How conscientious copy and design affects brand perception
Adam Stokes | Senior Content Designer at Purplebricks
There’s bad copy, good copy, and then there’s conscientious copy. That which strives further than to simply succeed in its goal of instruction or conversion, but to really make a lasting impact on the user, for no immediately identifiable benefit other than to simply be memorable—but that’s where the long game begins.
Copy and design that seeks to delight the user through desire, and not necessity, has a clear aim for its brand perception, and that is one that is trying to carve out a lasting personality for itself that will ultimately see consumers developing an affinity for it.
Who would have thought that the old adage you’ve been told by teachers, parents and significant others alike your whole life would extend to brand communications, too? As it turns out, 2020 is continuing to surprise us by also being the year we discovered you could take marketing advice from Joey…
It’s not what you say, it’s the way you say it
This is where tone of voice becomes essential. There are an uncountable amount of ways that the English language can be used to convey the exact same message, all of which would essentially be asking for the same action to be taken or informing a user of the exact same information.
The difference is that based on the way that is executed, you are impacting two core metrics:
- Conversion
- Brand perception
While failing on the first is an example of bad execution by all definitions—you can, in theory, be unsuccessful in achieving your desired goals for the latter while still performing well against monetary metrics.
But that’s why Joey is so right.
You can still express something in a way that makes sense (and garners action), but fails to be expressed in the way you want it to be said—which will ultimately contribute in the long term to how your customers perceive you as a brand. Copy and design is key to this success.
Let’s take a few examples…
Innocent Drinks
Innocent’s success is in no small part due to its disruptive brand identity. Long known for its unique voice, you can quite quickly recognise the personality it has curated for itself from the homepage alone.
Where do we start?
- Comical banner copy
- Colloquial language and tongue-in-cheek design used on arrows
- Flag icons in the footer designed to match the soft all-round branding
- Instructional contact us copy made to be informal
But what else do you expect from a company that named its HQ Fruit Towers. Innocent’s continued and deliberate use of light hearted language and imagery all contribute to its attempts to not take itself too seriously, become a brand of the people, and be recognised as such. These conscious efforts then begin to bear fruit (pun most definitely intended) as customers begin to align themselves with a brand whose values they recognise in themselves.
For example, the header banner could have quite easily read:
Made with nutritious ingredients, and including even more vitamins than our previous products.
It says the same thing, but with much less character, and therefore much less impact. And where’s the fun in that?
Even the visual design pokes fun at itself in a self-reflective way with the subtle addition of the poles behind the arrows, clearly nodding to the fact that it is an advert that has been produced for your consumption through the use of skeuomorphism. This is digital design! There is no need for the pole, it brings no visual value, other than to add to the self-aware, meta persona that contributes to the overall brand perception.
Challenger banks
Take your pick. Monzo, Revolut, Starling — they’ve all succeeded in doing pretty much the same thing. Bringing an historically very drab and compliant led industry bound in red tape (which makes it all the more impressive) to the modern age in an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic with different values.
And how did they do that? By speaking to their respective audiences in a language they understand.
For a start, your introduction to them is via a brand name like ‘Monzo’. It doesn’t mean anything, and if it did, Monzo has been so effective in its SEO efforts that you’ll never find the answer you’re looking for anyway…
Monzo is so detached from historical naming conventions that have resulted in Building Societies, Banking Groups or acronyms you’ll neither know nor remember, that you can easily see why its intended demographic are so drawn to them.
Then, in an equally defiant move against the industry it is so intent on disrupting, you receive a neon coloured bank card in the post to go with your shiny new app, which is the primary means of using the service.
In fact, Revolut doesn’t even offer a desktop logged in experience. Which, while frustrating and an oversight they may eventually review, speaks volumes of how they perceive and engage with their demographic.
Monzo has actually committed pen to paper to explain this sentiment exactly in its tone of voice guidelines.
It is a brand that isn’t afraid to use emojis in it’s communications, and outright admits and defines its tone of voice as actively attempting to replicate the language its audience uses—even going as far as comparing its preferred tone of voice against industry standard terminology in an effort to demonstrate exactly why it takes this stance. And given it’s challenging an industry so used to using a formal register, shunning that becomes all the more impressive and impactful.
So, what can we learn from Innocent and Monzo?
In a world where so many brands play it safe, it is those who challenge the status quo, and do so well, who make the impact they are looking for. And giving copy and design that extra second thought is one of the most influential ways to help do that, by generating a brand persona that people remember, share and want to align themselves with. Otherwise, when your products are the same, what else is your key differentiator?
