It 100% should! We call this brand voice… this is basically how your brand sounds in peoples heads. If your brand was a person how would it behave and communicate with people? Your brand voice should always portray the brand’s personality created for the business and in today’s era of content overproduction, it is even more important than ever.
To make sure you have a successful brand voice you need to do two things, firstly make sure you have developed a strong brand identity matching your companies mission, vision and values. But you can only stand out so much on your visual content alone… So secondly, know who you are talking to and how you should communicate with them. What do they look like? What do they want from your brand? All your written content needs the same attention and consistency you give to all other elements of your brand presence. Your brand voice should be distinct, identifiable, complementary and consistent.
Brand voice makes your brand consistent across all channels regardless of who creates the content, helps you stand out from the noise and helps consumers relate and remember your brand. All of this helps creates stronger brand loyalty. It also gives new potential consumers a first impression that will give them a good idea of who your brand is.
So who does this well? Let’s look at Old Spice, they had long been the leader in men’s deodorant, but when Axe entered the market, they began to lose share and had to rebrand. For years Old Spice had been thought of as an old man smell, so with their rebrand, they changed their brand voice, they now attract a younger audience and have a consistent tone using witty humour and masculinity.
Another brand that gets it right and has consistently for over 130 years is Coca Cola, always giving us concepts of happiness and accompanied with a positive message. From polar bears to family and friends to the way they caption their social media you always see the concept of a happy life. They brilliantly connect positive feelings with their drink through a crafted tone of voice.
Defining your brand’s tone of voice and establishing clear guidelines will help that tone come through in every content piece. This is a key part of developing a brand voice that is true to your vision and appears authentic to customers. By keeping a uniform tone across all your communications, your audience will gain a better sense of what the brand stands for and what commonalities you share with your target audience.
Remember: A good brand starts with good content. And good content, always, starts with voice.