Tribal Branding: Know Like Trust Series

This post is the final installment of the 3-part series on how to get customers to feel that they 'know, like and trust' your brand. The series was motivated by the need to create social media management (SMM) strategic content pillars. I think that, if I applied the 3 target behaviors / feelings to top, middle and bottom funnel positions, each one would apply in that order; ie 'know' will apply to the top, 'like' to the middle and 'trust' to the bottom. ... or depending on market needs, like when an unknown brand faces a huge challenge of gaining trust in expertise regarding a high-stakes problem, 'trust' and 'like' may overlap or be swapped within the cycle (of a month or whatever your expected cycle period towards conversion).

Even if your marketing campaigns have been successful in getting many people to know and perhaps even trust your brand, that does not mean that they will necessarily like your brand. You therefore need to connect emotionally, to have an emotional relationship with your market, ie you need to build brand affinity with customers. Afterall, brand affinity transcends brand awareness (which, as illustrated below, is only the first and most commercially beneficial of 4 levels of brand affinity). If developed successfully, brand affinity can motivate evangelism, the highest of the 4 levels. By such a point, customers make favorable purchase decisions based on emotional bonds with your brand. Needless to say, when measuring levels of affinity, the emotional connection is most important.

 

Brand affinity levels	Nature of consumer relationship with the brand
1.brand awareness	Consumer seeks to meet basic needs. Any product that does that meets basic needs will do. Won't go out of their way to get the brand.
2. infatuation	Consumer trusts the brand because the brand adds some value to their life. Consumer feels affection, appreciation or even obsession towards the brand.
3. fidelity	The consumer can truly relate to the brand values*. Consequently, the consumer feels an emotional connection and seeks out your brand specifically.  * Here are examples of core values to which consumers may relate. the style and image provided by a clothing brand very high quality images taken from Apple iPhones
4. evangelism	The consumer believes in your brand to such an extent that they want others to use the brand.

 

For the sake of making this post on the consumer's 'liking' or 'brand affinity' with a brand as clear as possible, I will discuss it in its extreme application; 'tribal branding'. However, recognize that, depending on the brand, tribal branding exists on a continuum. For instance, on one hand, Apple has applied it to the maximum extreme, while un-branded commodities not at all on the opposite extreme and  finally, most other marketed brands fall in the middle with varying levels of moderate tribalism. The majority of brands are in the center because they know that tribalism is hugely profitable but respond with only lukewarm attempts to tribalize consumers by claiming the most recently trending core values (like eco-friendliness). However, their corporate strategizing never quite achieves the same tribalism as Apple. 

Seth Godin's book 'Tribes' explains how to create tribes. Here is a quick breakdown of the take aways from that book along with some of my ideas on corresponding content pillars.

Lesson 1: Connection

Connection is the sine qua non of successful tribalism. Tribes comprise a group of people connected to each other, a leader and an idea. The idea may be based on anything like religion, politics, racial or other basis of marginalization, sports and so on. The communication is critical because back and forth messaging among members intensifies core values and attracts new like-minded members. Essentially, the communication is a catalyst for growth. Needless to say, social media communication makes tribalism easier than ever. In short, to transform any group of people into a tribe, 2 requirements must be met as follows. 

1. a shared interest
2. communication among members

Needless to say, connection is associated with the strategy of growth and tactical content pillars like ''Traction', 'Core Values' and, if you ask members to support each other and or ask qualification questions (about interests) as a pre-requisite to membership, also 'Ask / Participate'.

Lesson 2: Pull Marketing

Because the interest is so niche, the messaging is tailor-made to narrowly attract only the tribe's members (not everyone). It therefore pulls only those who share the tribe's passion. (See Push & Pull marketing). Needless to say, pull marketing is associated with the tactical content pillar like 'Core Values' with very specialized content. One option is to use specific questions from the consumer's perspective as the titles of your posts, ie rather than write generic titles. Social listening tools can help you to generate questions. For instance, rather than write a title as 'product x [your brand name]', write it was 'Is method a-b-c the best way to resolve problem y? -- or -- solutions for problem y'. Either way, establish the details in your brand voice and tone. 

Lesson 3: Leaders are heretics.

