01 Mar 3 Steps to Defining Your Brand Voice
What makes a brand, a brand? According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the definition of branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates your product from other products. In order for people to identify with your brand, you need to establish a voice that clearly expresses your company’s values. Even if you aren’t actively creating a voice for your brand, you already are portraying one to the public with every post and piece of content you publish. With this in mind, we’ve put together 3 key tips to ensure your voice is consistent and effective, allowing you to utilize the power of a memorable, unique brand.
1. Define your values.
If you haven’t done so already, come up with a list of three to four key words that you feel best define your brand’s personality.
Let this brand mantra guide your brand bible.
Depending on the nature and goals of your business, define your brand’s voice accordingly. For instance, if you are a law firm, you are not going to utilize the same tone via your social media content as you would if you were an athletic retail clothing store. Think about what feelings you hope to evoke in your customer as they think about your brand. Potential clients of a law firm are looking for expertise and competitive experience, whereas the clothing store is selling a lifestyle based based on having fun and sweating it out.
For example, Michael Kors’ brand mantra could be summarized as upper-class, glamorous and trendy. Nike’s brand mantra, on the other hand, is authentic, athletic and performance. At Spark Boutik our goal is to help our clients achieve more revenue through innovative marketing. That being said, our brand mantra is practical, innovative and efficient.
Knowing both your current and desired audience is essential to creating a voice that converts followers into customers. Get to know your target audience and what content they respond to. The most iconic brands such as Levi’s, Nike and Apple all do exactly this, and do it extremely well.
2. Differentiate from your competitors.
The key to a successful brand lies in being unique and having something different to offer. Having the identical brand mantra as a direct competitor will deteriorate your brand identity. If you find that your voice is identical to your competitor, ask yourself how you would sell a client on your brand rather than theirs? How do you differentiate your services, experience or product from your competitors? Your brand mantra should reflect that.
TIP: Follow your competitors on social media, keep an eye on their content and engagement. Is their brand mantra evident in their content?
3. Keep your brand mantra in sight.
Unlike your logo, web design and marketing initiatives, your brand mantra should never change. Come back to these three or four words often to firmly establish the personality of your brand. If there is ever a post Spark Boutik is unsure about, we ask our team the following: is the tone practical, innovative, efficient?
Lastly, don’t be afraid to have fun with it. If you company’s nature is playful, you should incorporate that into your voice. Wendy’s takes a fun, sarcastic and notably responsive approach to their marketing and social media that has lead to several viral videos that have increased their exposure.
If you are keeping your brand’s voice consistent, your followers and clients should be able to determine your brand mantra on their own. After all, people relate to people. So, if your brand has a personality, it will resonate with them.
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