Creating a Unique Brand Voice: The Essentials Part 1
Four key pillars for a unique and memorable brand voice, and how to build them into your brand communications.
I’m going to start with a bold statement: Not all brand voices are created equal. Sure, yours might get the job done. But will it stick? Will your audience—when they think of your product, service, or even idea—think of you? This is precisely where a unique and memorable brand voice becomes crucial to building the reputation, reach, and audience share of your brand.
So what makes an impactful brand voice that sticks? Here’s the first part in my two-part breakdown of the must-have essentials of a brand voice which (once you have them on lock) can be polished into your own unique and memorable brand voice.
Authenticity
First off, let’s not mistake authenticity as independently interchangeable “personality” or “delight”. They’re very much inseparable. Over the last decade or so, I’ve noticed “personality” and “delight” being treated as separate afterthoughts which get sprinkled on after the communication basics are covered. Treating all three as separate elements leaves the audience feeling like there’s something integral missing in the overall end product; something we sense is laying just out of our reach.
That thing is authenticity. Think of it as similar to someone going through the motions of doing or liking something because it projects a certain image, rather then truly doing or liking it because it’s part of who they are. One is a superficial image, the other an actual authentic self.
Instead, what if personality and delight are part of the most basic flavour profile of your brand voice? When combined with your communication goals and audience’s needs, melding personality and delight with your authenticity does away with the kind of superficiality that feels like “selling something”; it adds a layer of valuable vulnerability that telegraphs relatability; and it begins building trust with your audience. Those are part of brand voice’s foundations—not an image-maintaining garnish.
Distinctiveness
Distinctiveness doesn’t happen with the application of overly clever turns of phrase or a spicy attitude. I’m not saying that this isn’t sometimes actually the case—but if you take a closer look at the brands who do this successfully, the quippy delivery and dry humour aren’t the only things they’re hanging their proverbial brand hat on. You might even say this is deeply connected to that authenticity I just mentioned.
Brands which have a distinctive and unique voice have cultivated it. It doesn’t have to take a long time to do this, either, but you’ve got to be intentional about it. Setting those communication intentions for every bit of communication your brand puts out means your audience will get the easily grabbable red threads and cognitive reinforcement key to impactful communication that sticks long after they’ve seen your landing page, finished with their inbox, or clocked your social media ad.
Flow mindset
Which brings me to my next point: Don’t forget to put yourself in your audience’s shoes! They don’t exist in a vacuum; they have a particular viewport to your content. If you’re using a muti-channel, customer experience (CX) orientated approach like you should, their way of seeing and interacting with your brand’s communications will be in terms of flows and funnels.
So why would you approach your communications to them with “one, hit and run” mindset? This is deeply connected to adaptability and consistency, which I’ll cover in Part 2.
Storytelling
There’s no excuse to not incorporate storytelling into everything you do as a brand. Humans are story-driven creatures (just ask my dear collaborator Gleb Maltsev), and that’s what we’ll be engaged by, and connect with most immediately. We, as humans, use stories to engage in sensemaking—and what is branding and marketing, if not a kind of sensemaking? How can the stories your brand tells help your audience make sense of how the solution to their needs or desires lies within your brand? Every story you tell is a way to build a bridge, to tie a cord—and bring your audience closer to you.
“But sometimes stuff is just straightforward; why try to complicate it?” I disagree. I’ll even go so far as to say it’s lazy. There’s a story in everything, and and adding a layer of storytelling that resonates with everyone isn’t complicating things. It’s making things worth engaging with.
Sometimes it takes digging to uncover that gem of a story no one has ever considered. Sometimes it’s not the most innovative story, but it’s a story you can nevertheless tell with conviction and substance. You might even have to upend your worldview a little and shake it up to find that story—but it’s there. What you can do, when finding the story gets challenging, is feel assured that it’ll be there if you look.
That’s it for now…
These first four elements—authenticity, distinctiveness, flow mindset, and storytelling— are the larger-picture essentials that go into creating a unique brand voice. They’re the broader strokes that prepare your canvas. Spending some time clearly outlining how your brand might go about embodying these four aspects will be time well spent, because it creates a solid foundations for a more polished execution. Now go on and check out Part 2, where I cover some best practices in executing your unique brand voice!