With the introduction of social media platforms, the marketing industry has seen an accelerating change. The traditional marketing methods compared to unconventional digital marketing are primitive. 

The primary reasons are the reach of the digital platforms and the convenience of campaign analysis and the platform’s relevance to the target audience. Most consumers rely on digital platforms to research products. 

To create the best first impression on the consumers, a lot of creative planning is executed in branding. Branding, more often than not, is considered the way a brand looks. However, digital marketing has been explored beyond the fonts and colors of the brand. 

For today’s audience, branding primarily focuses on the relatability of the brand with its potential consumers. This brings us to an integral part of branding, brand voice.  

You have likely unknowingly experienced brand voice in one way or the other. Ever thought about how a brand tries to connect with the audience by using common jargon and slang? This is brand voice. Convincing the audience the brand is a part of their community. 

While this particular branding approach is overlooked by many businesses, you can always benefit from this strategy and have a distinctive brand voice of your own.

To understand this concept better, let’s discuss what brand voice targets and how does it execute it.

What Is A Brand Voice?   

Brand voice refers to giving a brand a personality of its own. You plan out the best appearance for your brand, which is a timely attraction. The way a brand conveys its story and compels the consumers are what its personality is made of and that’s how you attract defining consumers. 

For instance, back in our school days, we all had our favorite professors. Somehow, we related to how they spoke and conveyed their emotions. On the contrary, some professors were straight-up boring and bleak. Now you understand how giving the brand a personality makes a lot of difference in the way the audience perceives the brand.  

The example that we spoke of above, gives us the idea that the tone that you converse in impacts the brand voice development for the audience. Consumers will only show their interest in the brand if they feel a connection with the brand motive.  

Each brand has a tone of its own. A tone of a brand refers to the style a brand communicates with its consumers. The standard communication between the brand and the consumer can be through words, images, colors, slogans, among others. In the most simplistic manner, it is not what you say that matters but how you say it is the key takeaway.

Now you might think, “why can’t I just write the way I have been writing?”

Of course, you can!

The concept of brand voice does not by any means imply that you have to be pretentious with your content. It redefines your communication skills and enhances your online personality for the audience to see what your brand has to offer.

Types Of Brand Voices And Tones (With Examples)      

Let’s discuss the various brands that have utilized various tones and emotional appeals in creating a brand voice for their campaigns. These campaigns have had a great impact on the audience and their connection with the brand. We will also observe the types of brand voice attributes some of these brands use to showcase their mottos.

Cred – Eccentric and Straight-Forward

Cred is an Indian fintech company that has grown to be a household name in no time from its establishment. The primary reason why Cred, even though being founded in 2018, has become a trusted brand is because of its marketing team. Cred came out with the most absurd advertisements wherein personalities were portrayed to be the exact opposite of what they’ve been perceived as by the public.

For instance, Cred created an advertisement where ex-Indian cricket team captain Kapil Dev was seen in the most bizarre outfits playing cricket and just being chaotic. In contrast, he is seen as a sincere and shy personality otherwise. 

The brand voice that Cred uses in its campaigns is more or less eccentric in its way of communication. Where the brand portrays the motto of anything is possible with Cred. The witty tone is not limited to digital platforms. The billboards advertising Cred read “Download The App To Know More.” This alone shows that the brand wants to stand out from the traditional marketing and professional way of brand voice marketing.   

Burger King – Witty and Loud 

Burger King is one of the largest fast-food restaurant chains in the world, and they do not step back from letting everyone know that. Burger King is known to showcase a witty and defiant brand voice where they challenge their competitors, such as McDonald’s and KFC. 

The above image is a still from ‘The Whopper Secret’ advertisement by Burger King. It thrashed the size of McDonald’s ‘Big Mac’ burger by stating that they kept a Big Mac behind their Whopper burger and it wasn’t seen in any published photographs because of its ‘big’ size and thanked them for having their back.

They use the content tone of being loud and humorous with their ads so that the audience is attracted to the content. It is human nature to enjoy a feud between two entities, especially when those brands are as well-known as McDonald’s and Burger King.

