Know Your Brand Voice: 6 Examples of Brand Voices (And How to Use Them!)

Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown

Originally Posted On: http://thetechnews.com/2020/05/28/know-your-brand-voice-6-examples-of-brand-voices-and-how-to-use-them/

Want to get to know your brand voice? If so, we are here to help. Click here for six examples of brand voices and how to use them!

Have you ever looked at Wendy’s Twitter account and wonder how it gets away with all the trolling it’s doing on the platform? It doesn’t show favoritism. It attacks anyone that gets too close, especially its competitors.

Well, we’re not sure either, but what we’re certain about is that it works. Its tone made it possible for the brand to connect with its audience in a successful way.

Its humorous remarks are consistent; they stay in line with its brand voice. So how can one emulate this kind of success?

First, you need to find your brand voice. This will allow you to form the right connections without copying from other brands. Keep on reading to see some more examples of brand voices and then we’ll teach you how to find yours!

A brand voice is a style you adopt when talking to your customers. It stems from your brand’s identity, so you better have that already figured out. It aims to create a personality that’s consistent across all platforms.

This voice you don’t use only in personal conversations. You also use it in writing blog posts, posting tweets, and even in choosing appropriate media.

If you choose a positive tone, for instance, you can’t talk about depressing topics on your feed. If you must direct your audience’s attention to such a topic, approach it in a way that will still make them feel good.

That said, establishing your brand personality should already give you an idea of what brand voice to take. But alas, nothing comes easy; prepare for this process to frustrate you, too.

Let us help you out; look at the brand tone examples below so you can envision what a brand voice is like.

1. Empowering and Inspirational

Brands with an empowering voice use affirmative language to talk to their audience. The aim is to make them feel empowered about themselves and their choices.

This works with beauty and sports brands. Nike, for example, uses a motivating tone to inspire its readers to get up and moving. It inspires readers of all ages, with or without disability, to create their legacy.

Their tagline, “Just do it,” encapsulates this type of brand voice.

Another example is Dove, which empowers both men and women to be themselves. Its whole brand is about getting comfortable with themselves. That shows through the way it talks to the customers, as well.

Note that these two different brands are both inspirational yet they don’t sound the same. That means you can still create a unique tone even when you want to use the same voice.

If you want your brand to sound empowering, use words like “can” and “do.” Avoid negative words, as you want to sound positive. Instead of saying something like, “don’t mind the haters,” say, “surround yourself with positive influences.”

2. Smart and Professional

If you need to establish yourself as an authority in your field, a professional voice would suit you. You’ll need to use formal language when speaking, even when talking one-on-one with a customer.

The photos you post should be high-quality photos shot by a professional, as well. They should be clean and direct to the point.

The level of formality is up to you; too formal may make you sound stiff without a shred of personality. It’s possible to remain authoritative even when using simpler words.

Want to sound smart, as well? Question relevant topics in your field and incite a discussion with your readers. Something as simple as posting quotes from wise people does the trick, too.

Use “smart” words if relevant, but make sure they’re still understandable. But be careful about sounding too smart; you might sound pretentious instead. It must still be accessible to the reader; the whole point is to connect with them, after all.

This type of voice is best-suited for brands that want their audience to see them as a leader. Tech brands may use this style as techy = smart.

3. Witty and Humorous

Formal language isn’t your taste? Try connecting with your readers through humor.

Wendy’s Twitter account is famous for this. It flips the user’s words against them and injects humor into its responses.

Its tweets aren’t always positive; it’s known for “roasting” its readers – and people seem to like it. The target demographics of Wendy’s explains this success, of course. The millennials and even young professionals loved seeing an international company using their level of humorous wit to talk to them.

This tactic put the brand in the “in” crowd. It penetrated the market by bantering with its customers. Its responses became a source of entertainment for the dominant crowd on Twitter.

Of course, this brand voice isn’t suitable for most brands. Imagine if the Tiffany brand started teasing you in a sudden? That will sound out of place since this brand is all about elegance and class.

When you want to use this voice, make sure you have the right people in your team for it. It won’t work if you’re only pretending.

You can’t force wit and humor; people are pretty perceptive. They’ll see right through your attempt at being “cool” and they won’t hesitate to call you out for it.

You don’t have to copy Wendy’s, too. You can be both witty and humorous without “roasting” your customers left and right.

4. Helpful and Informative

Many brands don’t have to entertain their readers, though, so humor might not be the right type of approach to their target. They can instead become informative to form a connection with their customers.

Take Sephora, for instance. Yes, it’s empowering, too, but it also takes the tone of a helpful brand. After all, its tagline is, “Let’s beauty together,” which encourages two-way conversations.

It likes sharing tips on their feed, helping its audience look their absolute best. It will point you out to the best lipsticks shades, for example. Or it will alert you to the trending eyeshadow colors this season.

