A brand name -- corporate, product, or service -- does not exist in isolation. It inhabits a language landscape that encompasses all internal and external verbal expressions of the brand, including taglines, slogans, descriptive terminology, website text, signage, advertising and promotional messages, CEO speeches, company white papers, and even jingles. Creating the optimal verbal context for your name is a brand-building opportunity you don't want to miss.

To be effective brand-building tools, all verbal brand elements should be properly aligned with the brand's strategic intent. They should reflect your desired brand image and personality. They should be consistent with the core brand attributes and the unique brand promise captured by your brand name. And they should be consistently communicated in an appropriate and distinctive tone of voice.

The Starbucks coffee brand is a good example of employing the power of language to support and further your branding endeavor. Wherever or however you encounter the Starbucks brand, its voice is unmistakable and its promise clear. Whether you are sipping a Caramel Macchiato in one of its myriad stores, shopping for Starbucks Coffee online, or buying frozen Frappuccino Bars at the local grocery store, your experience of the Starbucks brand will be verbally consistent, coherent, and compelling. All of Starbucks' verbal expressions -- its menu board items, product packaging, website, and brochures -- support the brand's core attributes: international yet community-based, socially and environmentally concerned, warm and inviting, contemporary and hip.

As the Starbucks example shows, dedicating time and resources to developing the most favorable verbal context for your brand is well worth the effort. Taking into account the entire language landscape of your brand can create a gestalt that is more memorable than that which could be achieved simply by a name alone. As inimitable brands like Starbucks, Martha Stewart, Apple Computer, Virgin, and McDonald's prove, a distinctive brand voice and the deliberate and consistent use of all the language tools at your disposal will bolster your brand-building efforts.

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