Heresy relates to having beliefs that go contrary to norms that are generally accepted in the broader community (like religion, sexual preferences and so on). In other words, they challenge the status quo. Example(s):

• When it was generally felt that computers would not be desirable at home, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple suggested otherwise, likely seeming a little crazy by most who could not imagine his vision. However, Apple's Macintosh computer introduced the world's first home computer and therefore revolutionized the modern world. 

Lesson 4: Tribes are assembled, NOT created.

Godin explains that, before the formation of a tribe, its eventual members, although still disconnected and scattered somewhere in the world, they lay in wait to be connected. At the sight of a catalyst, they will join and do not need to be schooled on the interest.

• Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Black Twitter followers were not trained in a class room. Instead, they suffered for while and eagerly awaited their opportunity to be connected. Consequently, when the opportunity arose, they were eager to join.

Lesson 5: The tribe is not for everyone.

This is where I think many businesses fall short of the full tribal glory. I think this failing is due to lack of authenticity. Tribalism is about true believers with a burning desire to connect with other true believers. Their efforts are not staged through corporate strategy (alone) and so they can become cohesive simply because their intrinsic interest in the cause is sufficiently strong to sustain their focus. In other words, the focus is not about vanity metrics such as likes and views. Rather, they are more interested in drawing their members closer (than growing numbers). Wired Magazine's Kevin Kelly suggested that tribes only need 1,000 true members, ie enough for a core group of passionate, deeply 'heretic' members to sustain them. In short, leaders focus on their tribe, ignoring everyone else. This lesson corresponds with the tactical pillars 'Transparency' (Authenticity), 'Values' and 'Beliefs'. The rules for these pillars will suggest unapologetic specificity in content, brand voice and tone, etc. Some might even encourage exclusivity.

• White supremacist (WS) groups are unapologetic about their zero tolerance policies regarding membership.

As far as possible, managing a corporate tribe should involve having only the right partners, suppliers, employees and so on. 

Lesson 6: Tribes become movements (with the help of leadership)

After membership has reached critical mass, the tribe becomes a movement, ie it can bring about change in the world. Do not take this power lightly. Social media movements have swayed elections. The movement comes into being when the leader does the following.

1. Tell a story (to people who really want to hear). The story highlights the vision for a better future (whatever that means to the tribe).
2. Connect the tribe members to each other and themselves
3. They lead the movement with direction and purpose.
4. They make change occur in ways that no single member could have done alone.

Lesson 7: Leaders use a combination of the & leadership Cs

Leaders all accept their leadership roles and use a combination of the following elements. They

1. challenge the status quo.
2. build a culture
3. are curious  (about the world, how it works and how their vision can work)
4. are or become charismatic to attract and motivate followers
5. facilitate communication among members and themselves
6. commit to the cause
7. facilitate connection among members.

Video (above): Tribes by Seth Godin, Animated Book Summary by YouTuber MentalEFit Book Club.

Video (above): 'How the Dogtown Z-Boys changed skateboarding culture (tribal branding)' by YouTuber Intermark Group. 

The Dogtown Z-Boys was a small group of skateboarders in the early 1970s with an intrinsic interest in skateboarding long before the tribe formed. The earliest skaters were outcasts or 'heretics' by nature. The concept of skateboards was an adaptation of ocean surf boards that were adapted to the land. Their membership was exclusive on the basis of psychological characteristics and unique skating styles that evolved naturally into being from their interaction with each other. For instance, given their ocean surfing background, they did things that other land-only skaters did not, like bring their bodies close to the ground, touch the ground and so on (in other words, an aspect of their 'heresy'). They mastered this style inside of empty swimming pools at homes up for sale during a Californian drought. Craig Stecyk of a local newspaper  (Dogtown Chronicles) assumed the leadership role by publishing the group's symbols, images, core values and ideas. (Keep in mind that this occurred several decades before the internet). This leadership brought together like-minded, otherwise disconnected members and established their culture. They also wore uniforms to demonstrate to the world and themselves their cohesiveness. They even had a physical location where they met each other. Ultimately, the tribe transformed the initially basic trends of skateboarding into its current status as a mainstream extreme sport of skating up smooth vertical surfaces of modern day.

