Is this okay? How far is too far when pushing your tone of voice?

Frida sells a collection of baby and mum essentials, from post-partum maxi pads to soother-style medicine dispensers and the ‘fan-favourite’ SnotSucker. Lovely. They describe their mission on their website, saying: “Frida is here to help prepare parents for the unfiltered realities of parenthood, with simple, yet genius solutions that get the job done”.

When you arrive on their homepage, they greet you with the headline and subhead: “From delivery to bogies, bums & beyond – Be prepared for the #nofilter realities of parenting”.

We immediately get a sense of their no fuss approach to the less lovely parts of parenting thanks to the clear, informal language. But we also get a hint at their sense of fun with that alliteration. Because I guess if you’re going to become famous for a device that sucks out baby snot, you have to have a sense of humour.

We see this again on their About page, where the headline is: “From first contractions to poo-namis, we’re here for parents when s#!t gets real”. There’s lots of language that feels very millennial, and again we see that sense of humour with the word poo-namis. 

You can really feel their no-nonsense approach because there’s an obvious lack of cutesy language. The reader is a ‘parent’, not a ‘mummy/daddy’, and all the copy is very much focused on getting the job done. There’s no ‘little ones’ or ‘tiny tots’ or any of that language you often see from parent-focused brands. And nowhere is this more clear than the website’s ‘For Mum’ section, which greets us with the headline: “Trust us, your vagina will thank you”. As a pal of mine I was discussing this with pointed out, it should be vulva, but they still get points from me for putting the word ‘vagina’ in such a massive font. 

On their ‘5-step post-partum recovery regimen’, the copy follows a simple problem/solution formula: 

“Gone are the days of layering witch hazel circular discs along your pad to ease the pain and swelling. Our Witch Hazel Pad Liners provide much-needed vag-to-tush relief in just one go. No harsh chemicals, dyes or fragrances.”

The first sentence tells you what used to happen pre-Frida in fairly upfront language. There’s no pussyfooting around the vag pain here. Then the second sentence soothes you with their practical solution. And we’ve got a bit of that signature humour and informality coming from ‘vag-to-tush’. 

On the brand’s Instagram, they really ramp up the fun and even jump on the occasional social media trend. (See the ‘snot’ post in the style of this summer’s viral social media trend, ‘brat’, and the rather lovely ‘Snot on iPhone’.)

Why does it work?

• The brand matches their approach to the unfiltered realities of parenting in their language. They don’t shy away from words like ‘wounded’, ‘mess’ and ‘sore’.

• Very accessible swearing builds relatability without offence (I personally wish they’d just use the swear but I understand why they made the safer choice).

• They’re clearly targeting millennials with language like ‘#nofilter’ and ‘bs’.

• There are some nice abbreviations and playful language that take the sting out of the more practical descriptions, stuff like ‘poo-nami’ and ‘vag-to-tush’ are funny without being overly light-hearted.

Make it work for you

The one thing I love about Frida that you can apply to your brand, no matter who you are, is this: get to know your light and shade. Can you tell it like it is and use language that might feel a little confronting? How far is it right to go? On the other end of the spectrum, find the lightest expression of who you are. Is humour appropriate? 

Make sure you can define the edges, even if you still spend most of the time in the middle. Figure out where each shade of your brand’s colour spectrum lives in your digital universe. Frida is consistently at its most cheeky and playful on Instagram, reserving their no-nonsense ‘get s#!t done’ attitude for their website.

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