What is tone of voice

What is the tone of voice

Not only logos, colors and fonts: brand identity also comes through words.

Just as humans are endowed with particular personalities, ways of speaking, and tastes-there are those who wear sky-high heels and those who wear comfortable sneakers, those who adopt a polished speech and those who communicate with slang, those who are more reserved and those who are more extroverted-in the same way a brand has a way of appearing and expressing itself: becomes unique and recognizable because of its tone of voice (often abbreviated as ToV).

GlossaryMarketing defines it as

literally, the "tone of voice" you want to give to the communication, in harmony with the brand identity; defines the character and personality you want to build for a product or brand.

Let us examine a simple example. Imagine someone declaring: "I am not angry." The same statement can take on different nuances:

• when uttered in a calm, quiet and reassuring tone, the phrase conveys a sense of tranquility and a willingness to resolve any misunderstandings in a calm manner;
• on the other hand, if said in a dry or restless tone, it suggests tension and passive-aggressiveness.

The way we express ourselves greatly influences the interpretation of a message, although the content remains the same. The same concept can be applied in the business context and concerns the choice of tone of voice: a brand’s chosen communication style. It emerges as a very powerful tool for the construction and transmission of a brand’s values and positioning, that is, a customer’s idea of a particular company.

Why is the tone of voice so important?

Let’s talk about marketing.

Purchasing a product or service can be a more or less rational process. However, there is one element that in both cases plays in favor of one company over another: the identification.

Generalizing, a customer will be more likely to buy the product of the brand with which he or she most identifies, which is thus able not only to satisfy a need of his or her own, but also to reflect his or her personal values.

Research conducted by Nielsen Norman Group indicates that advertisements that elicit above-average emotional reactions can increase sales by 23 percent. With appropriate language, you can effectively connect with customers' emotions, resulting in an immediate increase in sales.

The brand identity -- and the tone of voice in particular -- are the tools a company has at its disposal to communicate its values and principles to the market, thereby attracting that segment of the user base that is reflected in those same values.

It is for this reason, for example, that users (all things being equal) are more likely to buy on sites that present information in their own language: speaking the same language is the first step in making the customer identify with the brand and consequently be more likely to trust it.

The tone of voice thus serves to create that special closeness between customer and brand that lasts even after the purchase. Indeed, choosing the right tone of voice facilitates the loyalty process, leading to the building of real communities around the brand.

This is not to say, however, that to be successful it is enough to always use only a friendly tone: the right tone is found by analyzing one’s customer base and is built by creating a middle ground between brand identity and the habits of the target market.

Finding your brand voice is critical to standing out from the competition. Particularly in powdered markets, those where there are many competing companies, finding a communication style that is both original and authentic can be that additional value proposition that makes the difference with a competitor.

One example is Unieuro, which recently decided to target a younger demographic by picking up on the themes and communication styles typical of that demographic.

How do you choose the tone of voice?

As we have seen, the tone of voice is literally the voice of a brand, which contributes to the creation of its identity in the minds of consumers. It should therefore be used in every communication to infuse the message with the unique character of the brand.

Given its importance, finding your voice can be difficult, especially if you are not clear about your brand identity. Getting the definition of one’s ToV wrong could have disastrous effects on communication, and not just online communication. However, there are some guidelines to easily define the tone to be chosen.

Before discussing how to find the tone of voice, it is useful to digress a little about the different types of tones that exist. Pennamontata, true experts in the field, for example, identify four:

• cool tones;
• neutral tones;
• warm tones;
• colorful tones.

Each of these tones is more or less suitable for particular products or services:

• cool tones are suitable for bureaucratic and/or institutional settings;
• neutral tones perfectly serve professional communication and dreamy tone texts;
• warm tones are perfect for communications with a friendly, conversational style;
• colorful tones are used in messages with an ironic and/or aggressive character.

Another pattern on which to potentially base one’s tone of voice selection was identified by Nielsen Norman Group, a company that is specifically concerned with the customer experience. According to their view, there are 4 dimensions that characterize communication style:

• formal vs. informal;
• fun vs. serious;
• respectful vs. irreverent;
• enthusiastic vs. concrete.

Each company should decide to what extent to adopt the characteristics of each dimension. It will then be possible to communicate by taking an informal, but serious and respectful tone with notes of enthusiasm. However, you will also need to modify your tone according to the circumstance and context in which you formulate the message you want to express.

Six steps to find one’s tone of voice

1. Define the values of the company

Before figuring out how to communicate, you need to be clear about what what you are communicating. In order to find a ToV in line with your brand, it might be helpful to conduct a briefing to organize ideas and put down on paper what the company’s character actually is and what values it wants to communicate.

2. Define the target audience

Having a clear target audience is a key step in finding a tone of voice that works. Customer identification in a brand is a very powerful lever for creating loyalty and trust. The most effective way to reach your customers is to speak the same language as them, more or less figuratively. One must therefore make a synthesis between the character of the company and that of its target audience, although ideally these two elements should already coincide.

For example, for an institution to use colorful tones would be unthinkable and even harmful; while it might be more prolific for a voluntary association to use warm and friendly tones.