Apple has been able to create a loyal tribe that is willing to wait overnight outside of their doors for new releases, with hopes of paying much more than the competition for their products. In keeping with lesson 1 (regarding a shared interest for being outstanding in graphics and creating a space to encourage easy, direct communication), Apple engages heavily with its market over social media platforms. For instance, its Instagram posts have featured very striking images from customers using their latest iPhone model. Starting from their revolutionary 1984 introduction of home computers for personal use, they go out of their way to establish the idea that the brand is different, in an unapologetically superior way. Their tagline 'Think different' reflects this and is somewhat of a call to action for persons wanting to be seen as an outsider, non-conformist and revolutionary like the brand was in 1984.

TO DO

1. Research and identify your tribe as intimately as possible. To this end, create a target customer profile.

2. Be clear about your unique value proposition / UVP.  The UVP does not need to be only one value. It can be a collection of those values that are most meaningful to your target market.

3. Engage with your tribe, listening closely and responding accordingly.

4. Connect emotionally with your tribe. (This is a must).

5. Create strategic content pillars that incorporate the elements of tribalism. Here is a rough example that incorporates elements of brand tribalism for introducing a new brand whose state of being unknown must overcome sales objections of distrust based on the market not knowing and consequent distrust of the brand's expertise. Notice how the same tactical pillars are applied to each of multiple segment-specific thematic pillar (like plus-sized women's wear, regular-sized women's wear and so on within a single women's line). Those tactical pillars were inspired by the concepts of tribalism and Fastnet's 9 tactiical pillars. 

ToF lead generation  / Objective(s): to be known (through trust, seek qualify members)

• Thematic pillar 1 of .. segments
• Traction
• Value
• Results (Pull title)
• Authority (expertise)
• Social Proof (Pull title)
• Transparency
• Thematic pillar 2 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)
• Thematic pillar 3 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)

MoF lead nurturing  / Objective(s): to tribalize customer (like, trust)

• Thematic pillar 1 of .. segments
• Value  (Pull title)
• Transparency
• Results (Pull title)
• Heresy  (Pull title)
• Ask / Participate
• Solution
• Thematic pillar 2 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)
• Thematic pillar 3 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)

BoF lead conversion / Objective(s) to sell and retain customer with trust inspiring content)

• Thematic pillar 1 of .. segments
• Solution  (Pull title)
• Ask / Participate (Community communication)
• Thematic pillar 2 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)
• Thematic pillar 3 of  .. segments
• same as above (s/a)

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND LOVE (TRIBAL BRANDING)

• Know, Like and Trust Series
• Tribalism is an extreme form of lifestyle branding.
• Brand voice and tone
• This article relates to B2C tribal branding / brand affinity. However, B2B brand affinity is also noteworthy. Third party research suggests that that clear top drivers are Trust and customer service. Read third party articles about this topic by Marketing Charts.
• When done correctly, tribalism is able to get customers to make buying decisions based on emotional bonds.
• Emotional branding and marketing.
• Branding: Core values
• Social media content management
• Persuasion technique
• Noteworthy case studies of corporate tribes not include in this post are Tesla, Nike

Brand Knowledge: Know Like Trust Series

This short post is part of the 'Know, Like & Trust' series. For background, see the first installment regarding trust . The primary aim of this series is to discuss how to encourage audiences to know, like and trust brands in the social media content management process.

Since a brand's aim to become as humanized as possible, brand knowledge can be understood as being similar to knowing a person. Just imagine; you feel like you know someone who you have seen enough times in a consistent way that you can identify them in a crowd or describe them to some one else; because you know their values, you can predict their actions and are even willing to buy new product releases without getting details; you are so familiar what they bring to the table that you can recall them only on the basis of what they mean to your life. In short, brand knowledge closely relates to brand awareness.

Within the context of social media content management, I suggest that brand knowledge may fit in tactical content pillars like 'Traction' (involving social or other hot topics that can go viral using virality pillars), 'Beliefs', 'Values' (involving lifestyle branding and core values) and 'Social Proof' (regarding values and beliefs). However, regardless of the tactical pillar, keep the following in mind. 

