Your brand’s voice is its personality. And just like your personality makes you unique and attracts like-minded friends, your brand’s personality can help it stand out and build a strong customer base.
What do you associate with your preferred brand’s style of communication? Does it have humor, motivational, or relatable qualities? Does its content provide a sense of empowerment or positivity? Does it catch you off guard or stimulate you mentally?
The tone and messaging used by a brand is known as its voice. A well-defined voice can have a positive impact on brand recognition and customer loyalty. Research shows that up to 88% of marketers agree that brand language plays a vital role in connecting with customers, creating better engagement, increasing customer retention, and driving sales.
Brand Voice
Your brand has a unique voice that it uses to communicate and represent itself. This voice should be consistent with your company’s values and should effectively connect with your desired audience to create alignment and engagement.
Creating a well-designed brand voice that is unique and easily identifiable to the brand can benefit your business by setting it apart from the crowd in the competitive marketplace. This also makes it essential to establish a consistent and engaging brand voice.
Tips for developing your company’s brand voice
Unsure about the first steps? Utilize these tactics to construct a brand voice that resonates with your target market and elevates your brand recognition.
1. Audit your current messaging
Understanding your starting point is crucial for developing your brand voice, as it enables you to enhance what’s effective and discard what’s not. Begin by analyzing the various platforms you use to communicate your brand, such as your website, social media profiles, in-store communication, and outdoor advertising. Then ask yourself:
- What impression is the brand giving?
- Does your messaging align with the values of your brand and its products?
- Did the message transform as the brand developed?
- What areas can be improved or restructured?
- Are there any discrepancies, particularly among different channels?
Try to create a report that evaluates the effectiveness of your brand messaging, both the successful and ineffective aspects. Identify your most frequently visited pages and most popular posts, as well as how and where customers interact with your brand. This information will help you understand the content your audience enjoys and what may not connect with them.
2. Study how your audience talks online
By utilizing social media platforms and analyzing their content, we can gain insight into the specific language used by our target demographic and personas. We can then incorporate this language into our brand voice to ensure that it aligns with the language of our desired customers.
To develop a connection and establish a bond, you must familiarize yourself with their communication style. It is crucial to comprehend that the creation of connections is a significant contributor to generating sales revenue, which is why influencer marketing and comparable tactics yield great outcomes.
2. Review your company’s mission statement
The main objective and shared aspirations of your company are outlined in its mission statement, making it an excellent foundation for cultivating your brand’s voice. This is because the way in which your company communicates with customers is closely tied to its objectives.
Let’s say you run a fitness company with the goal of educating consumers on healthy habits and empowering them to meet their fitness goals.
By just referring to the company’s mission statement, two important facets of its character become clear: it focuses on education and motivation. With this in mind, you can establish your brand’s tone to mirror these characteristics and may opt for a tone that is supportive, comprehensive, and inviting.
3. Review your company’s core values
Core values serve as the basis for your company’s brand personality, just like your company’s mission statement. They help you identify the traits that define your company. Thus, if your core values are transparency and legitimacy, your brand voice should mirror those values. One way to achieve this is by creating a voice that is truthful, upfront, and dependable.
An example from reality is worth examining. Starbucks’ essential corporate principles comprise cultivating a welcoming atmosphere, engaging with openness and being attentive. These values are reflected in the business’s communicative brand tone, which aims to encourage a sense of delight and establish links through relaxed, enjoyable, and friendly language.
4. Conduct a competitor analysis
Observing how your competitors interact with their audience can serve as a source of inspiration or caution for your own communication strategies. Evaluate your primary competitors’ communication styles and tactics, paying attention to their language and consumer engagement methods.
What is your assessment of their communication style in general? Are there any similarities or are the competitors employing contrasting communication styles and tactics? Take note of the effective aspects and areas that require improvement. This can guide you in developing your brand’s unique voice.
Consider the following inquiries when assessing the communication techniques utilized by your rivals:
- What language are they using? Is their vocabulary direct or ornate? Are they assuming the role of a companion or an expert?
- What kind of feelings does the text evoke? Does it leave you feeling surprised, empowered, happy, or nostalgic?
- To what extent do the mission statement and core values of each competitor contribute to their brand voice? Is there a correlation between the objectives of each company and their communication with their target market?
- What are the prevalent patterns you observe in the brand voices of your rivals? What strategies can you use to set your brand apart from their existing approach?
5. Identify your brand tone and personality
Have you identified your brand’s distinctive personality and mannerisms yet? Pay attention to them. For example, some emerging brands are known for their unusual sense of humor, while a charity may have a naturally empathetic tone, particularly in specific areas of operation. Take heed and observe the message your brand is currently conveying!
6. Audit your current voice
Now, we will examine our present tone by considering aspects 1, 2, 3, and 4, and explore opportunities to harmonize them. Perhaps, you are already effectively communicating your brand’s tone, and just require some minor improvements.
Alternatively, you could discover that your current vocal style is ambiguous or doesn’t align with your target market, goals, or customer avatar. Should your brand tone encounter difficulties, a more substantial overhaul may be necessary.
7. Fill out a brand voice template with 3-5 core voice characteristics
Completing a template is a simple method for establishing a brand voice. These papers are beneficial because they not only allow you to clarify each component of your brand voice, but they also assist you in conveying how to utilize this knowledge. To put it differently, they enable you to establish the regulations for your brand voice. You may examine a sample template at this site.