3. Defining the style of language

Company character and target audience are thus the two basic steps to understand, at least indicatively, what color one’s voice should be. Once the tone is identified, it is useful to work out a proper style of language, for example:

• creating a vocabulary and indicating which words to use and which not to use;
• specifying the length and complexity of sentences, whether active or passive forms are preferred, etc;
• by inserting rules on how certain topics are handled.

For example, the Mailchimp style guide describes the company’s tone of voice as simple and friendly, and is achieved by favoring active voices and simple language that avoids overly technical or cryptic words; also urges, where possible, to use neutral words so as to promote gender equality.

It is important that the style of language also fits the chosen medium: usually, texts on paper are much more structured than those on the Web; videos can make use of images, symbols, colors and other elements that aid communication, while radio messages (or those that generally make use of audio only) must be self-sufficient in that they rely on voice alone (and possibly sounds and/or music).

Another aspect to consider is the influence that the context of use has on the tone of voice: one must take a consistent approach to different media and scenarios where there is contact with the public. It is essential to adapt the tone to the topic at hand and align it with the emotional state of the client.

Even for the most informal and friendly companies, it becomes essential to moderate enthusiasm, especially when it comes to making excuses to customers or responding to global tragedies that may impact the brand. Therefore, the initial decision is not limited to choosing between an informal or formal tone, but involves determining the appropriateness and extent of such tonal variations for different messages.

4. Differentiate yourself

Creating an effective tone of voice is not enough: it is important that it be authentic, but at the same time original, allowing the brand to differentiate (and make it stand out) from competitors. To achieve this, it can be useful to do a market analysis by analyzing the strategies and communication of one’s competitors, including using a positioning map.

5. Define marketing objectives

At this point, a brand is clear about what to communicate, to whom to communicate it, and how and where to do it. The final step in creating an effective tone of voice is to make the marketing objectives known, i.e., why it is communicating its message. Understanding this step is crucial to structuring communication, for example by including one or more calls to action to stimulate a reaction in customers, or to create a campaign based on storytelling if you want to promote a product or service or simply tell the company’s story.

6. Observe customer response

The final step is to carefully observe customers' response to our way of communicating and, if necessary, modify their style. You have to pay attention to the audience’s reactions and interactions to realize whether you are reaching out effectively. Finally, it is possible to conduct product reaction tests or solicit user feedback to evaluate the content presented.

Three bonus tips for a foolproof tone of voice

① If the structure of these passages seemed familiar to you, you are right: closely resemble the famous 5 w needed to properly structure a text. Making it well explicit what to communicate, to who to do it, where to do it, and why to do it is the foolproof method of shaping a tone of voice that exactly meets a brand’s needs. Figuring out how to do it might seem like a challenge, but having all the rest of the information is critical and simplifies the process.

② Regardless of the type of tone of voice chosen, then, it is critical that the message is always perfectly correct: even the most infallible ToV loses all its power and credibility if there are errors inside. A double check of grammar and spelling is always essential.

③ Finally, it should be remembered that the tone of voice is neither fixed nor immutable: the market in fact is a constantly changing environment, and a brand with its ToV must always be able to reflect this, without ever becoming obsolete.

Examples of tone of voice

In addition to the aforementioned examples of Mailchimp and Unieuro, we present here three more examples of tone of voice.

Where: encouraging and inspiring

Body positivity and self-acceptance are two founding values of the Dove brand. Through the realistic depiction of bodies and their diversity, especially women’s bodies, it invites the audience to accept their bodies as they are. Where he does this mostly through imagery, but also a calm but at the same time inspiring tone of voice in a friendly but confident manner. The language is simple and inclusive, and is intended to appeal to women without discriminating against them because of their body or level of education.

It inspires confidence thanks in part to affirmative language: brand values appear clear through phrases such as "source of security," "helping women," and "developing a positive reaction." This ToV is used everywhere, from social to marketing campaigns, giving consistency to brand communication.

Duolingo: a winning example of colorful tones

If Duo, the green owl mascot of the Duolingo app, has become a meme famous all over the web, it is precisely because of his tone of voice.

The green owl that serves as the mascot for the language learning app Duolingo is so distinctive that it has a dedicated style page. Duo "is very persistent and doesn't mind checking or making you feel guilty. He is like a parent: you would never let him down." His ToV mirrors that of the brand, but takes it a step further: is expressive, playful, engaging and worldly and "a little strange." And it is this insistence, combined with the "passive-aggressive" character, that has made Duo a famous meme throughout the Web.

An additional feature of Duo’s ToV is that it is used only in certain channels and for a certain purpose - to get users to return to Duolingo - so that the mascot image is tied to only certain concepts. For example, it is never used for advertisements and social talk. His communications are only through written messages (in notifications and during classes) and he never makes any kind of sound.

Bureaucratic tone of voice

A tone of voice, to achieve its purpose, need not always be creative. This is the case with bureaucratic ones, which are characterized by a more neutral language and sometimes so technical as to be obscure.

Looking at the social accounts of some ministries, such as Education or Health, the informational intent of the posts is obvious. That is why the communication, despite being direct and peremptory, uses simple, understandable terms that make the posts sound more like recommendations rather than actual orders.