This is the exact approach Burger King has targeted and hence, is considered one of the best brands to learn marketing strategies from. This can be seen in the marketing feud between Coca-Cola and Pepsi as well. 

Disney – Aspirational 

Whenever you watch a Disney trailer, movie launch, theme park advertisement, Disney makes you believe that it is “Where Dreams Come True.” Disney is one of the biggest production houses and entertainment brands. This cannot be achieved without a consistent high-quality outcome and a deadly marketing team.

When you hear the name Disney you are given the idea of imagination and fantasy mixed with the emotion of aspiration. Disney promotes the idea of dreams. Hence, when you visit their theme parks, the larger life fictional characters’ figurines make you believe in the stories. Disney aims at attracting the audience by giving them a platform to aspire through their ads and campaigns.  

Sephora – Informative and Empowering  

Sephora is a cosmetics brand that targets millennial women. Their campaigns can be considered to be inclined toward women’s empowerment and women’s independence. This is purely due to their target audience. 

Above is a still from Sephora’s ‘Stories of Belonging’ campaign where you see an employee sharing their journey at Sephora as a queer community member.

Sephora utilizes the informative tone to educate their audience about their products through guides and empowers them with impactful taglines. Sephora is one of the examples where the tone of brand voice is seen as a medium to approach and interact with the audience. The brand is functional and professional in its approach and uses educational content to connect with its audience such as tips and hacks for a better lifestyle.

With this tone of content, Sephora has built trust and credibility in the cosmetic market and has an influential brand positioning. This has been achieved through the brand voice and their brand marketing strategies.  

Define Your Brand Voice

With the examples above, we can understand that every brand has a unique channel of communication with its audiences. The brand voice also plays an important role in internal communication where the employees, partners, distributors, and key stakeholders are involved. Hence, defining your brand voice has a greater significance than just promoting your brand. It is the essence of what your brand stands for. 

To determine your brand voice, you need to consider the following key elements and analyze their brand voice attributes.   

Communication With Your Audience

Remember that brand voice is not discussing a research paper about your brand but a conversational synthesis of what your brand can help with. Your audience will want to interact with your content if it is interesting and extraordinary. Hence, put in efforts to create engaging content for the audience to look forward to. 

You must be familiarized with your target audience by now, considering you are looking for brand voice examples. When we say audience, we are referring to that prototypical section of the mass who follow a similar pattern of activities. 

To understand your audience better and to develop great content, you can create a theoretical character who resembles your audience. Give the character a name, personality traits, and habits that you think your audience follows, such as social media platforms that be visited by them. 

This activity will help you create a focal point to develop targeted and customized content for social media posts, email marketing, and customer service. The brand voice for the business remains however the brand tone would be different. Hence, the brand voice for social media would be different from the b2b brand voice (business to business).  

Your Brand’s Character  

Your brand’s character refers to what your brand offers and values. The brand voice for every business type is unique in its content. For instance, the brand voice and values of a graphic designer and a law firm will be distinct. For that matter, the brand voice for a graphic designing studio and a solopreneur graphic designer would be different. 

Giving a character to your brand refers to how your brand as an entity would communicate with the clients and all the affiliated personnel. For example, what kind of a brand do you want to build;

• Personal or Corporate/Enterprise
• Contemporary or Traditional 
• Humorous or Deliberate
• Professional or Non-chalant  (or a blend of them both) 

You can raise your brand character to be whatever you want but remember to analyze the background of your work and how the business is seen in the market and in the public eye. 

For instance, if we take the example of a law firm. It might not be appropriate to use a humorous tone, considering the firm is dealing with the sensitive topic of law and judiciary. However, an artist or a photographer can have a nonchalant and humorous way of conveying their brand motive. This is how to create a brand voice for your business by analyzing its core values.  

Sometimes you may find it hard to narrow down on what your brand voice strategy should be. That’s when you can think of the brand voice attributes you need to neglect. Say you do not want to sound complex, casual, and unapproachable. That right there is your brand voice development.   

It’s All About The Emotions

The main object of brand voice is to make your audience feel a certain emotion toward your brand or campaign. While visual branding targets the emotional aspect through color psychology, the brand voice takes a step further and builds an emotional connection with the reader/audience. 