• Teach brand recognition to consumers. For instance, show brand assets in a consistent way in all posts. Be clear about your brand's voice and tone.
• Deliver value beyond the product. In other words, create content to inform, educate or entertain leads. Lifestyle branding is a case in point. 
• Patagonia's 50-minute video called 'Tribal water' discusses the matter of access to water for Native Americans in the US. The content is what one would imagine like-minded friends might discuss because it touches on deep values and beliefs they share. Consequently, the video aligns with the brand's core values so as to gently woo like-minded customer friends. While the product appears in the video, Patagonia never used hard sell tactics. Instead, its delivered value is the friendly chat itself.   
• Make the content shareable, after all, you want people to know about the brand. Having people share content within their personal sphere of influence is great advertising.
• Hold contests. Doing this with other brands (with the same target market) will boost brand awareness.

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND KNOWLEDGE

• Social media content management
• Know, Like and Trust Series
• Brand awareness

Brand Voice - Taglines

Brand voice refers to the brand's comunication style that helps to evoke ideas of a brand's personality. It encompassesevery conceivable element; from word choice, level of formality to cultural slant and so on. Just like other external brand elemnts, it has its own special place in the brand style manual. The 'brand voice' complements other external elements (like the name and logo) in delivering the human-like brand persona so consistently that it is memorable. This post will exclusively discuss taglines, which is one way in which 'brand voice' is expressed. 

A tagline is a simple, concise phrase that is reiterated after a brandname, at the end of every advertisement or other marketing material. 

Ideally, it is used strategically, often communicating a brand's unique value proposition, competitive advantage (or why the market should select your brand over others and or what a business does. In other words, the focus of a tagline should not be to sound catchy if a catchy expression is not very meaningful in any of these ways. As modern consumers grow wary of stiff corporate language, taglines need to sound more and more like the voice of a familiar person with a personality the target finds attractive. 

Types of Tagline & Their Application

The following are among the most common types of tagline. Notice how they stress the brand's competitive advantage. 

• Differentiation tagline. Use this when you need a rallying cry to the public about why they should join your tribe over the competition. This tagline can be very useful for exclusivity marketing or brand positioning. For branding positioning, you stress that your brand is 'the only one that does __X__' or 'can render y results' (within the context of industrial conditions that make those results otherwise unachievable).
• Example: Apple - "Think different" because the Apple tribe is 'more creative' and therefore different from PC users who they consider to be mundane. This tagline is a rally cry to other 'rebel' and 'creator' personalities; essentially calling to them to step away from the uncreative, normal plebes and into their exclusive tribe.
• Example: The nature of its business sets the expectation that Tampa Gemeral Hospital has a naturally 'caregiver'  personality, a personality one might expect to have a sweet voice about caring the most. However, this brand differentiates itself unlike others with such bold language that it is hard not to notice it when it says that it 'Other hospitals practice medicine. We define it.' Contrast this with the softer voices of other 'caregiver' hospital brands like 'keeping you\ well', 'exceptional care close to you' or the Salvation Army's 'caregiver' tagline of "doing the most good". 
• Example: L'Oreal - "Because you're worth it". Having the 'lover' brand personality archetype, this brand meets esteem needs (see Maslow's Hierarchy of needs) and appeals to the vanity with hints of prestige. It is unapologetic about how its higher-than-usual price and unnecessarily fancy packaging. This language will resonate with those of like mind, people who think they deserve the 'finer' things. 
• Value-creation, results-oriented tagline. Use this tagline if you want to stress what the product will surely accomplish, especially if this is your brand's competitive advantage. I find that brands with a 'wizard' personality traits speak like this because they promise transformation, they present themselves as the catalyst to 'make things happen'.
• Example: These taglines are often used for products whose competitive advantage is related to high levels of hard and measurable performance. This is evident in cases like; Energizer's "Keep going and going" stresses performance; Tide's "Tide's in, dirt's out"; Good Year's "More driven"; Volvo's "For life" which is likely backed up by strict compliance with health and safety requirements that ensure good life-saving qualities.
• Example: Geico's '15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance/' 

