What is verbal identity in branding?
In the world of branding, visual elements tend to take the spotlight. Yet, brand identity comprises both visual and verbal elements, and both hold equal weight.
While visual identity informs all visual assets associated with your brand (like your logo and colour palette), your verbal identity is the loudspeaker that gives voice to your brand and directs all communication. Both visual and verbal identity are firmly embedded in, and guided by, the broader strategic framework that forms the foundation of your brand.
Simply put, verbal identity is a brand’s unique and consistent use of language to communicate its personality, values and message across all platforms. It should entail your brand's tone of voice, key messaging and specific vocabulary while working in tandem with your visual identity to create a cohesive and recognisable brand experience.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of verbal identity so that you can understand exactly what it is, why it is so significant, and how to use it as effectively as possible.
Why verbal identity matters
Verbal identity is documented in a Brand Language Guide. You can think of this guide as your verbal identity blueprint – it’s a living document that explains exactly how to speak your brand’s language. There are a number of synonymous names for this document, from ‘Brand Voice & Messaging Guide’ to ‘Messaging Playbook,’ but all serve the same purpose: to ensure brand voice is used accurately and consistently. There are many reasons why this is important, and I’ve compiled a list of the most noteworthy points below:
Brand consistency & recognition
The value of brand consistency cannot be overstated. Inconsistency is to branding what leaks are to a ship. In other words: to be avoided at all costs. The reason being that brand worth is equal to brand recognisability. To illustrate this, imagine a world where Tiffany & Co.’s signature blue wasn’t documented in its Brand Style Guide (a guide which documents a brand’s visual identity). It would only take the omission of a single HEX code to unravel the design house’s near two centuries of prestige, with product packaging produced in ever-so-slightly (albeit noticeably) off-brand tones and a flurry of marketing materials in disarray. In this scenario, inconsistent branding would create confusion, damage brand reputation and quality perception, and, ultimately, impact sales.
Similarly, imagine a scenario in which Apple and Ryanair were to swap verbal identities. Apple’s sleek, minimalist tone would be replaced by Ryanair’s boasting of bargain basement prices. The switch would result in messaging that was entirely misaligned with the companies’ pricing models, customer expectations and brand identities. Instead of appealing to the creative entrepreneur with its ultra-edited, aspirational copy, Apple would be undermining its quality and ingenuity by adopting Ryanair’s loud and unapologetically cheap marketing strategy. Likewise, Ryanair’s new messaging would miss the mark with its audience who’ve grown accustomed to the company’s playful abrasiveness and tongue-in-cheek humour.
The moral of the story is that brand consistency and brand recognition go hand in hand. We simply cannot create a strong, well-recognised brand without consistent branding. Across all communication assets – be it social media captions, taglines, product descriptions or landing pages – a consistent, uniform voice is essential to brand value and longevity.
Ensure your brand stands out
Beyond consistency, a crystal-clear voice is a powerful tool for brand differentiation. In a crowded marketplace, brands cannot afford to let their voice be squandered by the noise of digital oversaturation. And in today’s AI-generated, quantity-over-quality bedlam of content overload, customers crave thoughtful, authentic voices more than ever. If you’re pushing out content without first defining a clear-cut brand identity, you run the risk of presenting a watered-down version of your brand’s true potential. The reality is that default, generic brands simply get lost in the crowd and forgotten amid cut-and-paste lookalikes.
But here’s the silver lining: content overload and consumer fatigue mean that well-articulated, intentional storytelling is more powerful than ever. If you can identify your unique selling point, create an ultra-polished brand story and communicate it clearly and consistently, you’ll already be a step ahead of the rest. If you haven’t yet laid the foundational elements of your brand identity (e.g. brand values, mission and origin story), I can help. Take a look at my brand consultancy services for more information.
Building trust and connection
A clear brand voice means opportunities for connection and community building. When customers can reliably receive the same brand persona across every platform, every time, it creates a sense of emotional connection through familiarity. And what’s more, this familiarity fosters trust and builds deeper brand connections over time.
On the contrary, a disorganised verbal identity erodes brand credibility. Imagine, for example, that you receive someone new on the line every time you call your best friend. While this example is admittedly a little hyperbolic, the point remains: it is near impossible to build connections based on inconsistency. Maintaining a fixed and dependable verbal identity lays the groundwork for customer trust and familiarity, with the added benefit of deepening emotional connections to your brand.
A unified approach to writing
Whether you are building a new brand and outsourcing creative services or working within a large organisation, a Brand Language Guide ensures that everyone is writing from the same playbook – literally. It is a living document that can be shared internally and externally to ensure absolute brand consistency. From rules on product and collection names to stylistic and grammatical preferences, a Brand Language Guide documents a brand’s verbal identity clearly and effectively.
Increased internal clarity
Having a clear verbal identity – and documenting it within a Brand Language Guide – has the added benefit of increasing internal brand clarity. A Brand Language Guide clearly outlines key attributes like brand personality, origin story, positioning strategy, brand promise, values, and more. While its ultimate purpose is to ensure consistent messaging, it also acts as a playbook for greater internal clarity and ensures that all employees are operating from the same narrative and with the same goal.
