197 Brand Adjectives to Describe Your Brand [Sorted by Category]

Deciding how to talk about your company takes a lot of work. If you’re like many business owners, it’s one of the hardest parts of marketing your business. That’s why I’m sharing this list of brand adjectives. You can use these branding words to clarify how your audience and colleagues see you, describe your brand personality, and create a consistent brand voice.

And, because I’ve curated some no-nonsense adjectives, it’s my hope that it shortens the time it takes you to go from planning to actual growth.

While you need to spend time on your brand strategy and messaging, it’s far too easy to get stuck in perfection paralysis, especially when you’re a coach, consultant, or expert whose business is so inherently personal.

Over the last decade and a half, I’ve helped thousands of business owners like you get results that help them grow a business that creates joy in their lives.

And so often, when people first come to me, they’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out their positioning, unique selling proposition, and—you guessed it—brand adjectives. Sounds great, right?

There’s just one problem. By focusing so heavily on wordsmithing their brand to perfection, they’ve neglected to do the most important thing to move things forward—take action.

If this sounds familiar and you feel stuck, please know I’m on a mission to help you rediscover joy in your business and life.

This entire messaging series is about making your brand’s messaging strategy work for you. Brand adjectives can play a role in that—so I’m here to help you find a handful of adjectives that work for you and move forward relatively quickly, so you can create content to test and cement messaging that resonates with your audience.

Content creation makes some people want to run the other direction, so Amy and I created the Content Personality® Club to help business owners like you find joy in email marketing content creation (and provide the accountability to help you get it done). Get the details here.

Because this post includes long lists of words to help you define your business, I’m including this jump list to help you navigate the article.

3 Exercises to Find Your Branding Words
197 Brand Adjectives
102 Words to Describe Your Brand
79 Adjectives to Describe a Personal Brand
16 Adjectives to Describe a Visual Brand
FAQ About Brand Adjectives
A Final Note on Using Brand Adjectives in Your Messaging

3 Exercises to Find Your Branding Words

Before I dive into the all-important list you’re here to look through, I want to help you use these adjectives effectively to express your brand identity.

Here are three quick exercises that can have you moving forward to the next step in an hour or less so you can begin testing your messaging.

Exercises #1 and #2 are my personal favorites because they’re quick and reduce the noise. However, exercise #3 is a solid alternative if the first two don’t appeal to you.

Exercise #1: Rapid Brand Adjective Selection & Definition

Briefly consider your business and how you want to make people feel or talk about your company. (no more than 10 minutes)
Run through the list of words I’ve shared below, choose the ones that best match your thoughts above, and paste them into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
Can you streamline or reduce the selection? (no more than 5 minutes)
For each adjective you’ve chosen, jot down a few words (bullet points are fine) about how each relates to your brand and audience. (no more than 30 minutes)

Exercise #2: Brand Adjective Categorization

Review the list of adjectives below and paste everything that sticks out to you into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
Go to your document and start categorizing the words into groups. For example, I might group words like happiness, fulfillment, and joy. (no more than 10 minutes)
Review your groups and see if any groups can be combined. Repeat if needed. (no more than 5 minutes)
Choose the best word for each category. In my example, this would be joy. (no more than 5 minutes)
Take the main category word, list the words underneath it in bullets, removing any that don’t fit, and jot down any additional words about what this means to your brand (no more than 20 minutes)

Exercise #3: Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes

Take off your “this is my brand” hat and put yourself in the shoes of someone experiencing your brand for the first time. (less than 1 minute)
Think of how you’d like them to experience your business, and run through the adjectives below that best describe it from a prospective buyer’s perspective, pasting them into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
Reduce the list if needed. (no more than 5 minutes)
Create a short description of what you’d like them to experience, list the adjectives, and jot down a few notes about general characteristics as well as do’s and don’ts. (no more than 30 minutes)

Wondering how to define and describe your brand so you can grow your business? Set up a call with Amy and she can help you find the best solution.

197 Brand Adjectives

Many of the lists you see online are filled with fluff—and by now, you can tell that I’m anti-fluff because it gets in the way of your joy and your revenue-generating activities. So, I’ve pared down this list. Before I share the list of brand adjectives, I want you to make sure that you don’t let it become a BD (big distraction).

You’ll see I’ve left a few notes about my feelings on a few specific words below ;). And remember, because so much is subjective, you’ll need to take a few minutes to define what they mean to your business.

A List of 102 Words to Describe Your Brand

Accessible

Accomplished

Active

Adaptable

Adept

Agile

Approachable

Aspirational

Balanced

Benevolent

Candid

Cheerful

Collaborative

Comforting

Communicative

Compelling

Convenient

Creative

Daring

Disruptive

Down to Earth

Edgy

Educational

Effective

Eloquent

Empowering

Energetic

Engaging

Exciting

Exquisite

Fashionable

Fearless

Flexible

Formal

Frank

Futuristic

Genuine

Harmonious

Heartfelt

Helpful

High-Quality

Honest — Everyone should strive to be honest, so to me, this is a given. While I considered not including it, I realized there’s an opportunity to encourage you to show people you’re honest, not tell them, “Believe me because I’m honest.” Alternatively, you may want to choose credible, transparent, or trustworthy.