• Literal tagline. This tagline is not as emotionally exicting. Rather, it simply describes the brand's function or what it does, literally. It is ideal for situations in which the brand name on its own is not sufficiently descriptive of the business and or the brand is new in the market. 
• Examples. I think this voice reflects the sober nature of the 'sage' brand personality very well. It appears a good fit for situations in which the consumable product changes with each customer, thereby requiring a promise of the brand's work ethic. Illustrations include the following.  
• New York Times' "All the news that's fit to print" which suggests that it is a serious brand that only prints quality content. 
• Use taglines that are appropriate to your brand's stage within its life cycle. Specifically, resist the temptation to imitate the catchy and often vague nature of world famous brands. Remember that they are so well known that their voice no longer needs to inspire brand awareness. Literal taglines are more suitable than vague taglines like IBM's 'Think' are more suitable for a startup. Nike's 'Just Do It' would mean nothing for a startup but has great meaning for Nike. Literal taglines must use keywords to raise brand awareness. Examples: This type of tagline is useful for new businesses, especially when the brand name alone is not sufficiently descriptive of the offering. Illustrations include the following.
• Theresa Caputo, the Long Island Medium.
• By using the keyword 'car insurance, this example is include here. However, Geico's, '15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance' is also a great results-oriented tagline that can be emulated by even very new brands. This is such a winner tagline because it concisely says so much; what they do, the results you can expect and it contains keywords (car insurance). It is such a winner that it likely made sales. If prospective clients not knowing it alongside competing brands like Statefarm or Allstate, it delivers much more useful information. For instance, Statefarm's tagline is 'like a good neighbor, Statefarm is there'  and Allstate's is 'you're in good hands'. While both acceptable, they rely on prior brand knowledge.
• Janes Doe, on-call baby sitters in Charington Towers

TIPS TO RECAP

• Keep it simple, short and easily digestible for your target market.
• Use power words that forms your message's 'rhetorical appeal'-related trigger / brand positioning differentiator, whether the most powerful one emotion (pathos) or logical (logos) or ethics (ethos / principles). Rhetorical appeals are methods of influencing others as defined by Aristotle. Power words should resonate with your target. Research 'power words' for your industry if you need help.
• Experiment! For instance, associate the tagline with your target's frequent habits. This is the basis for the success of Kit Kat's 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' because pretty much everyone takes (snack) breaks throughout the day.
• Reflect the tone of voice of your brand personality. The vocabulary and other stylistic choices shoould reflect the personalities of the target market and brand. If you sell gardening gear, talk like a gardener (NOT a banker). If you are talking to tweens, loosen up your language accordingly and so on. Here are some examples.
• The  'rebel' personality has a tone that is more harsh, direct and blunt than normal. It is unapologetic.
• Harley Davidson - "Screw it, let's ride" is consistent with the brand's personality. Its target feel that, when life is stressful, they should all go riding.
• 
• Apple - "Think different"
• Keep and follow a brand style manual. For  instance, have templates that reflect how to respond to different circumstances.

MORE CONTENT RELATED TO EXPRESSING A BRAND VOICE WITH TAGLINES

• Brand voice & Tone 
• Social media content management
• Emotional Marketing
• Brand Positioning, Strategy
• Brand personality
• Emotional marketing to emotionally engage your target market.
• Branding 101. See where this step fit into the process of brand strategy management.
• Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

• Packaging design strategy

• Brand mascot
• Examples of taglines of famous brands. 

