Communication is the key to fostering valuable relationships whether it's business or life. If you have an attractive tone of voice, you'll likely influence the one you are chatting with. In the same way, companies can also influence their target audience with a unique tone of voice.
It's not all about what you say; it's also about how you say it.
From website content and email marketing to social media advertisements, it's crucial to consistently display a captivating tone of voice across all communication forms.
What Exactly Is the Brand Tone of Voice?
A tone of voice represents a mood or emotion that you convey using a specific word choice or writing style through your brand's message. It describes how you communicate with your audience and express your brand voice.
The best way to communicate your brand's personality, values, goals, and expertise is through an effective tone of voice that helps you connect with your audience. A tone of voice includes the words you choose, the correct order in which you put them, and how you use them in the content you display. For example, the tone of voice you use in a white paper may differ from what you use in a how-to article.
Your brand's tone of voice may vary from time to time, depending on:
- The audience you wish to target
- The media you plan to choose
- The goal you wish to pursue
However, it's crucial to remember that your brand's tone of voice should remain consistent throughout every content you display, no matter the situational changes.
Take yourself as an example where you have an individual personality that remains the same in all your daily interactions. The way you talk to people may differ slightly depending on the situation where you may use a different tone when in an office meeting than when you speak to your friends and family in an intimate gathering.
Similarly, your brand's voice should remain consistent, where you may be required to alter the tone of voice considerably to fit a particular piece of content or audience.
Why Does the Brand Voice Matter?
The tone of voice significantly impacts customer relationships, brand awareness and identity, and overall performance. According to recent studies on consumer behavior, some brands stood out more than others where 40% of customers preferred unique content, 33% preferred personality, and 32% preferred compelling storytelling. There's one thing that unique content, distinctive personality, and compelling storytelling have in common – it's the brand tone of voice.
Content isn't just about photos and videos – it's also about how you represent your brand to your audience.
A tone of voice creates brand awareness that helps consumers identify your brand by viewing only the content before seeing who posted it.
If your brand fluctuates between different voices, your audience can get confused about what your brand represents and may not recognize it from one interaction to another. On the other hand, if your brand fails to adjust its tone, you are likely to portray an irrelevant message.
You get approximately 10 seconds to leave a brand impression before your audience leaves for another website – a tone of voice communicates a unique value proposition, reflecting the brand's voice.
Here's why the tone of voice matters:
- Shapes your brand persona
- Builds a lasting connection with your audience
- Speaks the language of your target audience
- Creates consistency across various digital channels
- Forms brand awareness and credibility
- Creates a memorable brand image
How Can You Develop A Brand Tone of Voice?
There are many things that you need to take into account when creating compelling content – and a tone of voice should be the number one consideration!
For example, a company that sells vape kits takes on the vocabulary and attitude of a vape enthusiast. In contrast, a clothing company may loosen up the language to use everyday slang to connect to their audience. Similarly, if you're a pet store trying to connect with millennials on social media, you're likely to use a lighthearted lingo that attracts a younger audience.
Therefore, finding your brand's tone of voice plays a crucial role in creating an identity that helps you outperform competitors.
Let's talk about creating your brand tone of voice. Here are a few things to keep in mind when developing a brand tone of voice:
- Research your target audience
- Identify how your audience communicates
- Create a brand voice chart
- Find out a tone of voice that's suitable for your industry
- Make sure to choose a tone of voice that aligns with your brand persona
- Use Persuasive words in your brand voice to create authenticity
9 Brand Tone of Voice Examples - How To Define Your Own Brand Voice
There are various types of brand voice – consistently following the one which suits your brand values allows you to develop a persona, associatively putting an impression on your audience's minds.
Here are nine tones of voice you can choose for your brand to portray your message effectively and promote maximum engagement:
1. Adventurous & Intense – Red Bull
A company that sells energy drinks would probably choose a tone of voice that's adventurous and intense, such as Red Bull. The brand promises that by consuming Red Bull, you'll get wings, meaning you'll become a higher-performing version of yourself. Their target market is primarily sportsmen or young urban men that live on the edge.
