Why your brand voice is critically important (and how to define it)
- Jeremy DSouza
- Aug 28, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 4, 2023
Are you just writing content for the heck of it, without defining a brand voice? This may not sound like a big issue, but the opportunity cost associated with that is too high. You’re leaving way too much money on the table if you aren’t choosing a brand voice and framing your content around it.
Wondering why? Let’s get into it.
What is brand voice?
The simplest answer is that brand voice is the personality that your brand takes on. If you asked Gen Z, they’d say it’s your brand’s vibe. Your brand voice is the way your brand communicates with your customers and audience. This is how you show how your brand is unique, it’s what separates your brand from the other ones that are competing with you in the same market.
Imagine your brand as a person, how would it talk? Is it going to sound conservative and serious like a middle aged dude? Will it sound fun and humorous like a teenager whose whole life feels like a party? Maybe your brand would sound inspirational, like a motivational speaker?
It defines the way your audience perceives your brand, but that only works if you keep the voice consistent across all your platforms and channels, whether that’s your website, blog, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter (nope, we still ain’t calling it X). Also, if you can get it to shine through on your packaging as well, here’s a cookie for ya 🍪
Why is brand voice important?
Your brand voice is extremely important because it drives the way your brand is seen. It sets your apart from the crowd and shows your customers that you can relate to them. Your audience would wanna roll with a brand that resonates with them.
You can have two brands that do the exact same thing in terms of product, but one’s got a brand voice that’s geared towards their customer persona, and the other just sounds way too sober and safe. You’d find that the one with the brand voice that their customers vibe with is going to build a cult-like following, getting customers to make emotion-driven purchases, while the other one would only have people buying because of features or cost (logic-driven purchases).
Driving sales becomes easier for the one that has an extremely loyal fan base (yes, at this point it becomes a fan base, not just a customer base). They’d also see their customer acquisition cost going down and customer lifetime value going through the roof when they build such loyalty.
When you build a brand voice keeping your customer persona in mind, you can also pick the right CTA phrases, the ones that you know are most likely to spur your customers into taking the action that you want them to.
What are the types of brand voice?
There’s a whole assortment of brand voices that you can go for. We’re gonna list out a few of them here -
Formal & conservative
Fun and humorous
Sarcastic and snarky
Motivational and inspirational
Mentoring
Friendly
Optimistic
Assertive
Empathetic
Conversational
Inclusive and Considerate
Strong and aggressive
Proud
Absurd
Savage
Innovative or explorative
Cocky
Sophisticated
Confident
Youthful
Calming
Intimate
Indulgent
And guess what, you ain’t gotta only go with one of these brand voices. You can create a combination of these, but keep it consistent everywhere. For example, you can choose to sound like a motivational and inspirational friend, like Adidas, or you can even sound like a sarcastic, snarky mentor like Stephen Keane (@steve.kraftcoaching on Instagram), an unapologetic online personal trainer who busts fitness myths on Instagram like an absolute badass, growing an audience that loves his brutal yet honest takes on the stupidity and lies in the fitness world.
Examples of brands with great voices
These iconic brands have done a great job defining and sticking to their voices, they definitely are some of the best brand voice examples that you can find.
NIKE
NIKE’s brand voice is inspirational, confident, and assertive. They aren’t just being motivational and saying “You have what it takes to do this”. They’re adding that element of assertiveness to say “Just get off your butt and do it already”.
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson’s brand voice matches their typical customer’s personality. It’s strong, aggressive, and badass, exactly what you think of when you close your eyes and think of a Harley rider.
Dove
Dove’s brand voice is supportive, inclusive, empathetic, and confident. They’re all about promoting self-love and absolutely destroying the stereotypical beauty standards. Their messaging encourages people to accept themselves and become the best version of themselves rather than trying to be like someone else.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s brand voice is happy, friendly, and inclusive. Their messaging is usually about having a great time sharing a Coke with someone, Coca-Cola doesn’t just sell soda, it sells happiness in a bottle, but that happiness ain’t just to be shared with your buddies, they’re big on inclusiveness, as you could see in their Small World Machine campaign that sought to bring people from India and Pakistan together.
Old Spice
Old Spice’s brand voice is straight-up absurd and weird. They talk about masculinity and manliness in a humorous way, making sure to make the most outlandish claims possible. If the idea was to say, “this scent is going to make you smell like a rugged man”, they’re the kind of brand that’s far more likely to say something along the lines of “this perfume is pure testosterone in a bottle, as soon as it lands on your body, you’ll find yourself taming a wild stallion while simultaneously fighting a Bengal Tiger”
It’s beyond quirky, it's brave, bold, and bizarre… and guess what, it works for them!
How to define your own brand voice
Follow these steps and you’ll be able to define your brand voice and style your brand communications according to it.
