A while ago, I attended an industry seminar, where industry experts and marketers came together to exchange experiences and thoughts with one another.
One thing I noticed – everyone is concerned about how to get what they want. It’s all about how to reach out to potential customers, the best media channels, the best case studies to learn, ways to optimise their existing assets, etc.
None introspects or questions their brand presence or identity.
I think it’s fine to be outward looking. But the lack of being distinguishable can be more critical in the long run.
And brand presence or identity is beyond a logo, tagline or colour scheme. They are just the representatives of a brand. Eventually, brands need to live up to their belief, promise and values.
Apart from having the right positioning and messaging, tone and manner shape the character of a brand. It articulates what the brand is about. It is an art of communication that marketers always forget or neglect, as well as its consistency to strengthen the brand presence.
In fact, it makes the brand stand out in the overcrowded media space nowadays.
But the challenge is how to be more distinguishable with tone and manner?
Know who you are
In reality, we always thought we know the brand that we are building, but we don’t until we know why the brand exists.
Every brand has a story to tell. It may not be an aspiring one, but it tells who the brand would be if it was a person.
Rediscover the core idea of the brand existence or even when it was incubated in the early stage will give us a better clarity in defining the brand identity.
What was the intention when the brand first started? What are the values and principles that the brand or founder holds? What is the ultimate goal as to why it exists? And how all these translate into a personality and eventually to a tone and manner?
We also always thought this exercise is easy. No, it is not. Especially when it comes to a corporation that exists for decades with different stakeholders, it requires many rounds of conversations and revisions to nail down the idea of why the brand exists. And it’s important, to be honest throughout the process in order to identify the authentic voice for the brand.
Know whom you are talking to
Essentially, tone and manner articulate a brand’s feeling, thinking and intention. It is an art of communication.
Before going into the details, people want to feel resonated and interesting to join in a conversation. Just imagine, when you are in a party, the one that catches our attention usually carries a sense of familiarity and interestingness.
Hence, we have to know whom we are talking to craft the context in the tone and manner that makes the audiences feel resonated. People won’t be interested in what you say until they are intrigued by the way how you say it as it’s not just you who are trying to get their attention. Many other brands too.
Speak like who you are
Once the brand foundation is firm and clear, it’s natural to speak like who you are because you know the brand’s belief, promise and values crystal clear.
At times, some marketers acknowledged that, but it can be daunting to think about owning a voice or character. It is because we know judgement will be made on our actions. That explains why most brands try to show the best and perfect part of it. Just to be safe, you know.
But when everyone tries to be safe, it does not make anyone better than others. Following what others are doing won’t take us anywhere. Instead, it makes brands uninteresting and falls in the risk of sameness. And when brands become less distinguishable, it is difficult to draw people’s attention, to be recognised and remembered.
Well, there is nothing wrong to be mediocrity, like everyone else. It’s just that it takes time to be noticed. And indeed, it diminishes people’s attention as it is not intriguing enough.
So let’s overcome the fear of reflecting the voice or character that speaks for brands. No one is perfect. So do brands. Instead, imperfect makes brands more human. Ultimately, it depends on how we handle the brand communication and brands evolve with time, just like us – grow up with time.
Find the nuances in everything
Nuance will define the composure of the voice of a brand.
It is not just on tone and manner, but the choice of everything – articulation, gesture, mood, tone, feeling, personality, action, words, content, context, visual, photography, video, etc.
It requires a certain degree of sensitivity towards everything in order to identify the nuances.
Unfortunately, it has always been overlooked as we are all in a rush in everything that we do. We are in the pressure to quantify our communication in the short term, rather than qualifying crafting skills as one of the attributions that benefit brands in the longer term. And to speed things up, we make everything into a template as the benchmark for us to follow.
The thing is, when a brand oversees the nuances and the value of content crafting, the brand will be treated just like another brand who is trying to sell its products or services. Nothing interesting.
Remember, brand perception is not built on the products or services you offer, it’s who you are and why you do what you do.