Reb bull's tone of voice communicates its brand identity by using words like adventure, sports, or electrifying experiences, exhibiting thrill-seeking activities in their posts.
Their tone of voice is full of adrenaline where the audience can almost get a taste of the product just by looking at their advertisements.
If your brand promotes a courageous or adventurous product, targeting people involved in challenging recreational activities, it's best to use a tone of voice similar to Red Bull.
2. Simple & Direct – Uber
This tone of voice usually involves content that is straightforward to understand. From before and after posts to how-to graphics, brands like Uber take an upfront approach to educate their audience, using a natural and straightforward tone of voice.
Uber's tone of voice expresses its persona, portraying what the brand is about and what it stands for. If a brand like Uber uses a tone of voice like red bull's, it will disrupt their values, displaying the wrong message.
3. Positive & Inspiring – Nike
Nike chose to adopt a positive, friendly, motivating, and inspiring tone of voice to reflect its brand value. Every advertisement is targeted to portray a motivational message, encouraging the audience to 'just do it.' Their tone of voice seamlessly fits the product and target audience's lifestyle.
It's crucial to note that their tone of voice remains consistent across all channels, regardless of the target audience. Nike is one of the best examples of brands that integrate their tone of voice with other branding elements to maintain their persona.
If you choose to use a positive and inspiring tone of voice, it's best to use uplifting, stimulating, and energetic word-play to align with your brand's values.
4. Joyful & Friendly – Zendesk
A joyful and friendly tone of voice is an excellent way to help your audience cope with complex, new, and atypical situations in a reliable way. For example, Zendesk is a brand that helps businessmen manage customer service challenges.
Their tone of voice is humorous and friendly, creating a sense of empathy with the audience.
Their humorous tone sets them apart from other customer service agencies, generating personal relationships with the audience.
5. Innovative & Assertive – Apple
Apple uses its words exceedingly well, making confident yet straightforward statements that make them stand out from the rest. Their tone of voice is characterized by short and declarative sentences personally delivered to the audience with a hint of smugness.
Using words like pro cameras, pro display, and pro performance exhibits that they're advanced and innovative.
Their assertive tone of voice leaves an authoritative impression on the audience, building credibility and inspiring trust in their products. Moreover, their confident tone stays consistent in the rest of their branding, including ads, web pages, and stores.
6. Functional & Expressive – Starbucks
Another tone of voice involves adopting a functional and expressive approach to connect with the audience. Let's take the example of Starbucks. They use a functional tone of voice on their websites for way-finding and placing orders to help the audience understand with maximum clarity.
On the other hand, they use an expressive tone where their brand personality comes to life, displaying passionate coffee stories to connect with the audience.
Starbucks creates more space for relevance, association, and delight using both functional and expressive tones.
7. Confident & Aggressive – Harley-Davidson
If your brand offers a product that characterizes strength, masculinity, confidence, and persistence, a confident and aggressive tone of voice is the right option for you.
Harley-Davidson is a seamless example of how you can use an aggressive tone for the right brand, challenging the audience to show they can handle one of their motorcycles.
Harley-Davidson's brand persona is rough and jagged – so is their tone of voice!
8. Bold & Direct – Fenty Beauty
A cosmetic brand like Fenty Beauty that wishes to target young millennials and Gen-Zers using makeup as an authentic expression uses a bold and direct tone of voice, perfectly matching their brand persona.
Whether you see Fenty Beauty's About Us page on the website or the YouTube video description, you'll find a consistent tone of voice across all channels.
Fenty Beauty evokes a sense of friendliness by communicating boldly and directly with their audience.
9. Esteemed & Exclusive – Ford
Last but not least is the example of Ford – a brand that adopts a proud and exclusive tone of voice in its marketing strategies.
It's crucial to note that luxurious products or services with an extensive history of development and rich legacy, like Ford, can use a tone of voice that portrays their exclusiveness.
The Bottom Line
Brand tone of voice plays a crucial role in creating a brand persona, identity, and awareness, helping customers connect with your brand better. Remember to choose a tone of voice that fits well with your products or services, target audience, and most importantly, brand values and keep it consistent across all channels.
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