How to create a brand ToV that still focuses on the individual?
Without your brand voice, no one hears you. No one even understands that it’s you. You could be anyone and no one at the same time. But how can you create one that is recognisable for a large audience and never loses its focus on the individual?
Can we Speak to Everyone?
When we think about our own voice, there’s a part that never changes and one that does. Even I have to admit that my tone of voice on the phone is somewhat higher — please don’t ask me why. And if you’re one of the very few who doesn’t have a telephone voice, you are surely able to hear a difference in your voice when talking with friends or during a job interview. Depending on the situation we’re in, our pitch and expressions change; and a brand voice is no exception to that.
As a copywriter, I have to carefully consider to whom my text is addressed. Who is going to read it? Where will they read it? How well does the reader already know our brand? I cannot tailor my copy successfully to our respective target group until I have an answer to all of these questions. Indeed, brands want to appeal to a huge variety of people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, and stages of life, but if you speak too broadly, you might end up speaking to no one at all. This is why it’s so valuable to establish an overall brand voice and personality before deciding how to adapt your tone of voice for each individual setting or channel.
Where to Adapt a ToV
Posts on social media reach a much younger audience than, for example, direct mail. I need to keep the generation I am speaking to in mind. Are you aware of the enormous differences in the communication styles of baby boomers and millennials? While one group sees it almost against their nature to not use emojis to express themselves, the other generally prefers a more formal way of communication. We need to find a good balance here if we want to target a large audience.
Wayfair offers a variety of exclusive brands, each representing a unique style, to make the overall shopping experience for our customers as easy as possible. Once again, I have to think very carefully about the vibe and associations I choose to evoke with the tone of voice I use in my copy. A rustic farmhouse look that resembles the idyllic countryside requires that both the brand name and any copy associated with the brand convey a sense of lightness, breeze, and ease. A little test question here: Which of the two names do you think stand for a rustic farmhouse look: Hykkon or Fernleaf? You can find the answer here.
Why it’s Not Enough to Focus on Competitors
Copywriters are constantly looking for new inspiration to find the right words to trigger the action we want the reader to take. Before I start writing a text for an email template, I’m already browsing through my own inbox for similar related messages and exploring the messaging styles. There are probably few professions in which you deliberately subscribe to as many newsletters from other companies as in mine, or analyse TV ads or billboards with eagle eyes, always on the hunt for fresh ideas.
On a regular basis, I visit competitors’ websites or social media channels to see how they promote specific sales or categories. However, far too often our focus falls so heavily on what our competitors are doing that we risk losing sight of what our customers actually want to hear. If everyone writes about an outdoor clearance in a very similar way, how are consumers supposed to be able to distinguish between brands? Not to mention the fatigue that goes along with all the repetition.
The Voice of Customer
Although we can’t turn sale copy into inspiration copy just for the sake of more variety, we can explore how our customers write. This is called the voice of customer. The questions to focus on are the following:
- What do consumers think about a product?
- How do they describe their shopping experience?
- What issues seem important to them?
- Did they experience any problems or frustrations?
- If yes, how could we help solve them?
When analysing how customers express themselves, the language they use is so natural and informal that anyone can instantly understand their message. Customers don’t think five times before they publish a text or a review for a product they’ve bought. They usually don’t consider 20 different options before eventually selecting one to publish — quite the opposite of copywriters. Which is exactly what makes their way of expressing themselves such refreshingly different inspiration when writing copy.
Ultimately, there is no one set-in-stone strategy for how to best tailor a tone of voice for a brand as it depends on so many factors. Beyond keeping the channel, brand personality, and overall atmosphere in mind, we should never lose focus on the voice and needs of our customers. Too often in marketing copy, you read a company’s perspective of how they would like to be seen, rather than paying attention to what the customer is actually searching for. If we really learn to understand who our customers are, what they love, and what they struggle with, it will also be easier to create a voice that is not only recognisable to a large audience but also to the individual.
