Mind your tone
In the 90s, pop songstress Oskar Collier belted out that actions speak louder than words, and often, they do. We all understand that your customer service needs to be on point as a business; however, how you say what you’re saying also plays a big part in creating a relationship and brand loyalty with customers.
Tone of voice is not just what you say but how you say it. Some brands seem to be absolutely smashing it when it comes to tone of voice. Here, we examine what they are doing and why it’s working well for them.
Innocent
It always comes back to these guys when you talk about tone of voice and powerful brand impact. There is a lighthearted tone to their communications, finding funny ways to present messages — their website navigation includes the header ‘us’ instead of the usual team title or meets the team, ‘things we make’ instead of products and even a ‘compliment generator’, which may seem a little odd or seemingly intangible. However, the compliment generator works. Innocent smoothies and drinks are meant to make you feel good, so the compliment generator runs alongside the mantra of making their customers feel good.
Hendrick’s Gin
Hendrick’s Gin has created a true brand persona; if he were a person, he’d be wearing a top hat, barnacle, a fantastic moustache and a decadent suit. Their tagline is ‘Cultivate the Unusual’, and throughout the language, it is littered with similar stylistic words such as oddities and peculiarities. The language is often straight out of the 1920s: ‘divine oddities and tales await you in our unusual times’. The only letdown is when you go through to the contact page, and instead of continuing the excellent style they have built up, it turns into a very formal and everyday language, which breaks the persona and, therefore, the effect.
Slack
If your office doesn’t use Slack, you are missing out — and I am not being paid to say that, it is just a super app and the tone of voice underpins the whole brand experience. The tone for Slack was set early on, based initially on the voice of Stewart Butterfield (and other founders). They say, “All’s good under the hood, boss!”. The language is funny and light-hearted, lighthearted and conversational, almost encouraging its users to communicate similarly. Recently, we’ve seen many other web-based software programs that seem to have been inspired by Slack speak.
Oatly
The new kid on the block, who has seemingly taken their brand voice lessons from Innocent but added a slightly darker humour to what they do. Oatly’s more tongue-in-cheek approach makes for wickedly fun messaging — under their product title, it states ‘more than you would ever want to know about our products’. Yet they are balancing the wickedness by throwing out warm and fuzzy feelings, referring to their products as the ‘Oatly family’, plus they seem fiercely proud of their Swedish roots with their ‘The Oatly Way’ tab leading you to a loud and proud declaration of ‘It’s Swedish’.
Houndworthy
Houndworthy is a company that sells dog apparel for people whose dog is more than just a pet. They understand that dog-mad owners talk to their dogs and, so why, as a company, shouldn’t they? Houndworthy refers to their website fans as ‘houndfans’; on social media, they tag posts with #houndfans. Interestingly, they also label the email sign-up form with ‘get updates on stuff we think you’ll care about’, confident they know what their customers are interested in. Houndworthy is not too conversational but friendly and relevant. There is a low key quirk about their tone of voice, it’s gentle like that stroll you’ll take with your dog!
North Face
North Face is playing the ’know your audience’ game with panache. It recognises that people using its products want simple, well-built items that don’t compromise on classic, minimalist style.
Their language is simple and to the point, with references to nature and the outdoors, and they play with the kind of language that motivates you to think about activities.
Many of the website slogans are short and to the point—five words or less—‘Ready for the Wild’, ‘Pack smart. Move easily.’ The statements also sound confident in their approach, reflecting their customers as confident shoppers who know what they want.
Jack Daniels
Jack Daniels has managed to blend their heritage with a more contemporary feel. Their language also has a cinematic quality; the brand refers to their products as ‘The main characters’. This use of storytelling in its language reflects the idea of sitting and enjoying a whiskey whilst sharing stories. They position the brand with confidence: ‘Become a friend of Jack. Join our mailing list’. There a charmingely persona here, helped by the name being that of a natural per, son and they have workhardell to build on that. Jack Daniels has found a way of conjuring up a laid-back, authoritative style and as a welcoming and warm Southern friend — think Ron Swanson on a good day.
So, what can we take from all of these brand examples? Well, not every brand voice needs to be the same. Yes, Innocent pioneered the chatty and informal tone, but just because it works for them does not mean it will necessarily work for your brand. Please take note of how Oatly have taken a similar style and built on that to make it more edgy, more contemporary and most importantly, to make it their own. Hendrick’s Gin and Jack Daniels have developed a tone of voice that takes on a persona you can almost visualise as you read the text.
The critical aspect of creating a persona is ensuring it sounds genuine and runs through your channels and website. The main thing to remember is that customer engagement means understanding your customers and being a friend to them. This should always come through in your tone of voice. You can be friendly without being informal, you can be wicked but keep a friendly tone, and you can bring your audience in on the joke. To sum it all up, here are the key points to take away.
Top 5 tips:
- Know your audience—don’t make any assumptions. Please gett to know your target customers and understand what makes them tick.
- Tell stories — your tone of voice and language should always support your brand story.
- Be warm. A warm and friendly approach will help you engage with your audience and make an emotional connection.
- Consistent consistency across all touchpoints is the key to authenticity.
- Authenticity — if your customers believe what you say, you have their attention (and that’s where the opportunity lies).
