Every marketer who works on a brand needs to understand the brand’s voice.
A brand voice is the words, tone, and personality communicated. It helps a marketer consistently tell a story. Whether you are speaking on a conference call, writing a blog post, sending an email, or creating a presentation, brand voice standards helps aligns the representation of the brand’s personality.
You wouldn’t want to scream when your brand is all about gentleness.
But you might want to scream if your brand is about an aggressive, powerful hot sauce that is off the Scoval heat index charts. (Scoval is the scale for measuring how hot a food tastes)
A brand voice is present at every customer touch point.
- How you answer the phone.
- The words you use to describe your product offerings.
- The tone and sentiment communicated in a video you share.
- The graphics on the packaging you use.
- The visuals on your website.
- What you say on social media.
- The tone of a blog post.
- The music you use in a podcast.
Coke’s brand voice is about happiness and joy, Disney is about family-friendly, and Nike’s is about inspiration.
Understanding Your Audience
Do customers expect a robust and commanding presence or something more universal and every day? Does your brand’s voice speak to senior citizens? Their needs will be different from young, African-American women in their teens. Start with the audience and understand the right language, tone, and tenor of your communications. You can use the We Are/We Are Not exercise to help you jump start your understanding.
- We are funny but not silly.
- We are old school but not out of touch.
- We are fancy but not snobby.
- We are agile and not static.
- We are quiet and not aggressive.
A Simple Approach to Brand Voice
When I work with clients who are new to marketing, I like to ask three simple questions.
- If your brand’s voice were an animal, what would animal would it be?
- If your brand’s voice were a vehicle, what kind of vehicle would it be?
- If your brand’s voice were a celebrity who is well-known, what person would it be?
The answers to these questions help you build a brand voice.
For example, if the answers were a dog, a Volvo and Tom Hanks, you’d see that this brand is about loyalty, safety, and an everyman personality. Your voice wouldn’t be eccentric or quirky. Your brand voice would be reliable and consistent, without shock or surprise.
If your answers to these questions were a lion, Mustang and The Rock, there would be common elements about strength, speed, and power. The personality of this brand would be different from the first example. Your vocabulary and emphasis would bring out the essence of what you represent. From the font you use to the voice over in the video, each would bring out the personality traits from these three questions.
If your answers were a Collie, a Ford pickup truck and Kelly Clarkson, you’d have a pretty traditional, accessible voice with an active element of reliability and helpfulness.
A brand voice helps everyone in the organization understand small and big things.
- Can I use emojis in my social media post?
- Is my font bold and strong or more unusual and out of the ordinary?
- Are photographs staged or casual?
- Are the voices in our videos powerful men or women or more approachable men or women?
- Do we write in a severe or light-hearted style?
- Can we use slang or should our writing be more formal?
- Are we pushy or easy going?
- Do we sign off emails in a serious tone (sincerely yours) or more casual (talk soon).
Great brands are consistent, and we are never surprised in how they communicate to the world. A clear brand voice helps you tell your story, so you don’t break with character.
You wouldn’t expect Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz to start singing as if she were a rap artist, would you?
Does your brand have one, consistent voice?
Photo by Gem & Lauris RK on Unsplash
Could you use help developing your brand voice? You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
