Brand voice is the tone, style, and personality a business uses to communicate with its audience. It is the way a business expresses itself in writing and through its marketing materials, and it sets the tone for how customers perceive the business.
One of my favorite examples for brand voice is Manscaped, which is basically a company that targets men for grooming tools. I like them because of how tangible it is to see their brand voice. They are able to use humor, quick wit and edge to really speak to their target audience. Their branding colors are attractive and masculine with some edge. They are able to be confident and clever through their social media accounts and their voice really shines through all their ads and customer service responses. This all works really well with their target audience and is important to set themself apart from competition.
I have said it once, and I’ll say it a million times. DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
Target Audience is the specific group of people or individuals that your business is trying to appeal to. To define your target audience, ask yourself a few questions. Who is most likely to be interested in your product or service? Thing broad and specific. What are the demographics of your ideal clients? Behaviors and interests? How can your product or service help with their needs?
For Cut Design, my target audience would be you. Small business owner, entrepreneurs, or the like. Probably between the age of 27-42. Looking to design a website and revamp online presence. So I would ask myself, what does my target audience need, how can I fill it?
Branding and brand voice are closely related, both are extremely important roles in establishing the identity and perception of a brand. Branding is everything from a unique name, image, and message to color palettes, logos and socials. While brand voice is the way in which a brand communicates with its audience.
Overall, branding is important to brand voice because it sets the foundation for how a brand communicates with its audience, and a strong brand identity that is consistently communicated can help to establish a unique and memorable brand voice that resonates with its audience.
Brand values are the guiding principles that define what a brand stands for and what it believes in. These values reflect the core beliefs and principles of a brand and help to shape its identity, culture, and behavior. They are the fundamental ideals that a brand wants to be associated with and that it seeks to communicate to its audience.
These values can be integrity, quality, customer service, creativity, sustainability, diversity, ect. ect. Once a brand is able to define what Brand Values they want their company to reflect, they will be able use these to guide communication and behavior. This will help in the direction of not only online presence but in marketing and advertising as well. The consistent and authentic expression of brand values is critical to building a strong brand identity and building trust with customers.
Now that you know who you are talking to and what your values are as a brand the tone will follow. Consider your brand as a person and describe its personality traits. Is it serious or humorous? Friendly or formal? Playful or professional? This will help you determine the appropriate tone of voice.
What would your target audience respond to? Take Manscaped, their target audience responds well to humor and sarcasm. They are able to stand out against their competitors because they were able to adopt a unique brand voice and truly know what their audience will respond to.
Also, don’t be afraid to test it out and refine. The world is always changing, make sure you know where your audience is heading and go that direction with them.
Consistency is essential to building and maintaining a strong brand voice because it helps to establish trust, build familiarity, and differentiate a brand from its competitors. Not only does it allow a company to become more familiar to its target audience but it helps to build credibility and trust as well.