Define your brand values
When you are clear about the things that your brand cares about, it becomes much easier for you to pick a brand tone of voice that aligns with those values. Studies have shown that 51% of consumers believe that the brands they buy from should share the same values as them, and Gen Z consumers are even bigger on this. So when your brand voice reflects your values, customers who share your values will be way more likely to do business with you.
Look at your customer persona
What is your ideal customer like? What do they want from your brand? What’s their personality like? What are their pain points like? If it’s a serious issue, you might want to avoid humor, but if it's more lighthearted, you can have fun with it.
If you’re selling to people who are creative, they’d prefer content that’s got spice in it, but if you’re selling to people who are more data driven, they might lean towards content that focuses more on logic and reasoning.
Check out the performance of pre-existing content
Take a look at the analytics on the content that you’ve already published. See what kind of content performs the best for you, this could help you understand what your audience resonates with.
For example, if you get more sales, sign-ups, or marketing qualified leads (MQLs) when you use a specific type of voice, you could consider adopting that as your brand voice.
Define your brand archetype
The branding world recognizes 12 brand archetypes, which are (to some extent) derived from Carl Jung’s personality archetypes. Understanding and clearly defining your brand’s archetype will make it easier for you to decide on the voice that you’d want your organization to be known for.
These brand archetypes include:
The Creator - Creators don’t limit themselves to society’s norms. They’re all about innovation and self-expression
The Caregiver - Caregiver brands are all about compassion, empathy, and trustworthiness. It’s widely associated with non-profit organizations, but hospitality brands could also align themselves with this archetype
The Innocent - Brands that fall under this archetype tend to have a warm demeanor and share positive, inclusive messages that challenge the negativity in the world.
The Outlaw - These brands embody the spirit of a rebel. They’re revolutionaries and rule breakers and have a badass aura around them.
The Everyman - This archetype holds brands that a regular person can relate to. They’re basically saying, “It’s okay to be normal, you ain’t gotta prove anything to anybody”. Unlike elitist brands, they target the masses.
The Explorer - Explorer brands are for people who thrive on thrill and seek the unknown. They target people who live for adventure.
The Sage - A brand that identifies as a Sage is constantly in the pursuit of truth and knowledge, and strives to share that information with its customers as well. The content they create deals with facts and data to a considerable degree.
The Jester - These are the brands who seek to entertain their audience while serving them. They’re humorous, can be sarcastic, and aren’t too averse to self deprecating humor.
The Magician - Magicians are the brands that bring dreams to life and make you feel like deleting the word “impossible” from your dictionary. They aim to create experiences that surpass your wildest expectations.
The Ruler - These are brands that present themselves as the pinnacle of their category. They are elite brands that make it clear that they’re the best that there is. They tend to associate themselves with great success and are usually found in luxury products.
The Lover - Lover brands are romantics. Their messaging focuses heavily on intimacy and relationships, and are big on beauty and sensuality.
The Hero - Hero brands stand up to challenges and show you that they’ve got what it takes to solve even the toughest of your problems. They also tend to be rather motivational and inspirational in their copy, urging you to do great things yourself.
Figure out which of these archetypes you’d want you customers to subconsciously place you in, and that will help you choose the right brand voice.
Understand your competitors brand voice
Look at your competitors and see what kind of brand voice they tend to use. Dig through their messaging to find specific words and phrases that they use and try to understand why that kind of messaging works for them. Get into the customers’ psychology to try and understand why those phrases urge them into taking action. Once you know that, you can figure out a way to set yourself apart from them, to hit customers with similar needs, but in a voice that they resonate with even more.
Test the brand voice
After going through this process, pick a voice that you feel like your customers would resonate with, and test it out in your copy. See how your customers respond to your content and adjust it accordingly.
We can help you define your brand voice and write hard-hitting content that your customers will resonate with.
Brand Voice FAQs
What is a good brand voice?
A good brand voice is one that helps your brand stand out from the crowd, aligns with your brand personality and values, and is relatable for your target customers. It can only be considered to be a great brand voice when your customers resonate with it.
What is brand voice vs tone?
Brand voice and tone are very closely tied to each other. Your brand voice helps you convey your values & beliefs, and helps you show how your brand is unique. Your brand tone is basically your brand’s attitude. It’s a part of your brand voice and refers to the way you use words and phrases to showcase your brand’s values and mission.
How do you make a brand voice?
The process to making a brand voice is pretty simple - first you consider your company’s values and focus on getting them to shine through in your voice; also, look at your customer persona and try to understand what kind of voice they’d resonate with; then you go through your existing content to see what messaging has worked the best so far; you’d also want to define your brand archetype; after that, you look at your competitors’ messaging to understand their brand voice and see how you can differentiate yourself while still ticking the boxes that make their customers buy from them; and then you can go ahead and test your brand voice in your messaging and content.
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