5 Things To Consider When Crafting Your Brand’s Voice
When the topic of branding comes up, logos and looks are often the first things that come to mind, but your look is really only one part of a larger equation.
Visuals get most of the love when it comes to brand identity, but language is actually the biggest component.
Your brand voice - the tone of voice that you apply to the copy in your brand communications and messaging - is one of the most important things to consider when crafting a brand that connects with people on a deeper, more emotional level. It’s the heart of your brand’s personality and it can have an indelible impact on the way your consumers feel about your company for years to come, so it’s important you get it right.
There are five key factors to consider when crafting your brand’s voice - your product, your competition, your target audience, your mediums, and, most importantly, yourself.
#1 - Your Products
What you offer your customers is perhaps the most obvious factor to consider when developing a tone for your brand.
Context is everything when it comes to developing your brand’s voice. Are you offering consumers a product? A service? Is it both? What industry do you operate in? What value do you provide to your customers? What’s the benefit? Knowing the answers to these questions and the context in which consumers are interacting with your brand can help you choose the right tone of voice because it will give you a better idea of the consumer’s state of mind. This is where I often begin when considering tonality because it can give you a better idea of what exactly your customers are looking for beyond the product.
Yeah, the brand voices of Citibank and Mike’s Hard Lemonade don’t mix.
For example, if you’re Citibank, you’re most likely offering your customers financial services and expertise that they can count on, so a confident, knowledgeable tone that informs, comforts, and alleviates anxiety is probably your best course of action. Compare that to a brand like Mike’s Hard Lemonade, where the product is a flavored malt beverage. A Mike’s consumer is probably looking to keep things light and have a little more fun than a Citibank customer, so adjust your tone accordingly.
#2 - Your Competition
One of the most important things an effective brand voice can do is set you apart from the competition. The human brain is hardwired to recognize patterns, so if you can break an industry pattern in an intelligent way, you can break through the noise and be remembered.
Start with an audit of your competitors. This can help you identify commonalities and patterns in your industry, but it can also help you identify a white space that your brand can fill for consumers, too. Take these insurance industry slogans, for example…
Geico - 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.
State Farm - Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
AllState - Are you in good hands?
Progressive - Now, that’s Progressive.
Farmer’s Insurance - We know a thing or two, because we’ve seen a thing or two.
These lines all work because, even though their offerings are very similar, they’re attacking unique demographics with unique sets of pain points and product benefits. Geico is fast and affordable, perfect for a younger audience. State Farm is about accessibility and world-class service. AllState is about protection. Progressive is about progress and innovation. And Farmer’s is about good, old-fashioned experience.
The Farmer’s Insurance brand voice stands out from the competition and resonates with their audience.
Each of these lines has a unique voice that’s tailored to their specific target audience. My personal favorite is Farmer’s. Their audience is predominantly rural, a culture that values “telling it like it is.” This line “tells it like it is,” with a friendly, colloquial, down-to-Earth tone that clearly conveys know-how in a charming way. They’ve perfectly positioned themselves as a company their target audience can truly trust and relate to.
Conducting an audit of your competition and figuring out exactly who they’re speaking to and how they’re speaking to them will not only help you identify a unique market of potential consumers, but also develop a unique brand voice that stands out from the crowd.
#3 - Your Target Audience
Your target audience is quite possibly the most important factor to consider when it comes to tone because they are the ones receiving your message. By better understanding your audience and the intricacies of their lives, you can have more meaningful conversations with them as a brand.
At EightySeven, we do this by creating something we call customer profiles, or character backstories that represent our different customer groups. These profiles help us answer some of the most basic questions about our target, informing our decisions and potentially revealing larger business opportunities.
Who do you serve? Why are they coming to you? What problem are you helping them solve? How old are they? Do they have kids? If so, how many? What are their passions? What are their professions? What are some other brands they love? How do they talk to each other?
It might seem a little silly dreaming up an imaginary person, but oftentimes these characters are inspired by real people in our lives and they can have an enormous impact on the brand voice we develop.
Consumer profiles help our team and our clients evaluate the work more objectively. Plus, if you can unearth the commonalities and discover a sweet spot between your current and aspirational audiences during this exercise, it’ll help you craft a voice that can appeal to both.
#4 - Your Mediums
Think about how your brand communicates with consumers. Consider the mediums (the media placement of your communications - email, TV, social, billboards, etc.) you use. The context of where consumers are engaging with your brand is absolutely essential when it comes to brand voice.
If you’re working with an out-of-home billboard, you probably have less real estate to tell your story than you would in an email or on your website, but that’s not the only thing that matters here.
In advertising, we curate messaging for our mediums based on where those mediums lie in the consumer decision journey. If the customer is looking at a billboard, they’re likely further from the point of sale, so you can aim to inform and remind with general awareness messaging. If you’re speaking to your audience with point of sale signage or packaging in the aisle at a store, you can be a little more direct and transactional with your messaging approach. That’s why your mediums can help you determine both what you want to say and how you want to say it.
#5 - You
Authenticity is one of those things you see over and over again in great brands, and oftentimes it comes from a business owner or company culture injecting a bit of themselves into the brand voice and story. Consumers tend to have better bullshit meters than they’re given credit for, so being genuine with the story you’re telling and the way you’re telling it can go a long way in helping you build a strong, trusting relationship with the people you serve.
Play into your own personality. Consider why you do what you do and why you make what you make. Think about what you really believe in. Ruminate on how your company’s vision and mission align with yours. Let your passion for your business shine through. If your brand communications are truly coming from the heart, people will sense it and be drawn to it.
Some parting thoughts…
People choose brands that align with their personal wants, needs, and philosophies, and tailoring your brand voice to speak to those things is an effective way to show your customers that you fit the bill.
Regardless of whether you’re writing for a menu, a social post, or a national TV spot, tell your story and tell it well. Do it with a voice that your customers can relate to, one that keeps these five factors in mind, and you’ll find it will have an immediate impact on the relationship between your brand, your business, and the people you serve.
Want to hear more? Shoot us a message at hello@madeby87.com