• Food &/ Drink
• Burger King - "Have it your way"
• Cadbury - "Tastes like this feels"
• California Milk Processor Board - "Got milk?"
• Cheetos - 'Dangerously cheesy' (formerly 'It ain't easy being cheesy', 'Hail cheeesar' and 'Cheese that goes crunch'. 
• Coca Cola - "Open Happiness!"; "Taste the feeling!"
• Dunkin' Donuts - "America runs on Dunkin'"
• Gatorade - "Is it in you?"
• KFC - "Finger lickin' good"
• Kit Kat - "Have a break, have a Kit Kat"
• Lay's - "Betcha can't eat just one"
• McDonald's - 'I'm lovin' it"
• M&M's - "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand"
• Red Bull - "Red Bull gives you wings"
• Skittles - "Taste the rainbow"
• Snickers - "You're not you when you're hungry"
• Starbucks - "Start the day with great taste"
• Subway - "Eat fresh"
• Tesco - "Every little helps"
• Wendy's - "Deliciously different"
• Skin care
• Asepxia - Experts in deep cleansing / "Expertos de la limpieza profundo"
• CeraVe - "Developed with dermatologists"
• Eucerine - "We believe in the life-changing power of dermatological skincare"
• L'Oreal - "Because you're worth it"
• Maybelline - "Make it happen"
• Proactiv - "Be proactiv"
• Technology
• Apple - "Think different"
• Audi - "Advancement through technology"
• BMW - "Designed for driving pleasure"
• Energizer - "Keep going and going ..."
• GE - "We bring good things to life"
• Good year - "More driven"
• Honda - "The power of dreams"
• IBM - "Think"
• LG - "Life's Good"
• Mercedes-Benz - "The best or nothing"
• Nokia - "Connecting people"
• Panasonic - "Ideas for life"
• Samsung - "Imagine"
• Sony - "Make. Believe"
• Volkswagen - "The car"
• Volvo - "For life"
• Services (financial, insurance etc)
• American Express - "Don't leave home without it"
• Citibank - "because the Citi never sleeps"
• HSBC - "The world's local bank"
• MasterCard - "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard"
• Robinhood - "Democratize finance for all"
• Apparel & Other Personal Adornments
• Adidas - "Impossible is nothing"
• Nike - "Just do it"
• Kay Jewelers - "Every kiss begins with Kay"
• Experience
• Disneyland  - "The happiest place on Earth"
• Information
• The New York Times - "All the news that's fit to print"
• Housekeeping
• Tide - "Tide's in, dirt's out"
• Other
• Garnier - "Take care"
• IMAX - "Think big"
• Lufthansa - "Nonstop you"
• Philips - "Sense and simplicity"
• Verison - "Better matters"

Brand Personality - Voice and Tone

Brand Personality -  Voice & Tone

A brand's voice and tone are integral components of the brand personality. When applied consistently well, the brand voice is highy recognizable like a friend whose voice you recognize, even before you can see him or her. In other words, if your content appeared alone, ie without a logo or other cues, and if among that of competitors, your customers should be able to recognize your brand (ie strong brand awareness). As with any other aspect of brand strategy, brand voice design starts with considering the type of communication with which the target customer will  resonate. From that basis, the brand creates its voice accordingly. To be clear, voice includes any type of content; from social media content management, webpages to video, email autosignatures, product pages, the responses that your sales representative gives, the images in an advertisement and so on.

Brand style guidelines include communication instructions for your brand's content creators. Since the brand's voice must be consistent, instructions commonly have precise specifications with 1) goal regarding the desired emotional customer reaction 2) brand voice keywords, 3) tone instructions, 4) style tips and 5) any other noteworthy points.

1) Goals may be written as mini mission statements for the voice. Here are some examples. 

Mailchimp talks of "writing empowering content" which in short is essentially a mission 'to write empowering content'. 

Atlassian (that provides networking software to virtual team members) gives software creators 5 mission statements to "inform to build trust", "empower to inspire action", "encourage people along the path", "motivate by showing possibilities", "satisfy by meeting expectations" and "delight with unexpectedly pleasing experiences".

Extended goal / mission statements also sound much like a movie director's instructions to an actor on how to play a specific role. For instance, brands specify whether creators' content should sound like a trustworthy friend that makes customers feel secure (the 'innocent'), a wise teacher (the 'sage'), pampered (the 'lover') and so on. 

Mailchimp goes on to explain this mission in greater detail. Notice how they even name the role content players must act with the words "like experienced and compassionate business partner". I am unsure whether they provide content creators with details on how, to use their words, Mailchimp walked in their customers' shoes and know marketing technology is a minefield of confusing terminology. However by having shown their ability to relate, they provide a backstory to help creators to essentially pretend in their minds to be Mailchimp insiders who had those experiences and developed empathetic feelings for newcomers and, in turn, to recognize the need to "educate without patronizing or confusing" customers on behalf of Mailchimp.

we’ve walked in our customers' shoes, and we know marketing technology is a minefield of confusing terminology. That’s why we speak like the experienced and compassionate business partner we wish we’d had way back when.

We treat every hopeful brand seriously. We want to educate people without patronizing or confusing them.

Using offbeat humor and a conversational voice, we play with language to bring joy to their work. We prefer the subtle over the noisy, the wry over the farcical. We don't take ourselves too seriously.

Whether people know what they need from us or don’t know the first thing about marketing, every word we say informs and encourages. We impart our expertise with clarity, empathy, and wit.

Atlassian tells their creators to "write as if you are a wizened member of the team." Then they go on to explain that looks like. "Show up at the right time and be open, humble, and warm - offer direction for the most appropriate next steps and get out of the way." 

