MAIN TAKEAWAYS:

• A brand model is a strategic framework that helps establish a printer’s brand identity
• A message map helps printers leverage their identity via consistent communication to different audience segments across all channels
• The combination of brand model and message map is key in helping printers reach their target audience

The print space includes a wide range of print applications, everything from direct mail to large format signage to labels and packaging. The ability to strike up new, long-term partnerships with brands or land repeat, high-volume jobs relies on printers having a keen understanding of who they are as a brand. 

Almost every printer out there boasts top-of-the-line equipment and rapid turnaround times. It’s the other components of your brand messaging that will help you connect with your target audience. A brand model and message map are perhaps the two most important elements of your brand messaging, so let’s take a look at each of these elements and what makes them so important. 

Why is a brand model important in reaching your target audience?

A brand model is a strategic framework to help you determine the most effective communication touchpoints to attract and engage your ideal customers. 

A brand model extends beyond logos, taglines, or other customer-facing signals or cues. A brand model helps distill your mission, goals, values unique into a clear, defined message. This simplifies the task of communicating to your customers how you can help them create cost-effective print that helps them reach their ideal customers. 

Some of the elements of a cohesive brand model include: 

• A brand mission, which clearly outlines what your company sets out to accomplish and the values that govern the actions you take.
• A brand vision, or the main ideas that guide your brand and how you describe yourself to potential customers.
• A brand voice, which outlines the way you speak and sound in your sales and marketing communications.
• A brand platform, which establishes a promise about how your  services will help your customers harness the power of print to grow their business.  

With these elements in place, you’ll be able to create sales and marketing materials with a clear, consistent voice and message about who you are and what makes you unique as a commercial print partner. Not only will this help create more engaging marketing materials that are more likely to connect with your target audience, it will also help build brand recognition and consumer trust. 

Considerations when building a brand model

One of the most important considerations when building your brand model is uniformity and consistency. Your company needs to speak with a singular vision using one voice, one personality, and one set of values. While each of the elements of a brand model can have some nuance or layers to it, it’s critical that each component supports and clearly communicates the essence of who you are as a print service provider. 

How does a message map help you reach your target audience?

Modeling your brand is one thing — communicating your brand is something else entirely. While a brand model helps establish who you are and what differentiates you from your competitors, a message map charts a course for how you communicate with your target audience. 

While your brand model should remain constant, a message map accounts for different segments — also known as buyer personas — that exist within the world of your target audience. Some common components in a message map include: 

• Customer needs, or what challenges that segment is trying to solve.
• Benefits, which clearly state how your print service offerings help your target audience meet their needs and solve their problems.
• What you deliver, which may sound vague, but this element ties your ideal audience’s needs to the benefits you provide in a clear, simple value proposition.
• Proof points, or the things you can point to that objectively communicate how you’ve made good on your value proposition. Proof points can take a variety of forms, including awards, certifications, case studies, and customer testimonials.
• Net impression, which is the culmination of your brand model and message working in harmony to leave your target audience with a powerful, lasting idea about the work you do and how you do it. 

With a comprehensive message map, communicating with your target audience becomes a relative cinch, as you have a clear true north for connecting with your audience on a deeper, more solutions-oriented level. 

Considerations when creating your message map

A message map can account for a variety of audience segments, but that doesn’t mean the voice or tone you use in your communications changes. Appealing to different audience segments is more about highlighting different challenges, pain points, or needs, which then helps you craft specific solutions to these needs while still adhering to the vision and voice in your brand model. 

Cutting through the clutter in today’s print service landscape requires strong, consistent branding and messaging. With a brand model and message map, you’ll be able to better engage and connect with your target audience to help establish long-term, productive relationships that drive revenue generation and growth. 

For more free marketing resources, check out the thINK Marketing Toolkit.     

Madison Brudi is a Senior Account Manager at Trekk where she works with a variety of clients in the commercial print services industry to create vibrant, engaging sales and marketing communications to help grow their business.