8. Build a style guide that includes brand voice
Style guides are frequently discussed by those working in publishing. Essentially, they are written guidelines that dictate the appropriate use of specific words, spellings, and language. If developing a brand voice, these guidelines should also incorporate the particulars established in earlier stages. An illustration of this might include instructions on the usage of a slogan or the requirement that a certain level of (appropriate) sarcasm is present.
9. Implement the tone of voice into your brand communication
The effectiveness of a brand voice lies in its application. Typically, this involves promptly utilizing the updated brand voice on social media and other external marketing endeavors. It may also be advantageous to have sales representatives compose emails that align with the brand image, wherever feasible (bearing in mind that sales negotiations still take priority).
It is important to always adhere to the principles of your brand voice, even when engaging in “branding neutral” forms of communication. It is essential to keep in mind that brand communication encompasses multimedia communication, such as videos, and not just written content.
10. Revisit and revise the brand voice chart as the company changes over time
We are all aware that circumstances have shifted, evidenced by the events that occurred over the last 24 months and recent six weeks. What may have been seen as elegant in 2019 is now deemed insensitive, and some collaborative partnerships that were acceptable in January 2022 are currently undesirable.
To remain relevant and competitive, it’s important that your brand voice evolves and adapts along with your company as a dynamic entity; failure to do so will quickly render it outdated and irrelevant, ultimately diminishing your competitive edge and drowning out your message.
11. Research your audience
The way in which you address your audience is contingent on their characteristics, such as age, gender, and profession, as these factors affect the type of communication and terminology that will resonate with them.
Imagine an actual scenario where you were present. Recollect the recent family gathering you attended. Did you engage with your grandmother in the same manner as you did with your Gen Z niece? It is unlikely. This is because their interests and preferences differ. The same principle applies to the creation of your brand’s voice, which should be tailored to your target audience.
Developing a comprehensive knowledge of your audience’s communication preferences, such as the media they prefer and the language they are attracted to, will enable you to establish a brand voice that connects with your intended demographic, fostering reliance and interaction.
Begin by crafting a buyer persona, a make-believe portrayal of your desired clientele. Provide fundamental demographic details such as their age, gender, and profession, and delve deeper into their character by addressing their drives, incentives, and grievances.
It is important to take into account how your intended audience receives and communicates information. Do they belong to the digital generation? Do they fancy face-to-face interaction? Are they inclined towards being formal or informal, humorous or serious? Finding answers to these inquiries will assist you in fabricating a brand language that is personalized to your clientele.
12. Stand out with a defined brand voice
Establishing a solid, distinctive brand tone of voice exhibits your brand’s exceptional character and supports the establishment of brand identity and patron allegiance, which are indispensable for every brand.
Establishing a memorable brand voice is essential, but it’s only the beginning. To truly gain attention, it’s necessary to circulate your brand messaging. The good news is that task management software can aid your marketing team in organizing and accomplishing projects, enabling you to launch campaigns that will differentiate your brand.
Examples of Stellar Brand Voices
By examining and taking inspiration from exceptional brand voices, you can effectively expedite the growth of your own brand voices. While analyzing these instances, consider what aspects appeal to you (and what doesn’t) in each brand’s voice. You may identify something that can be applied to your brand.
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s brand identity is uniquely characterized by its unconventional name and corresponding tone. Both the platform and its website are brimming with playful elements. In addition, the use of cultural allusions is a remarkably cunning way to convey their message.
Mailchimp employs various approaches, spanning from advertising to witty error messages. Moreover, they craft one-liners that deviate slightly from the norm yet remain tasteful. Lastly, Mailchimp makes abundant use of colloquial phrases paired with matching graphics. Their comprehension and emulation of the millennial’s peculiar and amusing sense of humor guarantee an absence of mundane reading.
2. Apple
Privacy has recently become fashionable due to the perception that everyone is privy to each other’s secrets. Previously, only a selective few were truly interested in attaining privacy.
Apple products have always been particularly appealing to individuals who prefer privacy since the company garnered notoriety for its refusal to grant the FBI access to a criminal suspect’s iPhone, despite the existence of a warrant.
What is the impact on Apple’s brand voice? The company has made privacy a key component of their identity, and therefore it holds significant importance. Moreover, Apple’s ability to understand their customers’ desires, particularly regarding privacy and performance, has cemented their strong brand loyalty.
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Harley Davidson can be effortlessly characterized as possessing a robust and forceful brand tone. Although there are women who ride Harleys, motorcycles are predominantly viewed as playthings for men.
Furthermore, Harley motorcycles are commonly linked to self-reliant individuals who may not conform to societal norms. This characterization reinforces the identity of the Harley-Davidson brand or perhaps it is the other way around. Undoubtedly, such a dynamic is pleasing to the corporation.
3. Coca-Cola
The market for Coca-Cola is highly competitive due to the abundance of similar products vying for the same clientele. Many customers exhibit intense loyalty towards specific soda brands. Consequently, Coke cannot frequently boast about their innovativeness, except when introducing a fresh product to the market, which often has to compete with existing alternatives.
Coca-Cola opts for a congenial, exultant, and recognizable brand language instead of adopting a copycat approach in its advertising. Many of us have been exposed to Coke or one of its rivals during our upbringing.
Coke’s advertising uses the nostalgia associated with childhood pizza parties, beach hangouts with friends, twist top lifesavers on road trips, and other memories that a bottle of soda can bring. This is a highly effective strategy as it maintains people’s interest in a well-established brand.
