You don’t need superpowers to create your brand’s voice.
Today is the day in which so many comic book geeks have been anxiously awaiting.
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters, which is hugely significant for the franchise because
it signals the end of an era. It seems that Marvel has been slowly building a new roster
of heroes, one that may see the retirement of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and
many others from the gang to make room for fresher faces like Black Panther, Captain
Marvel, Doctor Strange, Ant Man and more.
Avengers: Infinity War had the monumental challenge of converging many different
characters and plotlines with extremely different tones and vibes into a single successful
film. On the dark end of the tone spectrum, you have films like Watchmen, Logan, The
Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. On the lighter side, there are
movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok and Ant-
Man among others. And then existing somewhere in the middle are the stories told in
Civil War, Winter Soldier, the X-Men films etc., which aren't necessarily dark and
depressing, but they all have weighty plots.
When it comes to setting the tone in a superhero movie, there’s no simple rule or
spandex-suit- and-cape- fits-all way to do it. Finding the voice or tone for your new
company, product or brand isn’t that different from the DC folks determining if Wonder
Woman would be portrayed as dark and brooding or the class clown in her amazon
warrior training.
Before you can draft content for your website, create your first blog or even tweet your
first tweet, you will need to define your brand voice. This is the heart and soul of your
communications and how you will ultimately connect with your audience. Whether it’s
informative, authoritative, fun, witty, playful or serious, your voice must be authentic
and consistent across all mediums. Studies have proven that consumers will buy from
brands in which they connect on an emotional level and steer clear from brands that
they don’t. Here are some helpful exercises SmartBomb uses with its clients to help
them jumpstart the process.
Build Archetypes
Getting into the heads of the people you are trying to reach is a great start in defining
your brand voice. Pick one person from each of your target audiences (college students,
young mothers, urban hipsters, etc.) and answer the following questions:
- What does he or she look like?
- What does he or she care about?
- Where does he or she work?
- What does he or she do for fun?
- What does he or she want from your brand?
- I want my brand to make people feel _______.
- _______ makes me feel this way.
- I want people to _______ when they come into contact with my brand.
- Three words that describe my brand are _______ , _______ , and _______.
- I want to mimic the brand voice of _______.
- I dislike brand voices that sound _______.
- Interacting with my clients and potential clients makes me feel _______.
Go for a Test Drive
Get a group of your closest and trusted peers together and ask them what excites them
most about your brand. Ask them why it’s unique and what words or phrases they
associate with the brand. Using that feedback, construct a one or two-sentence mission
statement in a variation of brand voices and see which one is most exciting and feels the
most natural. This process is a lot like developing a recipe; you may find that you need a
pinch of salt or a splash of lemon to make it just right. Send the finalized options around
to the group and see which resonates the most.
Find Inspiration
It may help to find other brands that have a similar voice to yours. It’s not always
necessary to reinvent the wheel. Find inspiration in some of these successful brand
voices.
- The NFL: The ideals of the sport mirror most American’s ideals they wish to see in themselves: patriotic, tough, perseverance, etc. In short, the sport represents everything American, therefore the brand represents more than just a sport.
- Coca-Cola: Despite having grown into a massive global industry with innumerable products, Coca-Cola has never strayed from its timeless and basic ideals. Throughout the decades and multitudes of marketing campaigns, Coca-Cola has remained consistent when communicating one strong and effective message: pleasure. Enduring, simple slogans such as “Enjoy” and “Happiness” never go out of style and translate easily across the globe.
- Whole Foods: Whole Foods is the epitome of all things healthy living, thanks to its authoritative—yet approachable—voice.
You want people who follow you on Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, visit your
website, and interact with your customer service department to have the same positive
and memorable experience. In order to do so, build a style guide describing your brand
and its voice and create a plan to implement it across your platforms.
So what do we do after we find your voice? We start talking!