Your brand’s voice is a big deal: A very, very big deal
Chima makes and sells shoes, and during a branding exercise for his business, he is asked why he started. He says it is because while growing up, he had no shoes. His response to that question will probably be the foundation and will form the core (mission, vision, values, and essence) of the brand. And it is from the brand’s core its story, personality and voice develop.
The brand’s voice is a positioning tool that helps differentiate a brand in a saturated market. Just like how as humans we all have different personalities (and these personalities are why we are interested in certain things), brands too have personalities (aka archetypes) and their personalities influence their voices.
Be strategic about your brand’s voice
Chima Shoes Limited is an empathetic and a caregiver brand that wants to help others in a tiring world and in its communication, it encourages the customer to buy its affordable shoes that are ‘designed to care’ for their feet. Nike, another shoe brand with a hero personality, seeks to prove its worth with difficult actions and motivate its target audience to ‘just do it’ with its shoes.
The power of a brand’s voice is in its ability to project the personality of the brand towards its audience and grow the right sentiment among them. And in planning communication, the voice influences your campaign direction and overall content tone. It is why some brands come off as funny, others as inspiring and professional and authoritative and the list goes on. It is important to document how your brand’s voice should be and be strategic about it. Set informed guidelines on how your brand should speak by highlighting its characteristics based on the brand’s values.
Your brand’s story matters but how you say it matters even more
However, brand voice and brand tone are two different things: The voice describes the organisation personality and is consistent with every communication while the tone is the emotional inflection applied to the voice, it adjusts to the situation and circumstances being addressed in the communication.
So, pay attention to your brand’s voice. Keep it real and in alignment with the core values of the brand and like with every other branding activity, consistency will reward you positively.
Written by Joshua Omena, a Communications Lead and Strategist
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