Hopeful

Hospitable

Human

Humorous

Imaginative

Inclusive

Innovative — Innovative has become a buzzword. So, if you choose this as a brand adjective, be prepared to show what you’re doing that’s innovative (or groundbreaking) so you can stand out.

Inspirational

Intentional

Invigorating

Joyful (wink, wink)

Judicious

Kinetic

Light-Hearted

Loyal

Luxurious

Magical

Masterful

Mature

Minimalist

Mission-Driven

Motivating

Nostalgic

Nourishing

Novel

Observant

Open

Optimistic

Pioneering

Playful

Polished

Positive

Powerful

Pragmatic

Professional — Everyone should aspire to be professional in their business, but it doesn’t have to mean corporate. If you choose this word, be sure to be clear about what that means to you.

Provocative

Purposeful

Purpose-Driven

Refreshing

Reliable

Sensual

Serious

Sincere

Sophisticated

Soothing

Stimulating

Straightforward

Sustainable

Succinct

Tactful

Thankful

Trailblazing

Transparent

Trustworthy

Unusual

Uplifting

Vibrant

Visionary

Vivid

Welcoming

79 Adjectives to Describe a Personal Brand

While I didn’t repeat adjectives from the list above when considering words to describe a personal brand, I’d encourage you to consider both, as there could be crossover.

Adventurous

Alluring

Altruistic

Amiable

Benevolent

Boisterous

Brave

Bubbly

Casual

Clever

Colorful

Committed

Confident

Credible

Curious

Decisive

Delightful

Diplomatic

Discreet

Driven

Dynamic

Emotional

Enthusiastic

Fair-minded

Fearless

Focused

Friendly

Fresh

Fun

Generous

Gentle

Gracious

Gregarious

Hard-Working

Humble

Impartial

Informed

Intelligent

Interesting

Inventive

Inviting

Kind

Knowledgeable

Kooky

Loving

Meditative

Memorable

Modest

Multi-Faceted

Mystical

Neighborly

No-Nonsense

Original

Outstanding

Passionate

Persistent

Personable

Practical

Productive

Quick-Witted

Quirky

Rational

Real

Reflective

Responsive

Responsible

Rooted

Sassy

Smart

Sophisticated

Specialized

Thoughtful

Understanding

Versatile

Well-Known

Well-Informed

Wild

Witty

Whimsical

16 Adjectives to Describe a Visual Brand

Why am I talking about visual branding when my focus is primarily on messaging and email marketing? Many brand adjectives are more visual in nature. If you don’t yet have a logo or are planning a visual rebrand, some of these words could help you.

Note: there may be a few repetitions from the lists above because they can also work visually.

Airy

Artistic

Bohemian

Bright

Clean

Earthy

Industrial

Minimalist

Modern

Organic

Retro

Rugged

Urban

Vibrant

Warm

Whimsical

FAQ About Brand Adjectives

Q. How many brand adjectives should I choose for my brand?

A. My vote is not to go overboard here, especially if you’re looking at this list for inspiration to develop your initial brand messaging. Remember, your goal is about action. However, if you’re looking for ways to finetune your brand messaging or create a voice guide for your team, you can use as many as you need to help your team understand what to say (and what not to say).

Q. Should my brand adjectives all be synonyms of each other, or should they mean different things?

A. It depends on your brand. Your brand adjectives likely differ from your core values, but you can tie them into your brand pillars. Generally, most brands have a handful of words with different meanings, and then you might have synonyms that you use to create a consistent tone that isn’t overly repetitive.

Q. How do I use my brand adjectives in my messaging strategy?

A. Ultimately, brand adjectives have the most value in two areas:

Helping you describe how you want to make people feel so you can get them behind your mission and what you stand for.
Giving you some language you can use in your content so that you show up consistently.

Q. Do I need to spend time finding brand adjectives?

A. Nothing in business is concrete or absolute outside of whether your business is profitable, contributes to the life you want, and brings you joy. So no, you don’t need to spend time here.

On the contrary, I recommend spending an hour or less here to start. You can always come back and refine your approach. I hope you use this list and guide to take action so you can show up for your business, focus your efforts where they’re most likely to pay off, and help you make sales.

Not sure how you show up best or where to direct your energy? Our Content Personality® Quiz is designed to help you understand how to use your natural strengths to create marketing content and maximize your time and energy. Take the quiz here!

A Final Note on Using Brand Adjectives in Your Messaging

Messaging is one of the most important aspects of sales and operations in your business. Why? To succeed, you must meet your clients where it matters most—where they care. However, you don’t have to spend months or years agonizing over the right adjectives to tell your brand story.

In fact, I hope you don’t. I want you to make progress in your business so it brings you joy and contributes to the life you want. That means focusing on putting content out into the world so you can test and iterate your message and start growing your business.

One value of finding brand adjectives is using them to make sure you’re talking about yourself consistently everywhere you choose to share content. But sometimes, people get stuck when it comes to creating and publishing that content.

My Joyful Content Creation Framework simplifies your content creation process, so you can generate relevant and engaging content consistently and significantly boost your online visibility and audience engagement. Get the framework here.

Would you like to dive deeper into your messaging–and learn how to use it to attract and nurture your audience?

Be sure to tune into our podcast to get our hot takes on messaging, email marketing, and other topics related to creating a business that brings you joy.

Want to learn more about our take on messaging strategy? Check this link all articles in our messaging series.

Here’s a complete list of the articles in this messaging series: