving the pain.
- Use a messaging framework tool: this helps to organize your messaging into a document (could be a Word doc — nothing fancy). It’s like building a “message house”: one big roof statement, a few pillars (supporting points), and proofs at the foundation. At the 16th Form (a branding studio I run), I’ve created a one-pager with a brand story and talking points.
- Document tone and style: Decide on a tone of voice. Sorry, but you have to pick one or combine two to make one and give examples.
- Align all channels: Apply the messages consistently. Update your website, templates, and sales scripts with the new framework.
- Train the team (if you’ve got one): Make sure everyone at least knows the core message. You don’t have to say it all to them always; it could be as simple as including the positioning statement in brand docs or using the messaging guide in every creative brief.
- Measure and iterate: Finally, test how your messaging resonates. Use feedback from sales conversations and marketing analytics to spot any confusion. Good messaging should not only feel inspiring to you, but also easily understood by your audience (remember that.)
Listen, brand messaging is both art and science. It has to start with a deep understanding of who you are (as a brand) and who you serve, and then go on to use a clear framework to control the narrative.
That’s it for this one.