Brand Purist, your verbal identity partner
Brand Purist is a London-based branding agency working with startups and small businesses around the world. We shape your brand’s verbal identity, ensuring your tone, language and messaging are consistent and on-brand. Discover how we can help your organisation grow through a distinct and powerful verbal identity.
What is verbal identity?
Verbal identity refers to the overall style and language a brand uses in its communications. It includes the brand’s name, tagline, messaging, and any written or spoken content. Verbal identity helps define the brand's personality and ensures consistency in how the brand is perceived through language.
Key elements of the verbal identity
Brand voice:
The brand’s consistent tone and communication style, reflecting its personality and values. It’s how the brand “speaks” to its audience across all channels.Messaging framework:
The structure and hierarchy of messages that a brand uses to communicate its core ideas, value propositions and key differentiators. This includes taglines, slogans, and key phrases that are central to the brand.Brand language:
The specific words, phrases, and terminology associated with the brand. This includes vocabulary, idioms and expressions that are unique to the brand and resonate with its audience.Storytelling:
The narrative that a brand creates and shares, encompassing the brand’s history, mission, values and vision. This helps build emotional connections with audiences.Naming conventions:
The approach to naming products, services or even the brand itself. This includes guidelines for creating names that align with the brand’s identity.Tone of voice:
Specific instructions on how to adapt the brand voice for different contexts, audiences or channels, enabling flexibility while maintaining consistency.
Why is the verbal identity essential?
Verbal identity is crucial because it defines how your brand “speaks” and is perceived through language. It shapes the brand’s personality and helps create a distinctive and memorable presence in the market, ensuring that every word aligns with your brand’s values and resonates with your audience.
Our approach to the verbal identity
At Brand Purist, we approach the verbal identity with a strategic mindset. We start by understanding your organisation, audience and competitors. These insights help us craft a strategy that unifies relevant channels and touchpoints into one cohesive verbal identity system. Our process is immersive and collaborative, empowering you to shape your brand through a series of discussions, workshops and feedback sessions.
Verbal identity examples
We’ve shaped the verbal identities of many brands over the years, including their naming, taglines, messaging frameworks, key messages and verbal identity guidelines. Here are some examples:
Shape Beyond: management consultancy
We partnered with business transformation expert Helen Ashton to create a dynamic brand that breaks the traditional mould for her new company. In close collaboration with Shape Beyond, we crafted a verbal identity that defines the brand’s personality, voice, tone, style and character. This framework also forms the foundation of the content marketing strategy, structured around three key pillars: Drive Evolution, Adapt at Pace, and Nurture Empowerment.
One Small Pixel: creative studio
One Small Pixel harnesses storytelling, design and technology to create experiences, animations and films that excite audiences. We reignited the brand’s spark by sharpening its values and injecting creativity into its verbal identity. Elevating the messaging can serve as a distinguishing factor, as similar brands typically prioritise visuals. In close collaboration with One Small Pixel, we developed a messaging framework based on three pillars: Inventiveness, Collaboration and Integrity.
