Each brand has got a voice, the way they communicate, the language they use to convey the message is their voice.  Each brand voice out their message loud, they customize it to reach the right people, make it consumer friendly and voice in a way that they get to hear back.

A Brand Voice is clearly critical to establish the brand image, to talk about the attributes, to reach the right target segment and to make emotional connections.

The Brand voice is very much an influencing factor to the brand image. It instates the Brand Personality, the purpose and its identity. And that is why a brands voice is the ultimate reason behind a people perception about the brand. In your Brand Voice, you need to Stand Out, Speak Loud, Get into the Groove and establish your Brand.

A typical Brand Voice shall be implied in the following heads covered:

Name / Nickname / Popular Name

What a brand is called? How people remember it and what is the name it is best recalled with?

For example, Brand Coca Cola is always popularly known and recalled as Coke. Remember, the functioning attribute of the brand Xerox became the synonym for photo-state. That is how the Brand Voice establishes a Brand in the consumers mind.

PERSONALITY

Check out the Personality of Mc Donald’s, the brand voice is there in all the communications, the brand message, the promotions, the TVC, the restaurant ambience and even the attributes and positioning. The personality suggests it is for – the kids, the youth, the working, the grown-ups and the grandparents. They keep it simple – I’m lovin’ it.

And everyone loves it. It is Quick Service Restaurant and it says it in the personality. It’s attributes are simple – quick food and happiness @ very affordable prices. The brand screams to convey the message – it is for all and everyone loves it.

Their campaigns voice the brand in different ways to different set of target consumers but their USP remains the same.

SLOGAN

A Brand Voice is best known with its Catch Phrase. Many a brands are remembered by its tagline, the slogan, the punch-line.

Reason, the taglines connect readily with the consumer. A slogan is a catch phrase which builds emotional connect quickly, it should be easy to pronounce & remember. Let us consider some of the very popular slogans –

Nike – Just Do it | Nokia – Connecting People | KFC – It’s finger licking good | Subway – Eat Fresh

All these & many more brands like Apple’s – Think Different are better known & understood through their catch phrase. They certainly provide a better reach and recall to your Brand Voice.

VISUAL STYLE

A visual style of a Brand is significant to its voice. It gives an image to the voice and those visual aspects become the image of brand. One needs to devise the visual aspects of a brand – young/old, colorful/light, loud/soft, retail/wholesale, business/consumer – what should be the Voice of the Visuals, what message they shall convey to the audience.

Consider the Visual Style of Onida– it always displayed luxury to the extent of envy in its messages, it created the noise among people and competitors and it ruled for years. The latest communication visuals of Onida are about customers and their needs, the design customization and convenience factor for youth is prime strategy in voice & visuals.

The Brand Voice in visuals leads to the establishment of new and revised Brand Messages, the renewed products or some new launches always work the visual way. Sharing at the right is a very wonderful print campaign of Dove UK with the right Brand Voice, to attract, create interest and absolute call to action for its target segment.

VERBAL STYLE

Verbal Style adds vigor to the visual. When you see a bunch of youngsters showing you kind of need/want in the communication and talking about exactly the reason which you have – your Brand Voice becomes a success and so does your Brand.

Each brand has got its verbal tone, some voice slang, some solid message; some talk strength and others funny. Consider, Adidas and Reebok, these 2 are competitive brands and check their varied verbal tones of Brand Voice.

Leading shoe brands like Nike, Reebok and Adidas follow a verbal style depicting Individuality through their taglines.

Similarly, the watch leaders, Tag Heuer ‘Success, It’s a Mind Game’ and Rado ‘Unlimited Spirit’ talk about instilling confidence but follow a different tone. Tag Heuer follows a serious, solid tone and Rado is about youthful, easy going motivation.

Brand Identity and Design is the first step of Brand Creation to venture out in business. But maintaining the right Brand Voice will help your brand keep going.

30TH FEB gave a brand voice to SBS Fin we gave a new look to the firm by transforming it from Step by Step to SBS Financial Advisory making it more convenient for the prospective customers to look em’ up online. Originally the name couldn’t sell its offering as it sounded more of a learning oriented firm hence to make it more appealing and keeping the story intact SBS came into existence.

‘Aiming Financial Fitness’ the tagline of SBS Fin says it all for the brand, we came to this tagline through Brand positioning which was done through Dipstick with the client and the team. They  believe in financial management to be attained through planning. But the same was missing in communication as the positioning was not clear – a brand is not all about – how you feel about it. A brand is much more then that – it is largely about the consumer for whom the brand is created.
We knew the brand story and we understand that the client is attached to the humble beginnings and that is why we decided to keep the story as it is – the idea was to evolve the story and to take it to the right consumers. This transformation voiced the personality verbally and visually for the brand.

 

How about you do a small exercise by answering the following questions to know your brand better:

1. What does your Brand name reflect?
2. How is it perceived by your target audience?
3. Is the name & brand identity conveying the brand message?
4. Have you positioned the brand right?
5. What values are we establishing?

Now that you have the answers to above questions, chances are you have some more questions about it too. Send in the answers to us and write to us the questions we have – and we will be happy to help. Drop in a mail to – ask@30thfeb.com or fill up the form here to seek more details.