Building a Brand for the Decade to Come: Crafting Timeless Messaging

In the hallowed halls where brands are born, the terms “timeless” and “resonant” echo through the boardrooms.

A stark reminder every time I hear these that that’s the goal, but to do that it requires something profoundly impactful — to say that cuts through the noise and connects with the human on the other side of said screen.

Sadly, many brands are built on the shaky foundation of performance or growth goals. These are the ones who don’t even wink an eye when these words are swung around — for them catchy phrases and trendy messaging is what ticks.

To each his own, and here, I can only hope we see more of cat1 type people in the years to come.

Three messaging types every brand should have

As I’ve been diving into this concept in my head till now, I could categorize three kinds of messaging every brand needs to have

1. The uncool, yet heart throbbing — meaningful messaging arches that when a passerby reads it, they know which brand it’s come from. It’s about creating associations with your brand purpose and passion/mission.
2. The cool messaging, so you don’t appear to be a fossil — trendy and upbeat to keep you in the customer’s peripheral vision, without overwhelming them.
3. The regular messaging is the workhorse messaging so you tick numbers such as sales, and new site visits but doesn’t necessarily leave a mark on a reader, here, they also know this was supposed to lead somewhere else

Now to do the first part especially well brand leads need to hinge their messaging on two critical factors

• emotional anchoring in the consumer’s mind. Every time they see this post from your brand, it leaves them feeling a certain way.
• consumer sentiment. What is our audience talking about, what are they not, what do they wish was more heard in the media, and in your messaging.

Both elements are equally vital in preventing your messaging from falling into the trap of regular, unremarkable programming

The nuances

To get consumers of today to listen, or even not scroll to the next blazing neon thing on their feeds you need to tap into their feelings, needs, and values that helps them remember and trust the brand. The more nuanced your understanding is, the more you’ll understand what they want.

Remember when your brand strategist insisted on spending the most time of the project to understand the audience? — this is what they meant.

Now coming to who’s going to lead this effort?

Every startup needs to hire a storyteller. Someone who understands the brand on paper, and can translate that into words that weave meaningful somethings into the world. At the end of the day, stories are remembered, not the words that made them up neccesarily.

Brand storytelling has everything that’s got to do with one core theme — how am I making a difference in my consumer’s life?

Now that cannot come from thin air, but it will come from understanding audience, brand origins, challenges the audience wants to overcome, and the brand's vision for the future

Loyalty is not bought from the wallet, but from the heart.

Always.

Navigating the uncool — cool- regular messaging

https://www.gigasavvy.com/examples-of-brand-messaging-pillars/

Uncool messaging: talk to the audience about their aspirations, fears, and dreams. What values do they seek in a brand that makes a profound difference to their sentiment about the brand?

Cool messaging: Stay abreast of cultural trends that can act as a tailwind for your brand, but exercise discernment when carrying out this activity. You do not want to dilute your brand just because something trendy came up and you’re compelled to furiously type some words into a blank screen.

The regular messaging: This is messaging that reinforces reasons to buy and urges for purchases. The keyword being ‘staying top of mind’ because 99% of the time, consumers are never ready to buy at that time, but repetition and visibility is the name of the game.

May 2025 bring fewer meaningless, lifeless posts churned out by content mills.

Last but not least, let’s remember, stories connect, words weave meaning into the story, and the story is still what is remembered, not the words — ironic isn’t it.

Thanks for reading! I’m the founder of The Fingerprint Labs, a strategic brand studio for challenger brands. We’ve worked with 100+ brands in DTC/E-comm/FMCG and Tech to create, build and evolve their brands.

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