Use that tone with me
Your brand’s tone of voice cultivates a personality and allows you to convey messages in an idiosyncratic way.
Developing and forging a tone of voice is as much about listening as it is about speaking. The inputs help account for the outputs.
When it comes to youth lifestyle comms, there are three vital things you need to know about your audience:
- Their pop culture diet.
- The memes they’re looking at.
- What they care about.
If you make references people are familiar with and can also amuse them (in a way that doesn’t devalue your brand), this is a leap in the right direction: better rapport through better banter.
It’s not just about making them chuckle, though. Find out their thoughts and feelings on various topics, so you can connect in a more significant way.
A Gender For Change, Junkee Media’s 2019 Youth Research project, listed the below as the things Gen Z are most passionate about:
- Music
- Social justice [this covers causes ranging from equality to the environment]
- Movies
- TV
- Health + Fitness
- Tech
- Fashion
- Gaming
- Sport
That same research revealed 78% of Gen Zs want brands to support causes they believe (with 80% of respondents saying we need to tackle climate change urgently).
So, yes, by all means know your pop culture, but also take note of what your audience are proponents of and what they’re protesting.
As we said in a previous piece, “Authenticity — a know thyself/be thyself approach — is of the utmost importance if you want to build trust and a good rep with Gen Z.” They can tell when you’re faking btw, so don’t force it.
If you’re unsure, here’s a quick test you can apply to your comms: transparent + consistent = authentic.
[Copywriter’s Caveat: before you begin brand vocalising, a firm grasp of the brand itself is necessary, otherwise the result could be a tonal identity crisis — instead of being able to synthesise all the inputs, you’re likely to get overwhelmed and confused, where what we’re actually going for is nimble and assured.]
Sure, we’re selling—and, trust us, given the level of content and ad saturation they’re subjected to, Gen Z knows you’re selling — but you wanna come across as charming, not desperate. You want people to read the words, not eye-roll their way to the checkout.
For best results, try out this trio of tricks:
Research (fine, stalking).
Mirroring.
Cheekiness.
Research.
If you’re outside the demo, you’ll need to do some digging… or risk the woeful fate of sounding like a backwards-cap-clad-dad quoting Billie Eilish lyrics, as everyone exposed to your comms glazes over.
So… How does the audience talk? What do they talk about? Who/what influences how they talk and what they talk about?
Read. Listen. Watch. Ask.
Mirroring.
An extension of the first point. We all have our own ways of speaking, but we also have a tendency to mimic those close to us/people we like and admire. Go ahead and do that with Gen Z (while retaining your distinct and incorrigible brand voice, of course).
This assists in establishing familiarity and, eventually, trust.
Cheekiness.
Welcome to Australia, where everyone loves a smartarse but nobody loves a person who flaunts how smart they are.
It always pays to be self-deprecating and self-aware (popular youth media cases in point: Pedestrian, The Betoota Advocate, Brown Cardigan), especially with a Gen that thinks a fair bit about itself and its place in the world.
Being cheeky isn’t crucial, although it is a part of our cultural fabric, and can be a factor in separating and elevating your tone (hey, it’s a cluttered market, so a bit of spice won’t hurt).
