Speak Up: How to PinPoint Your Exact Brand Voice

The online age has taught us that answers are quick, and results are quicker. Are you looking for your brand voice? Have you found it yet? What about now? Try page two of Google.

The truth is that you have probably found your brand voice already. It is just not producing the sort of results you were hoping for, and that is because a brand voice takes a long time to establish itself.

In this article, you will learn about brand voice and tone, brand voice guidelines, and understand why some brand voice examples failed.

Brand Voice and Brand Tone

What is a brand voice? Your brand voice should be based on your primary brand principles. If your brand voice is your mouthpiece, then make sure it is spouting the right message.

Your company may have many brand principles and unique selling points but ask yourself the primary reason why your customers are coming to you rather than your competitor. That is your primary brand principle and ergo should be the focus of your brand voice.

What is brand voice tone? Your brand tone is more about targeting. If you are trying to shake action out of young millennials, then you should consider, “Hey Noobs, like and subscribe to my video and check me out this month at dweeb-con.”

If you are targeting middle-aged mothers, then your tone should be a little more inspirational to remind them there is a world waiting for them after their kids have stopped draining the life from them (maybe a little cynical, but you get the idea).

Brand Voice Guidelines

Make sure that your brand voice sticks to a very simple message, and make sure the message has meaning. You offer the fastest pizzas, you have the safest cars, your light bulbs last the longest, your call-out charges are the cheapest …

Do not chop and change your brand principles to suit current trends because trends are always the most valuable when they hit their peak, which is ironically the time when most people take them up and the trend starts to decline.

Do not create any form of dissonance. If you are a conservative brand, then do not suddenly start showing advertisements with work-shy slackers. If you are a liberal brand, then do not show adverts with people saluting those in the military.

One of the most painful things to watch is a brand trying to be something it is not; it is like watching your 55yr old dad trying to break dance at a party.  

Separating Brand Tone and Brand Voice

Remember that brand tone is all about targeting. The way you convey your message and the guidelines you set up should appeal to your demographic while scaring away (alienating) people who are not part of your target audience.

Your brand voice is only about your brand principles. Your brand principles should not be targeted.

The best example of this in recent history is My Little Pony. Their brand principles became all about fun in an almost kitsch way without being too stylistically camp. Their target audience was addressed by their tone, in that their product was brightly colored cartoon horses with human haircuts.  

Suddenly, irrespective of the tone, the brand voice spoke to all demographics, and before they knew it, they were attracting everybody from cynical generation Xers to a strong 17-35 male demographic known as the Bronies.

On the other hand, target people with your brand principles, and things can go horribly wrong. This has been proven again and again by car companies that have attempted to create cars just for women. Some even say that the Yorkie bar with its “Men Only” slogan was the reason why nobody aged 20 or younger knows what a Yorkie bar is these days.  

Why Some Brand Voice Examples Failed

Mixed messages are often the biggest reason why some brand voices fail. A unique selling proposition (USP) is not a brand principle. Your product may have 20 features that are better than your competitor, but your brand voice should only pound to the beat of your most powerful brand principles.

Pumping effort into the wrong brand principle is a mistake that Dominos made in 2018. Back in the old days, Dominos used to create terrible pizzas, but their brand voice sold people on the idea that their pizzas would arrive within 30 minutes or your money back. Their brand voice was on target.

In September 2018, the Russian Dominos offered 100 free pizzas for 100 years to anybody who tattooed the “Domino’s forever” logo onto themselves. Not only was it a disaster (and massively expensive as thousands of Russians did it), but it also spread a very odd message in that the most gullible and hungriest people were now walking around with a Dominos tattoo.  

Getting Tone and Brand Voice Wrong

You may remember the terrible Pepsi ads in 2018 that featured a ruthlessly diverse assembly of cheerful and well-scrubbed youngsters who were waving blandly meaningless placards.

What brand principles was that advertisement trying to suggest? That young people all live perfect lives and suckle from the leftist liberal media like piggies to the hog?

In what way was any of that ad supposed to sell a soft drink? Are they saying that the drink had transformative properties like the Nuka Cola in the Fallout games?

A similar blunder in the same year was made by the UK Labour party, who drove around in pink vans and pink buses with slogans about women. Their hope was to attract women voters, but instead, it patronized them; as if suggesting that a woman would vote for somebody because they had a nice pink brand rather than because of their policies or leadership.

In this case, the brand voice and the tone were completely off the mark and the results were disastrous. 

Honest John Didn’t Wake Up and Decide to Be Honest

Most people believe that a person picks up a nickname because of a single action. Jerry the cattle rustler did some rustling once and now he has a bad name, and maybe it is true, maybe some “muck” sticks, but positive things rarely stick as easily.

Positive things need constant reinforcement. Honest John needs to be seen to be honest, and he needs to do it for years, and the same applies to anything positive you apply to your brand through your brand voice.

The Chief Executive of Ratners called his jewelry “sh*t” on live TV and his network of UK jewelers went bust within a year. Yet, prior to that, he spent millions and millions on advertising how his stuff was the best.

Your brand voice will not create a positive effect unless it is repeatedly enforced. If you are not feeling the positive effect of your brand voice, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have found the wrong voice, it may simply mean your brand has a lot of growing to do before you get the results you want. 

If you need a boost, then grow your brand with a suitably invigorating campaign with Open Lock Marketing. Contact us today to get your voice heard!