2) Brand voice keywords are adjectives like 'plainspoken', 'bold', 'optimistic' and so on (as pictured in bold print immediately below). Even though these keywords are usually commonly known vocabulary, brands define each word further to avoid variant interpretations. Notice how this often involves lots of other adjectives. They take no chances of ambiguity. For instance, like keyword #1 below, brands also establish boundaries that are 'do nots'. They often do this by highlighting how different their voice should be to a potential misinterpretation. For instance, after they describe how "the world' often speaks with "hypobolic language, upsells and over-promises", Mailchimp then stresses that "we strip all that away and value clarity above all".

Atlassian has 3 voice keywords 'bold', 'optimistic' and 'practical with a wink' (which they discussed in the 'personality' section of the introductory part of the document but go into even further detail in the 'Voice' section). They explain that creators should "inform by being open and clear on what people are experiencing in our products. It's about telling them what they need to know at that moment and nothing more." 

Designing a brand voice: voice keywords

A common practice is to establish roughly 3 voice keywords for content creators to apply to their brand voice. Consequently, these 3 words are pivotal elements of brand style guidelines.

Brand managers along with key content creators and communicators create and periodically finetune these keywords with a brand voice chart like the one immediately below (with examples that may correspond with the 'innocent' personality trait).

 

Voice characteristic	Description	Do	Don't
Authentic	We provide you with everything you will possibly need to do task X; tools and information.	-communicate directly and honestly (ie to be plain-spoken). - own up up to and address mistakes.	- overpromise - use jargon - push inappropriate products - distract with entertainment and hype
Emotionally intelligent	We want to understand and meet your needs directly.	- listen closely - observe - adapt to your needs	- make hasty assumptions - keep talking without checking on your emotional state.
Passionate (Brand evangelical)	We incorporate the brand's core values in our personal lives.	- use power words in describing the benefits of [the X cause re core values] - share our personal stories and those of others like you.	- do not use the passive tense. - use clichés or lukewarm language.

 

A brand voice chart is a live document that should be created and updated with input from others that include content creators and sales staff. Most importantly, check that content creators understand the raison d'etre and how to apply the keywords. This involves integrating the voice keywords into all aspects of human resources; from as early as: listing the (soft) skills you must look for during the recruitment and selection process; including this information in the onboarding process of new employees and content creators; or  testing and retesting their value and currency with internal and external persons related with the brand. 

Testing and retesting usually involves convening at intervals with key content creators and communicators for their feedback on what worked, what did not and ideal content.

These voice keywords are usually found and discussed in the brand personality part (of the 'Introductory') and or brand voice part (of the 'Contents' section) within the 'Brand style guidelines' document. 

3) Tone. If the brand voice is the spoken manifestation of the fixed brand personality, then tone is transient, like a mood! 

Difference between the brand voice and tone. 

As suggested above, the brand voice focuses on maintaining the emotional relationship with customers. All brands share the challenge of encouraging customers to trust the brand. However, some industries lend to certain emotional connections more than others. For instance, health care aims to encourage customers to feel cared for, financial services encourage customers to feel they can trust a brand, snacks encourage customers to feel that the latter can have fun with the brand. Brand style guidelines therefore respond directly to triggering these emotional states. The brand voice is fixed. Its goal is always to achieve a predetermined emotional state in the target customer.

While related, the tone of voice is adaptable. It is like the emotionally intelligent aspect of the voice that recognizes subtle differences among target customers and then adjusts how to still achieve the fixed goal of the voice.

For instance, if your brand sells financial investment services and aims to engender trust. While the voice will involve sharing basic product information, the tone recognizes that the nervous old lady who has no knowledge of financial risk management fits the 'amiable' buyer personality type and must be coddled. She is never going to catch on to hefty finance concepts and your fancy graphs. Focusing on those things will quickly lose any potential for gaining her trust. However, she wants to know that the client representative is someone with whom she has rapport, someone who understands her financial circumstances and take care of her. Conversely, a client who is a trader with an advanced degree in Finance fits the  'assertive' buyer personality type needs you to TONE DOWN your coddling but TONE UP your show of expertise in order to win over his trust. He would question your smarts if you tried to coddle him. However, you will win him over with demonstrably deep knowledge in Finance and can talk with him on his level, with the hard facts and figures to support everything you say.

