A brand is a personality that has a voice and characteristics that differentiate it from the competition. It is made to serve specific needs. We must do an extensive research before we start designing a brand.
We must learn what kind of brand it is, its values and what its target audience is. Those are the necessary information we must know, to proceed to the brand’s design.
If we want to understand the brand better, we can compare it to a person. People have names, voices, features, and statuses that give every of them a specific identity. Everyone is different.
But, let’s talk about the voice that is one of the most important things, as it is distinctive for every one of us. The same is for the brands.
In order for us to find the brand voice, we have to answer to the below questions:
- If a brand was a person, which would his personality be?
- What kind of relationship does it have with the target audience?
- If the brand was a person, how would he look like?
- If the brand was a person, how would it say “hi” to its customers?
The brand voice reflects the brand's feelings. For example, the brand may feel free; independent; premium or luxurious; local or international; cheap or expensive. This way, the brand can speak the language of the customers who identify with its feelings.
The brand voice can’t change. It must bealways the same because it reflects the brand’s personality. But, the way we address to the target audience can change. And that way, is the tone of voice.
The tone of voice is the emotional inflexion that happens to our voices during a conversation and differentiates according to whom we speak to. That adjustment brings out feelings that modify a person’s temper.
We must know the values and the purpose of the brand and also what are the right words for it to speak, in order to understand its tone of voice.
The tone of voice change, depends on the kind of the customer we address to. Even if the target group is a group of people, each customer is a unique personality. And according to that personality, we must adjust the tone of voice.
We could say that our persona defines the tone of voice of our brand.
Of course, by “adjustment” we don’t mean that we createdifferent tones of voice for each customer. We mean that we adjust the tone of voice according to the media that we use such as the social media, the packaging and the website.
The tone of voice may be friendly, aggressive, jolly, encouraging, imposing, formal and more.
Taking everything into account, the most successful brands have an established voice and tone. They manage to preserve the values and timelessness while remaining connected with people. And that means a relationship which is based upon trust and authenticity.
At S & Team, we firstly learn about the brand’s values, its personality and its purpose, before we start creating the brand voice and specify the target audience.
Our goal is to find the right words for the brand,to communicate it to the people, to differentiate it from the competition and connect it emotionally with its target audience.