A simple copy can’t define your brand voice? Think again.

Nothing defines the dynamic with your audience better than the words you use to express yourself. 

Brand voices are associated closely with brand identities and are considered their extensions. How a brand sounds represents exactly what it’s like: LinkedIn always sounds professional in its communications, while Reddit sounds the exact opposite - informal. 

But what is a “brand voice”?

It is a collection of the personality traits and impressions that a brand conveys through audience engagements. 

It's not simply concerned with what you choose to say but how you choose to say it. 

A brand could say, “We’re the best at what we do”. It could also say, “Others try. We just do it better.”. This defines the brand’s personality - one is straightforward, while the other is bold. 

Here’s how some brands do it.

*Any third-party Intellectual Property is not owned by Grapdes. What a brand like Samsung chooses to say would be miles off from how Dell communicates with its customers. That’s why brands must set a direction and guidelines for their communications strategy. Distinct messaging always stands out if it's commonly associated with certain brands and is authentic. 88% of customers look for authentic brands when choosing who to support. 

Hold your horses. Before we get there, let’s see what some of the generally used tones of voice are.

Common tones of voice

Listen, there’s no way past it, but first, it's always the formal tone of voice. 

We know, we know. But there’s a reason it's the OG - it establishes authority while remaining professional. 

Next, there’s the engaging of the voice. Think of the last time you saw an ad from The Economist. 

Yes, you heard it right. While their ads generally sound as if they were meant for formal use alone, try dissecting some of their communications, and you’ll catch the drift.

*Any third-party Intellectual Property is not owned by Grapdes. It's not always the “funny ones” that are engaging. 

What’s more, certain industries tend to gravitate towards specific tones of voice. Take Rolex, for instance. The brand’s content carries a certain elegance, solidifying its products as symbols of prestige. It expresses emotion through reverence, rather than excitement, meaning that an upbeat tone of voice is nowhere to be seen on its radar.

On the other hand, with changing times, brands and industries, as a whole, have also transitioned to completely different tones. 

*Any third-party Intellectual Property is not owned by Grapdes.

This advertisement, for example, is proof that sports brands were not always motivational like they are today. Till a certain brand was popularised for it, of course.

Nike used a motivational tone of voice for its memorable campaign—Just Do It. What makes it so iconic?

It doesn’t use jargon, nor does it have a complicated message. It’s simple and gets observers straight to the point. But remember,

…even 1 word can make a massive difference.

It goes without saying that setting the context upfront is key to delivering a message/idea successfully.

*Any third-party Intellectual Property is not owned by Grapdes. While Burger King has gone on to take down this tweet, the resulting backlash resembled a dumpster fire. 

A consistent brand voice results from a clean brand identity, an understanding of the brand’s audience, a well-defined guide for communications, and uniform messaging across platforms. A report claims that it could increase brand revenue by as much as 33%.

And remember, if anything, you can always dive deeper into your brand’s tone of voice.

90% of marketers agree that brand language is important to business success. 

But once you’ve defined your brand’s voice, what’s next?

When a brand expands across platforms, it must understand the risks and opportunities associated with maintaining a certain tone of voice. 

Cultural sensitivity or untapped messaging styles - each is an area worth exploring. Airbnb excelled at just that, with its inclusive communication across platforms. It took ‘Belong Anywhere’ literally, translating it into a global marketing campaign.

Diversity and inclusion are crucial pillars of online societies today, and brands thrive on these, depending on their online behaviour. Close to 38% of high-growth brands invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in messaging, according to a report.

Making it all work at the end of the day. Now, what does that look like?

Like we’ve already mentioned, a consistent brand voice is a result of various factors, including a communications guide and uniformity across platforms.

How can brands ensure their messaging is not lost during communication deliveries?

Well, before we come to an answer there, remember how comprehensive curating a brand voice can be? 

So, let’s agree that brands need to continuously analyse their communications and ensure they’re never toeing the line with their voice too much - neither too experimental, nor too template-like. There needs to be a balance of everything, to ensure all bases are covered, and brands are exploring everything permissible within their confines.

Sometimes, brands tend to go out of their way and rely on outside forces, Artificial Intelligence, to state one such force. Before we get any unruly thoughts about its use, let’s not forget how your brand voice is not simply a set of guidelines or statements that enforce a certain tone in place. It sets the tone for all experiences with your brand.

So, before you let a chatbot define your brand’s voice, remember that there’s no right way to get the help of AI to improve upon your existing brand voice that doesn’t include an endless round of prompts. We’d like to guess that through some of those prompts, both the AI-powered chatbot and, in some cases, you might lose focus on what you’d set out to achieve.

*Any third-party Intellectual Property is not owned by Grapdes. This Toys”R”us ad, for instance, was something that was critically panned for how unauthentic it appeared, with characters seeming to “shapeshift” through different frames.

We get it; it's hard to look past GPTs and software such as ChatGPT and Gemini when they present themselves ready to solve anything on your hands. But if you look in the right direction, you’ll find that following your evolving brand voice is easy when you are involved in curating communications using it from the ground up, for all purposes.

In short, scrutiny spreads like wildfire when you lose the reins of your brand voice to forces outside your control. But when you’ve got them intact, there’s only one thing to do: stay true to your word, in both your brand’s actions and voice.