LaCroix is another example. It offers helpful tips about what you can do with its products – from creating cocktails to using it to keep flowers fresh.

As you can see, a helpful and informative tone isn’t useful to only one industry. If you think your brand is all about helping, create a brand voice that makes the others’ lives a little better.

Share some helpful tips in your industry or share any news that’s relevant to your product and maintain. Be diligent in responding to customers who need help and maintain a friendly stance to make them feel more comfortable in approaching you for assistance.

5. Positive and Friendly

Chances are, you’ve seen this brand voice everywhere. Companies want their customers to be comfortable with them, and this is the safest way to do that.

This tone makes people feel at ease like you’re their bubbly friend who always knows how to lighten up the mood.

One popular brand that uses this voice is Coca-Cola. Remember its friendly polar bears? What about the happy families and friend groups it shows in its ads?

That’s Coca-Cola’s voice; it’s the same kind of feel you’ll get from its social media accounts. It likes sharing photos and videos that can make you smile.

You can describe this as cheerful, so if you want to use this voice, better sport a smile while you’re writing a post. The goal is to make the reader smile, too; it’s easier to do that when you’re smiling yourself.

Your tone of voice can be quite upbeat or mellow while still being positive and friendly. Don’t worry, you can still show your unique voice personality.

6. Casual and Hip

This seems to be popular in younger demographics as it makes a brand feel more relatable. It’s like seeing a friend on your feed, nothing too out of place. They talk to you like you’re a long-time friend, which means they may not use formal words.

Using this brand voice, you might have to use slang to be hip. For instance, you may have to put “periodt” after making a point to emphasize it. It’s not a real word, but it’s a word your target market is using.

Of course, not all casual conversations need to have slang sprinkled in there. You only need to stop treating the other person as someone above you but rather your friend. Imagine how you talk to a friend and use that mood to define your brand voice.

Refer to these examples: “That looks yummy” vs “Your recipe looks enticing, Susan.”

Or “See why you need to take action now” vs “Here are the reasons why your inaction is hurting your SEO.”

It’s up to your brand whether you need to sound hip on top of being casual toward your audience.

You’ve now learned of tone examples brands use; the next question is, what’s yours?

Creating a brand voice is not as simple as choosing the best-suited voice from these six examples. You have to tailor it to fit your brand identity. You might find out that you’re a mix of humorous and inspirational, for example, or another tone of voice we haven’t mentioned.

Let’s find that out using these tips:

1. Describe Your Brand

First, we’ll ask you to describe your brand in three to five words. Are you adventurous, playful, and a little bit weird? You may even describe your brand as innovative and a leader.

From these words, you can pretty much picture your brand personality, but you must also consider how you want to make your consumers feel.

Even if you’re confident, for instance, you may want your audience to still feel that you’re easy to get along with. You may want to seem approachable and warm. Take that into account when listing words associated with your brand.

2. Describe Your Audience

Next, you tailor the way you speak to your target market. Being approachable to the elderly involves a different tone than being approachable to the new generation, for example.

That’s why you have to describe your audience as well. You find a way to connect your personality to theirs, and then decide how you want to make that connection.

You incorporate the aspects of their language into your brand voice. Want to seem sociable while maintaining your authority to the kids? That will sound different than being sociable by getting into their social circle.

3. Look at Your Content

Not sure how to describe yourself? Look at your brand’s content. Look at the blog posts you’ve published, your recent posts on social media, your newsletters, and so on.

You need to examine how you are communicating with your audience at present. Find what they have in common. It might surprise you that you have a casual tone when you thought you were being formal.

Compare your content in each platform to help you get a better picture of your brand voice. Is a humorous tone consistent in all platforms? If not, then you have a problem to fix.

4. Ask Your Team

You should also ask your team to describe your brand. Ask everyone from your HR staff to the CEO. They might have different answers, but you’ll likely see a common theme.

But what if their perceptions have extreme oppositions from each other? Then we also have a problem to fix here.

It signifies that they don’t know the company they’re working for, which will lead to more serious issues later on. You might have to rebuild your brand in its entirety.

5. Look at Your Competitors

What are your competitors doing? How do they sound? Take a look at what personality they’ve taken on and then avoid that.

You don’t want to sound like them, you want to set your brand apart. If your competitors sound the same, then this is a good opportunity to stand out.

You can try to be that funny account on Twitter when all your competitor tweets about are boring details. Don’t focus too much on their voice, though, that you lose sight of your own.

It all boils down to how you want to communicate with your audience. Once you’ve developed a personality and a customer persona, your brand voice will follow.

Don’t hesitate to make changes to your brand voice when your company grows or when it has changed direction. For example, you might have to take on a more formal tone when you’ve expanded to the professional sector.

It has to remain consistent with your current values, goals, and market. If you need more tips like these, don’t hesitate to check out more of our content now!