The key however, is that, at the end of the day, both types of customer reach a high level of trust in your brand. All brands discuss emotional intelligence with creators.

In their 'Tone' section, Mailchimp tells creators to "consider the reader's state of mind [...] Once you have an idea of their emotional state, you can adjust your tone accodingly."

As pictured immediately below, when discussing tone, Atlassian diagramatically explains when creators should tone up or down some aspect of the voice. Here they expressly say to tone down 'boldness' when the person is apprehensive, confused, etc and give specific scenarios when this is likely to happen like when the person is new. They also specify places where this can happen like "error messages". Having clearly already done requisite data mining, they have prepared all of these instructions regarding toning up and or down voice elements within the context of each of the 5 goals in turn.

Here is another example.

4) Style tips 

Style tips covers many areas that might also appear in other sections of a brand's content style guidelines. They always discuss level of formality. Other very common points relate to level of humor. See examples below for other types of tips.  

Mailchimp content style guidelines provide style tips in the following way.

Style tips

Here are a few key elements of writing Mailchimp’s voice. For more, see the Grammar and mechanics section.

• Active voice Use active voice. Avoid passive voice.
• Avoid slang and jargon Write in plain English.
• Write positively Use positive language rather than negative language.

5) Other noteworthy points. 

Brand voice, tone & style in action

When discussing brand mascots (another powerful manifestation of the personality), I mentioned the snack brand Cheetos' Chester Cheetah's Twitter account. (The brand has since changed their brand voice. However, their old brand voice is a noteworthy case study). Pay special attention to that earlier content, language and even punctuation. The language was very informal. Consistent with his character and tagline 'dangerously cheesey', Chester sounded like a teenager. He broke punctuation rules, used slang, emoticons and spoke of misadventure while attempting to get the snack. 

 

Clearly, brand style guidelines were created because the brand's voice, tone and style were consistent across media. See video compilation of Chester Cheetah commercials.

Based only on the video and social media posts, I gather that this brand's guidelines likely suggest the following.

Goal(s) & role:

• Goal: 
• To make adolescent peers to think the brand (and their mascot Chester) are 'cool' and funny. (video content)
• To encourage adolescents to obey the call to action "get your own!" (written content)
• Role: to speak as if he is an American adolescent who conspires with peers in mischief.

Voice keyword(s):

• cheesy (obviously joking, slapstick and over the top, a pun for the cheese flavor of the snack)

Tone:

Style(s):

• Extremely casual speech. Regarding written social media content; anything goes! Rules regarding punctuation and spelling should be broken. Use many icons and emoticons that are over the top in nature (like bang and stars around the head). However, content should remain child-safe. For instance, it should exclude malicious forms of violence, aggressiveness and indecent language.
• Smooth and sly acting.

Cultural sensitivity

Brands sometimes attempt to capitalize on popular catch phrases that originate as part of the signature voice of minority groups. The sting that such groups feel is intensified when this cultural exploitation occurs amidst ongoing discrimination against such groups, especially by the cultural appropriating brand. For instance, after a black rapper called Meghan the Stallion coined the term 'hot girl Summer' in 2019, it became popular, motivating millions of social media users to join her 'hot girl Summer movement'. in July of that same year when a customer of the fast food chain, Wendy's commented on liking one of their drinks, Wendy's tweeted that that drink was the 'official drink of hot girl Summer'. However, the black community had experienced incidents of racial intimidation by that brand's representatives within recent history. One such incident includes when some Wendy's employees slipped a racist note (with the word 'niggar') into a black 7-year old's kid's meal package and then initially put the mother out of the restaurant when she complained to management.

Brands should encourage creators to research words, sayings, movements and concepts thoroughly before applying them to branding material. 

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND PERSONALITY - VOICE & TONE

Branding

Brand style guidelines 101

Communication style guidelines - Mailchimp

Communication style analysis - Coca Cola

Social media 101

Brand voice - taglines

Brand personality

Brand positioning, strategy

Brand awareness strategy

Social media content management: Content planning involves first understanding your target customer. This includes preferences regarding how you sell to him or her (aka the 'buying personality' type). In turn, this should inform your brand and tone.