Deborah Brody Marketing Communications Percolating Creative Ideas * * * October 19, 2016 It's finally fall! Greetings! We’ve made it to the last

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Deborah Brody Marketing Communications

Percolating Creative Ideas


October 19, 2016
It's finally fall!

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Fall splendor

Greetings!

We’ve made it to the last quarter of the year! With the election only weeks away, I hope that business will get back to normal as any uncertainty about the country’s future is decided.

Since the last newsletter, I have had the pleasure of interviewing two professionals for the On Writing series. In August, we got insights from South Florida PR whiz Stu Opperman. And in September, we heard from communication consultant-turned-book author Bonnie Friedman.

Have you thought about your brand lately? If not, you may find it helpful to list your brand’s attributes. Read on for some suggestions on how to do this.

I’d like to wish you a wonderful fall season, and a (very early) Happy Thanksgiving! The newsletter will be back in December. In the meantime, please contact me with any writing and/or copy editing needs.

Best regards,

Deborah

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What are your brand’s attributes?

Whether you are dealing with your own personal brand or your service/product’s brand, it’s imperative that you are able to list your key brand attributes. Attributes are those words or phrases that describe your brand (e.g., smart, technologically advanced, indestructible, etc.).

Key brand attributes describe your brand’s essence to potential customers/employers/donors. Being clear on your brand’s attributes will help you to create better marketing pieces by guiding your tone and your choice of images.

Start by writing a two or three sentence description of your brand and/or looking at your existing marketing materials. What adjectives did you use? List these. Next, your may want to read through a list of personality traits here and pick the ones that resonate the most with your brand. Some may reflect your brand currently, and some may be what your brand aspires to be. You may also want to ask your customers/donors/associates how they would they describe your brand. What words or descriptors keep coming up?

By now you probably have created a list of ten or more descriptive terms. Go through this list and circle up to five terms or phrases that most closely match what you want your brand to communicate. These are your key brand attributes.

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Communications tip: Use words you understand

This is a plea for folks to use plain(er) language. Too many times, people try to sound intellectual by using a long word when a short word would be better (I am looking at you “utilize.”) Just as bad is the habit some have of using words they think they know, but don’t really. There are countless examples of words that people regularly confuse or use incorrectly (here’s a list from Buzzfeed and one from ThoughtCatalog). One of my “favorite” poorly used words is misnomer, which means the use of a wrong or inappropriate name for something, but is often misused to mean misunderstanding. Here's a blog post (Are you sure your know what that word means?) I wrote last year about this issue.

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Let's work together!

Deborah Brody Marketing Communications services:

Writing and copy editing of marketing/communications materials
Communications and social media consulting
Communications and social media audits
Customized blog training and workshops

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