What is Brand Voice?

After years and years of social media platforms, brand voice has become even more prevalent and important to establish. Take Wendy’s for example, they were one of the first brands to pioneer social media and use it to establish their quippy, unique, intelligent brand voice.

It didn’t take long for the brand to become well-known for this “sassy” brand voice, and after establishing their social media presence, incorporating some of it into their ads and corporate assets, you can talk about Wendy’s as a brand almost like you would a friend. Wendy’s is funny, smart, and a little sassy. That is the power or brand voice, it makes brands come to life.

Consumers prefer brands with strong, unique personalities. Sprout Social found that 40% of consumers listed memorable content as a factor that helps them stand out on social media. Whether it’s through powerful and memorable content, a distinct personality, or compelling storytelling, the brand voice has a lasting impact on consumers. Let’s dive deeper into what brand voice really is and some examples of the most well-known brands today.

What is brand voice?

Think about your best friend. What makes them unique? It’s probably something related to how they speak. What common phrases do they use? How do they tell a story? Their tone and inflection have a huge role in their personality too. All of this put together creates your best friend’s unique voice and personality.

A person’s voice is ultimately synonymous with their personality, as it is how they communicate with the rest of the world. And brand voice isn’t much different. Brand voice is the personality that your brand has in all its communication, and it’s critical to create consistency across platforms. It’s also important for large brands to create and maintain a unique brand voice, and ensure that it stays consistent no matter who’s creating the content. Brands with strong voices will display the same personality on social media platforms, email communication, blog posts, and even on their own website. However, even if 20 different people are creating content for all of those communication channels, the brand voice must stay the same. A strong brand voice can make your company stand out from the competition, as it not only helps consumers remember your brand, it helps them relate to it, which creates stronger brand loyalty in the long run.

Brand voice can also help to attract new prospects before they even know what you offer as a company. Another great example of a strong brand voice is Denny’s, check out the tweet below:

Maybe you’ve never even set foot in a Denny’s before, but you might follow them on Twitter after seeing a tweet like this pop-up. Why? Because the brand voice is funny, personable, and relatable.

Not all brand voices have to be as “sassy” as a lot of the big brands on Twitter, it’s not even necessary for them to be necessarily funny either. However, they do need to be powerful in whatever tone they are conveying, whether it be funny, inspiring, emotional, bold, casual, formal, or direct. Here are some great examples of brand voices.

Brand Voice Examples

Starbucks

 Starbucks has a strong, well-established brand voice. It uses a function tone to keep their copy clear and concise to speak to its audience. However, it also has an expressiveness to the tone of voice, using language like “Your favorites are back, aww yes” and “That first sip feeling”. The language conveys a joyful brand while also conveying their new product offerings.

Spotify

Spotify’s brand voice is more casual than Starbucks’, and their tweets like the one above often embrace that. The brand tweets the way a Millennial or Gen Z person might tweet, while of course sharing the latest music.

Netflix

Netflix is even more casual with its brand voice than Starbucks and Spotify. They frequently make pop-culture references related to the TV show or film they’re promoting, and they often reply to fans to talk about content.

Your unique brand voice will not only help your company stand out from the competition, but it will also create loyal customers who identify with and relate to your brand. If you need help establishing or maintaining your brand voice, we can help! Contact us below.