Does Your Brand Have a Voice?
A brand’s voice is its personality. The communications style, phrasing, and tone of your brand – serious, playful, fun, necessary, etc. If your brand was a person, how would he or she come off to others? Is you’re the life of the party, or the somber, serious one? Finding your brand’s voice takes branding to another level because it makes you think deeper about your business and how you want to be perceived. Needless to say, this takes a little psychology and intuition in regards to your target market. Having a brand voice is important because it helps to set you apart, builds trust, and helps foster brand loyalty because people will feel a connection with your voice. So what are some questions that you can ask yourself to find your brand voice?
- What vibe does your content have?
Read through the content of your website, brochure, business card, blogs, or anything that has written statements pertaining to your business. What feeling do you get from it? Is it playful and funny or serious and informative? This also applies to what kind of business you run – a dog grooming business may benefit more from a playful, fun voice than say a pest control business. Once you’ve read through your content, try and describe the vibe in one to three words. Use those words to establish a foundation for your voice and brainstorm descriptive terms or phrases based on these words.
- What do you think exemplifies the overall brand voice in your industry?
When looking at other businesses that offer similar products or services, how would you describe their brand voice? From there, you have to decide if you want to fall within the defined brand voice of that industry or try another approach. Will it be damaging to your business in any way if you decide to step outside of the brand voice already established or do you think you’ll be more appealing that way? The thing is, if you step too far out people may not understand what your business is about or they may not take you seriously. Establishing a voice is hard and takes some marketing know-how.
- How does your logo, slogan, and color scheme make people feel?
How do these visual elements impact your business? Brand voice is more about the writing and presentation of your business, but it should tie in with the visual branding of your business as well. What kind of colors do you use? We wrote a blog post a while ago entitled “The Logic of Color: Branding with Color in Mind” that discusses the meaning of color in logo design. For instance, certain colors can inspire certain feelings and emotions – green is fresh and Earth-conscious while purple is more sophisticated and elegant. Think about your colors and how they define your business and vice versa.
- What kind of language do you use when communicating with customers?
Deciding on how to interact with customers and the market is important. If you want to stay formal, use language that conveys formality and tradition. If you want to be more laid back, try staying colloquial and casual. This language should remain consistent in communications, marketing collateral, and online marketing (i.e. website and social media). The way you interact should be considered as part of your brand – it’s your voice and helps to promote the image you are striving for.
Branding is the foundation of your business, and establishing a consistent brand voice is part of the personality. It’s important to giving people a clear idea of who you are as a business and what you can do for them. Establishing a brand voice is difficult and takes marketing and advertising understanding, this is where Fusion Group USA comes in. They can help you with the brand development process encompassing your brand voice. Call today to find out what we can do for your business in terms of branding packages!
