We don’t like the term “brand design” or “brand development”. We purposefully avoid it. Why? Because it sounds like you’re painting a wall, or choosing an outfit. It’s disconnected, separate from your business.

At jdp, we work to communicate your business directly to your audience. There’s no fancy outfit in our version, your business is enough, as long as you understand it and communicate it well.

We translate your business into a coherent and consistent visual and verbal language, to accurately and authentically communicate the value you offer to your customers.

“Business language” puts communication front and center

When we talk about “brand design” and “brand development”, we’re generally talking about the various assets your company needs. For example:
“I need to design a logo.”
“I need to write a tagline.”
“I need to design a website.”
It feels like a checklist. Doesn’t it? But here’s the one thing that ought to be on your checklist:
“I need to connect with my customers”
That one need should inform all of your marketing efforts. Developing a business language is about conveying your message as effectively as possible, via whatever assets necessary. Connecting with your audience is the best way to drive traffic, generate leads and maintain a relationship with your customers. That’s our goal at jdp.

“Business language” promotes authenticity

This is how the channel of communication goes: business – brand – customers. By framing your identity in terms of your business, we’re essentially cutting out the middle man. Your business should translate directly to your customers, and the narrower the gap, the better.

Even the language around branding feels inauthentic. You “create a brand persona” to talk to your audience. No wonder there’s such a disconnect between businesses and their customers. The way the industry talks about brand design, it’s as though it is something entirely separate from your business – a puppet through which you can ventriloquize your message.

Instead, we lift the hood on your business to discover how you operate, the language used amongst your teams (e.g. your salesforce), and translate what we learn into an authentic visual and verbal language for your business.

“Business language” is consistent

When companies outsource their branding, the third party often does very little to acquaint themselves with their client’s internal processes. As a result, there is often a lack of consistency in communication.

Developing a business language requires an in-depth understanding of the entirety of your business. Though we talk about “developing” a business language, it’s more accurate to use the word “discovering”. The identity of your business already exists, our job is to discover it and translate it into a cohesive verbal and visual language. Our best feedback is when our clients are impressed by how accurate their new business language is.

What’s included in the term “business language”

In this article, we haven’t been subtle about the fact that when we use the term “business language” we’re not just talking about verbal and written communication (content and copy.) Your business language is everything that conveys your business both internally and externally. That includes things like web design, tone of voice, typography, etc.

In our consultation and discovery stage, we analyze how you, your sales, and/or your marketing teams conduct your business. Through a series of investigations, we help you define what makes your business unique and what value you offer your customers. More often than not, it’s not what you expect.

From this information, we devise a visual and verbal language for your business that can be applied in all internal and external communication channels (e.g. your website, your social media, print marketing, email newsletters, presentations, etc.)

Discover your business language and start connecting with your customers. Get in touch for a free consultation.