Who Said That? 4 Ways to Develop Your Brand’s Voice

Developing a brand takes work. Logos, typography and colors represent the visual identity of your brand. It takes time to create, implement and fuse these elements together in a cohesive manner. If your efforts stop at the visual, you’re failing to explore your brand’s full potential. Campaign endeavors, from outdoor to print and content pieces to social media become so much more effective with a strong, consistent and genuine voice behind them. It’s crucial to fully understand who’s delivering that message you’ve worked so hard to create.

Remember, there’s more to your brand than a pretty face. To help you on your journey to campaign success, here is our list of ways for developing the right voice for your brand:

Explore Workplace Culture

“Cultivating a brand voice involves understanding the strengths and talents of the people behind it. Allow them to dictate what the brand represents.” –Diana LaRue

Who are the people behind your brand? Consider everyone, from the CEO to the workers who breathe life into the business. Question what these people stand for and believe in. How do they coexist? What about the way they interact with customers? The culture within a business says a lot about the business itself. Allow the core of your brand’s voice to come from the core of your business: it’s people.

Leverage The Way People Already View Your Brand

What is your business already known for? If your brand is quirky, pepper in some quirky attributes to its messaging. If your business is known for its philanthropy, make sure to take that aspect of its reputation into account. Sometimes you might be working to change perceptions. This presents an opportunity to create a voice that goes against what people believe your brand represents. The key is to leverage the beliefs that are already present. What people recognize about your brand should inspire the manner in which the brand speaks to them.

Imagine Your Brand as a Person

You’re having a lunch meeting with your brand. What do they look like? Are they male or female? Are they dressed in a suit and tie or shorts and flip-flops? What do they drink, soda or water? Did they order the salad or the Rueben sandwich? Get as detailed as you’d like. When they speak, what kind of accent do they have? How high or low is the pitch of their voice? What about their tone? Are they fast or slow talkers? You can even take their mannerisms into account. Have employees and customers take part in this experiment. Use these observances to give life to your brand. Often, imagination is where that little extra comes from.

Gain Insight from Your Customers

Who is your target audience and how do they interact with your brand? Who’s actually paying attention within the demographic? Consider the listener and adapt accordingly. You should speak differently to a target demo of 15 to 24-year-old male college students than you should 40 to 55-year-old female professionals. What mediums do they use and how will your brand’s voice be heard through them. The key to a genuine brand voice is humanizing your message, thus taking cues from your followers is imperative.

What does your brand sound like? Let us help you give life to your brand. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service advertising agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to provide marketing strategies through print, web, social media and video production – all in house. At Appleton, we want to learn about your business, empower your marketing team and be your creative resource. Your marketing goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.