How to find your brand voice when you don’t even know what it is
Creating your brand can get a little bit complex when there are so many terms, brand voice, brand tone, brand values, brand audience and the list goes on...
And honestly I don’t you blame for not keeping track, that’s why Brand Strategist and Agencies exist.
So what the hell do we mean by brand voice?
There’s no industry definition of tone of voice. For this blog, we will described it as a verbal or written identity distinct from your brand’s visual identity. In other words, is how you speak to your audience, brands are people.
written identity ≠ visual identity
When we talk about businesses that have a tone of voice, it could be anything from a one-page summary that’s part of a brand book, to a full set of writing guidelines, to a complete program with training for all teams or just a simple copy.
Examples:
Cadbury Dairy Milk, uses very soft words such as goodness and chocolatey, both words that resonate will kids, they target audience
On the other side we have Ghirardelli, “Loose yourself in the dark”, you wouldn’t use those words for a younger audience. Their claim is “moments of timeless pleasure” using a mature language, both copies make sense and are making very clear their tone of voice.
Is it worth it to have one?
Businesses with a tone of voice sure think so. Imagine if international cooperations didn’t have one, every copywriter would be writing an ad in a different tone voice, chaotic. It’s at least as important as their visual identity and they should complement each other.
Okay cool but, What if I don’t have one?
To answer this simply, take a look at the following image:
What has a beer brand and a hair removal brand in common? The brand voice apparently. 🤨
Ready to find your brand voice?
Business owners agonise over choosing colours and fonts, and nailing the exact wording for their tagline. And honestly brand voice is not necessary where you should be spending YOUR time on it, focus your energy in other aspects of your business like nailing the communication with your Chinese supplier, leave the dirt work to me I got it all cover!