BY SARAH AYLWARD, OWNER & PRINCIPAL, STORYWORTHY STUDIOS
“What is a brand voice? And what is brand tone? Are they the same? And do they really matter?”
These are questions we hear pretty often from client partners when launching or redesigning a brand. We get it. It can be confusing. ”Brand voice” and “brand tone” are often used interchangeably.
And while they are connected, they are distinct elements of your brand strategy. Taking the time to design a unique brand voice and brand tone will contribute to your company's growth because both ensure you’re successfully connecting with your target audience.
What is a brand voice?
Brand voice is the unique personality and style your team uses to consistently communicate to your audience across all channels and customer touchpoints. Your brand voice is designed to incorporate your core values, mission, and the unique identity of your brand. Just like investing time in designing a brand visual identity and logo, the most successful brands spend time creating a brand voice that resonates with their target audience so that it speaks to their preferences, aspirations, and emotions — while remaining distinct from competitors.
One way to think of brand voice is this — it’s the fingerprint of your brand. It represents the essence of who you are as a company, and how you want to connect with your audience. For example, many B2C products in the beauty industry are friendly, approachable, playful and whimsical. While B2C companies in healthcare are reliable, dependable, trustworthy and professional.
The important thing to remember about your brand voice is that it should be consistent across all marketing and communications — from your website, to your social channels, to emails, and beyond. Consistency is key because it builds and establishes trust with your audience.
What is brand tone?
While your brand voice is the personality of your brand, brand tone describes the nuances of how you leverage your brand voice — the inflections and emotions used to communicate in various situations, or with different audience personas.
Brand tone provides flexibility within your brand voice guidelines to adjust messaging for specific audience personas, or in response to circumstances. It ensures your brand connects with the emotional state of your audience.
For example, a B2B SaaS business may have a brand voice that is exciting, innovative and assertive, but their customer success teams should also employ empathy when solving a problem.
Likewise, a B2B professional services business may have a brand voice that is trustworthy, confident, professional, and globally-minded. However, their consulting communications should be tailored to each client, their brand tone should be empathetic, collaborative, customer-centric and solutions-oriented.
How Brand Voice and Brand Tone Contribute to Growth
So now that we have a better understanding of brand voice and brand tone, let’s explore how using both will help drive growth.
- Consistency Builds Recognition & Relationships
A consistent brand voice creates brand familiarity and recognition for your audience. This means that each time your audience views your brand across various platforms or channels — social media, advertising, etc. — they will instantly recognize the familiar tone and style, which helps build brand loyalty. Just like your brand logo creates instant connection, so too does your brand voice support the growth of your audience's relationship to your brand. - Emotional Connection Drives Customer Loyalty
Brands that evoke emotions are more likely to develop strong connections with their audience. Knowing precisely when to use empathy, trust, excitement or even humor creates deeper relationships that lead to long-term loyalty, driving both audience growth and retention. - Adaptability Enhances Engagement & Brand Evolution
While consistency is important, being too rigid in your voice guidelines can leave your brand falling flat, which leads to less audience engagement. Brand tone allows you to customize your messaging for different audience segments and scenarios. It also allows you to test new attributes (e.g. humor, playfulness, confidence) that you may want to adopt into your brand voice. And, in today’s dynamic global landscape, adaptability is key for staying relevant — and competitive. Brands that successfully pivot their tone in response to market trends, societal changes and customer preferences are seen as more innovative, positioning themselves as industry leaders that will shape the future.
Once you have developed your brand voice and brand tone guidelines, make sure to make them available to anyone inside of your organization. All to often, teams spend time developing their guidelines, then keep them within their marketing and communications teams. Remember, consistency is key. And creating a user-friendly guide that enables anyone in your organization to successfully represent your brand will ensure successful experiences with your customers.
Need help developing your brand voice and brand tone guidelines? Contact our team to kick off a conversation.
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