What is tone of voice?
Can you name the brands that these lines come from?
a) You will become unexpectedly interested in crushed fruit and companies that give 10% of profits to charity
b) Welcome to the home of real beauty
c) Like a computer. Unlike any computer
The answers are at the bottom of this post. Although chances are you don’t need to scroll down to check. And that’s because of tone of voice.
Here’s another bit of copy. This time from Apple’s welcome pack for new starters.
Apple welcomes employees to the team with on-brand copy.
Apple understands the power of language. Their teams know how important it is to follow the brand’s tone of voice every time they write. Not just for the billboard, campaigns and product launches, but in the quiet stuff, the internal stuff: the emails, the order confirmations, the welcome packs.
What is tone of voice?
So, we’ve seen that tone of voice is everywhere. And that we can all ‘read’ tone of voice, without even realising. But what is tone of voice?
Simply put, tone of voice is not what we say, it’s how we say it. It’s our brand’s personality.
We can tell our customers that we’re helpful, friendly and supportive, but tone of voice is our opportunity to prove it. Tone of voice is the word equivalent to our logo, colours and fonts. You can name your favourite chocolate bar or brand of shoes from the logo or colours. Tone of voice does the same thing for the written word.
But why is tone of voice so important to a cohesive brand? Well it’s all about how it helps our customers interact with, understand and ultimately choose our brand. It helps them to:
1. Choose the right product or service for them
Compare the opening lines from the About pages of two different dating services. I’ve removed the brand names.
a) Dating service 1
All you singles, listen up: if you’re looking to fall in love, want to start dating, ready to start a relationship, or want to keep it casual, you need to be on BRAND.
b) Dating service 2
At BRAND, real love is at the centre of everything we do.
Can you guess which brands they represent? (Answers at the bottom!) Now, depending on the kind of relationship you’re looking for, brand tone of voice helps you decide which app to download.
2. Have a positive experience
What could be more boring than an email about your pension? But Penfold uses a light and friendly tone (that ‘hey’ plus an emoji), short sentences and straightforward language, making this almost a delight to read. That ‘ker-ching’ at the end really seals the deal. It feels modern, upbeat and celebratory, making customers feel like they’ve achieved something.
Through tone of voice, Penfold manages to completely change the experience of reading an email about pensions. As a result, customers are likely to think of the brand more favourably in the future.
Penfold lighten up a potentially dry pension email with an upbeat tone of voice.
3. Shape their sense of self
Many customers choose brands based on what their choice says about them. Think about a tribe of teenagers in the same brand of trainers. Or the ubiquity of a particular sunglasses brand amongst a particular subset of people.
Tone of voice is a great way to sell to your tribe. This example from Patagonia uses words like ‘give back’ and ‘doomscrolling’ that feel familiar to Patagonia’s target audience and pain points. They’re using tone of voice here to build a sense of commonality and unity with the customer. It’s letting their audience know: hey, we get what you’re going through, and we’re the brand who can represent you. When that customer puts on their Patagonia t-shirt or wears their Patagonia backpack to work, they’re sending a clear message about their values.
Patagonia create their tribe and let you know you’re part of it with their tone of voice.
So, now you know what tone of voice is. Next month, we’ll explore why it matters.
If you’d like to chat more about developing a new tone of voice for your business or embedding an existing one, I’d love to hear from you.
Answers
1.
a) Innocent
b) Dove
c) Apple
2.
a) Tinder
b) E-harmony