A company must know and keep consistent the tone and voice they choose to use across platforms and their content. Knowing the difference between the brand’s tone and its voice is also essential to maintain a consistent brand image versus an unorganized one.
Brands can distinguish themselves from other companies by establishing a consistent tone and voice and maintaining it throughout their communications. Customers find brands that can do so very valuable and trustworthy. Selecting the right tone and the right voice will define your entire messaging infrastructure and ultimately lead to a higher investment return.
What is voice?
A brand’s voice is distinct from other brands and is expressed uniquely through the use of words. The voice conveys the personality of the brand through the content the brand puts out. For example, Bliss appeals to young persons within a teenage to young adult range; throughout their content and correspondences, they utilize slang, emojis, and abbreviated speech. The brand’s voice conveys who the brand is. Words to describe the brand would be playful, youthful, fun, and energetic. The voice is defined through various aspects, such as rhythm, which is usually sharp and distinct, and the vocabulary is plain and simple. To express their voice, Bliss acknowledged their target audience. In this way, they speak to them in ways that relate to them while staying uniquely Bliss.
What is tone?
Whereas the brand’s voice is consistent across all content and correspondences, its tone depends entirely on the situation. Brands change the tone to connect emotionally with their audience, primarily through empathy. A brand must carefully analyze their buyer personas to determine its effect on its audience and approach with caution in some situations. A tone can come across as empathetic or may come across as snarky, sarcastic, challenging, or joke-filled. A brand must consider the type of content being created, the purpose, and what they hope to achieve.
Recently amidst the Black Lives Matter protests, Bliss made it their duty to address racial inequality and take necessary steps within the brand by featuring more content creators of color. Bliss’ tone at this time was not the normal playful tone, but the brand took on a tone of concern and empathy to appeal to their audience, who consist of people of color.
The difference?
Every individual has a unique voice and tone that sets them apart from others and remains consistent for the most part. The tone of individuals changes for persons depending on their situation, the voice remains the same, and this goes for both individuals and brands. As marketers, we must look at brands as individuals with a personality, image, tone, and voice to distinguish from other brands.
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