For instance, if you want your audience to experience the emotion of empowerment, you will create educational and motivational posts for your brand voice on social media. And if you want your audience to feel the emotion of love and happiness, you would share true stories and create that bond.

Some of the many brand voice social media tropes are;

• Motivation/Inspired/Confident
• Compassionate
• Calm/Relaxed
• Community/Communal 
• Challenging/Passion/Energy 
• Luxurious

Social media brand voice has a wide radar of emotions. The audience relates to the content easily and the organic reach is immense. Hence, there is a need for brand voice marketing.    

Tone Of Your Content 

We have discussed this aspect before as well, where we spoke about how the tone of your content is important. The tone of your brand refers to the type of content you create and for what platform you are creating that content. You can make this process easier by using GPT-3 content tools which can create awesome content just by giving a few inputs.

For instance, when creating a post for LinkedIn, your content tone would be formal and deliberate. However, when creating an Instagram post, you will be more conversational and casual in your approach. This is due to the audience each platform engages with. Where LinkedIn has more professionals, Instagram offers an easygoing audience. 

While your brand voice would remain consistent for business, the tone of your content would depend on the format and the campaign you are marketing. Remember, for a business strategy, the importance of brand voice is equivalent to that of content marketing; they complement each other for better results for the company.    

7 Key Benefits Of Building A Brand Voice

Now that we have discussed the various brand tones for your brand voice attributes, let’s talk a bit about the importance of brand voice.  

Build Credibility

The most important aspect of market authority is brand positioning. A brand voice for the company plays an integral role in how your brand will be seen by the public. As we discussed for Cred and Sephora, their unique brand voice has given them a prominent place in the market.    

Brand voice builds a connection with the audience where the consumers feel that they are being heard and cared for. So, brand voice helps a business build credibility in the market, eventually resulting in greater financial outcomes.

Product Recalls & Refunds

Businesses quite often find themselves in a tough situation when their product is recalled or when a consumer has a bad experience. This is where brand voice strategies are helpful. If the consumer discovers that the brand is approachable and relatable, then they may still have a positive experience.

In such scenarios, brand voice plays a vital role. The brand can build a strategic approach for managing product recalls or refunds. This also plays an important role in placing the credibility of the brand.  

Word Of Mouth Advertisement

When you create meaningful and effective ad campaigns, consumers tend to talk about your brand and its services. This is how brand voice helps in creating a chain reaction for your products/services. Advertisements that are influential are spoken about and discussed in public forums as well. However, the same technique might backfire if you do not plan your marketing campaigns well. 

For instance, recently, the automobile brands Kia and Hyundai faced a lot of criticism due to their social media posts for an event in Pakistan. This enraged the consumers in India, and Hyundai faced a loss of 100,000 car bookings. This is where your tone of content comes into consideration. It can either make or break your brand.   

Relating With Your Target Audience

The primary motive of the concept of brand voice is to connect and tune in with your target audience. It is to understand what your consumers want and to provide them with the required content. We have discussed how brand voice can make the audience connect with your brand and convert them into loyal consumers.  

Strategic Vision For Your Brand

Brand voice gives your ideas the wings to fly high. Once you have understood your target audience and their needs through content marketing strategies, you can attract your audience. This will help your brand to be laser-focused on its agendas and motives. 

Brand voice helps businesses to understand what kind of content will work for particular demographics and markets. This is how you can build authority in the industry. As they say, the consumer is the king.  

A Targeted Vision For Your Employees

Once you have a strategic vision for your brand, your employees will follow the lead and make the magic happen with on-ground results. It is easier for the employees to understand the brand’s vision and provide ideas for the same. This also helps in the organization and execution of the ideas for the employees. 

The brand voice of a company helps the employees to understand the brand as well. This helps in creating authentic and impactful content marketing strategies.  

Understanding Your ‘Why’

It goes without saying that a company should analyze why it needs a brand voice and what agendas does it aim to fulfill with the same. A brand should conduct research on how the product advertising is performing on different platforms and rectify what needs to be changed. This will help the company in creating a customized brand voice strategy. 

This process should be followed for every campaign where your content tone will change but the brand voice is preserved.