When developing a successful business, shaping a recognizable brand is a crucial step. In order to stand out amongst competitors, brands must cultivate a personality that represents a company’s strengths and core values. Spotify, a hugely popular music platform, has solidified itself as a witty, engaging, and lighthearted brand. Whether it’s through tongue-in-cheek subway ads or customized user playlists, Spotify demonstrates that it understands the humor of its younger demographic. This is an excellent example of how perfecting a brand voice can help customers feel closer to your product. 

So, what exactly is a brand voice? 

A strong brand shouldn’t be identical to its competitors. Think about America’s leading fast food chains, for instance. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Burger King are all best known for selling hamburgers, but these companies have intentionally carved out unique appearances within the industry. With vastly different logos, mascots, and even menus, these three restaurants have made themselves distinct from each other in the eyes of the American public. This illustrates good branding, or the process of creating an identity for one’s brand. Brand voice, like logos or color schemes, is just another component of branding. Brand voice refers to the written and verbal content that a brand’s marketing efforts produce.

Which brands have mastered their voices?

Brand voices are an important part of marketing, and they can help set a business apart from its competition. Some brands, like Tiffany, want to appear elegant and refined. To accomplish this, Tiffany’s marketing efforts communicate class and luxury with a touch of wit. Other brands, like Spotify, take a more comedic approach to appealing to their core audience. Harley-Davidson, the famous motorcycle brand, has a brand voice that’s rugged, bold, and even a little arrogant. These qualities wouldn’t mesh with Tiffany jewelry, but they’re surprisingly effective in attracting Harley-Davidson lovers.

No matter the kind of brand voice a company has, the key is to remain consistent throughout all messaging. If one ad is sarcastic, but another is deeply serious, viewers will get conflicting ideas on what the brand is supposed to represent. A brand voice only works if ever present, weaved through TV ads, website content, social media, and all other forms of communication. Brand voice predates social media, but the introduction of platforms like Twitter and Instagram has only given the phenomenon more space to grow. Many companies, Wendy’s being one example, have become infamous for their sardonic customer interactions on Twitter. Social media sites let brands showcase their personalities on a broad scale, and particularly clever posts even have a shot at going viral.

What makes a brand voice good? 

There’s no perfect, universal voice to fit every brand like a glove. Instead, the strength of a brand voice depends on the atmosphere that an individual company hopes to create and the values it strives to live up to. Even if you’ve never consciously thought about brand voices, you’ve most likely seen them in action.

If you swapped out the burgers in a McDonald’s commercial for chicken sandwiches, it still wouldn’t function well as a Chick-fil-A ad. That’s because McDonald’s touts itself as dependable, convenient, and down to Earth, whereas Chick-fil-A wants to be viewed as sincere, wholesome, and a little classier than the average fast food joint. What a solid brand voice comes down to is authenticity. When interacting with your business, the quality should reflect what the customer already knows from listening to your brand’s voice. 

How can I create a voice for my brand?

To develop a brand voice, think about what you want your company to represent. If you’re trying to push the idea that your brand is sophisticated, goofy jokes might not effectively capture this voice. Likewise, an artistic b-roll with a moving score would be out of place for a company hoping to be viewed as casual and relatable. Defining your target audience can also help when crafting a brand voice.

Once you understand who your primary demographic is, you can avoid alienating them with a brand personality they won’t like. Part of this involves ruling out traits that you don’t want your brand to embody. If your company aims to be laid-back and playful, you’ll want to make sure none of your messaging comes across as overly strict. If there’s a particular company whose brand voice you admire, take note of their branding strategies and try to emulate them. However, be careful not to mimic another business completely. You want your brand voice to stand out as original.