什么是品牌声音？数字营销终极指南

品牌声音是您的品牌在所有渠道和接触点使用的一致个性、语调和沟通风格，使您与竞争对手区分开来，并与受众建立真实的关系。

Content and Creative

But when the digital marketplace is flooded with brands, a strong brand voice is no longer just a nice extra, it's a must if you want to truly differentiate yourself and create the kind of emotional connection with your customers that leads people to talk about you. Research by Lucidpress (now Marq) and Demand Metric found that organizations attribute an average revenue increase of 23% to always presenting their brand consistently (2016), and in Edelman's 2019 research, 81% of consumers said they must be able to trust a brand to do what is right. Your brand voice is what delivers that trust and recognition, and the substantive business results.

Peeling Back the Layers of Brand Voice

Brand voice is rooted in classic brand personality theory, much of it shaped by Jennifer Aaker's landmark 1997 study "Dimensions of Brand Personality," published in the Journal of Marketing Research while she was at UCLA. Aaker identified five core dimensions of brand personality: Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness, which remain a widely used framework for describing a brand's character.

Your brand voice is nothing more than how those personality traits are spoken aloud. If brand personality is the what, brand voice is the how. It's injecting personality into your customer touch points.

The fundamentals of brand voice

A brand voice is an investment for a reason, because it's not just one thing, but rather, an amalgamation of some key parts that add up to something greater than the sum of its parts.

It begins with personality traits and these human-like characteristics that your brand conveys: friendly, authoritative, playful, empathetic. These features should of course be aligned with your company values and purpose.

Syntax and vocabulary also create proprietary elements by incorporating the words, phrases, and language patterns that are yours and yours alone. This could be everything from contractions and jargon you use to your sentence structure and preferred ways of phrasing yourself.

Your communication style is how you do the talking, are you serious or laid back, formal or informal, direct or indirect? That should match your audience and that should also fit with your brand's personality.

Values expression is about making your core company values evident in your approach to communications, and about your realness and true character for people to feel and relate to, rather than reading mere words on a webpage.

Brand voice vs. other terms: Let's clear up some confusion

For many marketers, brand voice, brand tone, and brand personality can sometimes be a fuzzy concept in their minds. But here's how they do, in fact, work in harmony:

Your brand voice is your constant personality. It's your brand being, communicated.

Brand tone is what you do with that voice: how you may adjust it according to what's happening, who you're speaking to or where you're making your statement. Those primary voice characteristics behave the same if you're crafting a casual social media post or a serious press release.

Brand personality is the set of human personality traits that are attributed to your brand, and this can be the building blocks for making voice and tone decisions.

Think of it like this: If your brand were a person, the personality would represent basic character traits, the voice would be your individuality, and the tone would be the way you might change your style of talking depending on who you are talking to, such as formal speech at work and casual talk with friends.

Brand voice winners: expert examples

While it's easy to get the concept of brand voice, it's by watching it happening in real-time when you start to see the clearest picture of how it drives the needle. Here are four U.S. brands that nailed the distinctive brand voice.

Nike: motivation's champion in changing markets

The brand voice of Nike is urgent, encouraging, aspirational and intended to inspire both world class athletes and regular folks to push beyond their limits. It is distilled in their iconic three-word slogan, "Just Do It," which made its debut in 1988.

Voice in action: Nike's product descriptions focus on empowerment, and its campaigns carry the same voice. The 2018 ad featuring Colin Kaepernick, "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything," shows that Nike's uplifting tone holds even on controversial topics.

Cross-channel consistency: Whether you're perusing their website copy, scrolling through their social media, or watching a Nike ad on TV, the brand's voice is always about overcoming odds and reaching for greatness. And that continuity also extends to the athletes they pair with, the endorsers they sign like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, LeBron James who personify this empowering message.

Business impact: After the "Just Do It" campaign launched in 1988, Nike's worldwide sales grew from $877 million to $9.2 billion in 1998, and its share of the North American sport-shoe business rose from 18% to 43%. The often-quoted current figures (about 41% of the U.S. athletic footwear market and a brand worth over $34 billion) come from secondary sources and could not be confirmed from a primary source.

Southwest Airlines: live human connections in a business environment

The brand of Southwest Airlines has evolved around a warm, friendly and genuinely human voice that is in total opposition to the cold, institutional airline status quo.

Voice in action: Southwest puts this into practice every day. Its long-standing mission statement reads: "Dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit." Its communications return to that idea again and again.

Outstanding execution: Southwest protected its voice by establishing a 30-person "Social Business" department in 2015 to keep communication consistent across channels. It also introduced its own Southwest Sans typeface with its 2014 brand refresh to express its personality visually.

Tangible results: Southwest ranked highest in customer satisfaction in J.D. Power's economy/basic economy segment for a third consecutive year in 2024, and earlier MBLM Brand Intimacy reports named it the most intimate brand in the travel industry three years in a row. That consistency of voice helped it stand out among low-cost carriers.

Wendy's: That smart-alecky swagger that's killing it on social media

Wendy's has built a brand voice that is sassy, clever and confidently competitive, the kind of voice that Kristin Tormey, Wendy's director of brand engagement strategy, describes as "that little sister that's going to tell it like it is."

Voice in action: Wendy's social brand earned a cult following for snarky roasts of competitors and snappy replies to customers. It also creates viral moments of its own: the #NuggsForCarter request in 2017 became the most-retweeted post in Twitter history at the time, with more than 3.4 million retweets (a record later surpassed in 2019).

Strategic execution: Wendy's empowers a core team of five social media staffers to make quick decisions about content while always staying on brand. The often-quoted claim that the team responds to 99% of tweets within 24 hours could not be traced to a source.

Business transformation: This voice-led approach accompanied six consecutive years of same-store sales growth in the highly competitive QSR category, and Wendy's took the No. 1 spot in the Social Media category of Fast Company's 2019 Most Innovative Companies list (as described in a sponsored FastCo Works article).

Mailchimp: trusted conversational guidance

Mailchimp forged a plainspoken, authentic and gently humorous brand persona that made email marketing feel more welcoming than daunting.

Voice traits: Mailchimp's public Content Style Guide describes its voice in short statements such as "We are plainspoken," "We are genuine" and "Our humor is dry," adding: "We prefer the subtle over the noisy, the wry over the farcical." The brand aims to support and educate its users.

Consistency: From error messages, to UI copy, to social media content, Mailchimp continues to use the same, friendly, helpful voice, just with the dial turned up or down for different use cases. Their extensive public voice guidelines is a model for other companies.

Customer insight: The often-quoted TrustRadius praise for Mailchimp ("easy to navigate," "reliable and consistent," 4 out of 5) could not be found on Mailchimp's TrustRadius review page. Its voice did help guide users as Mailchimp grew from a basic emailing tool into an all-in-one marketing platform.

The business case: How brand voice leads to tangible results

Investing in a strong brand voice can pay off across several business dimensions, supported by research from consulting firms and academics.

Revenue and growth impact

Lucidpress (now Marq) has tracked this for years: in its 2016 study with Demand Metric, organizations attributed an average revenue increase of 23% to consistent brand presentation, and Marq's more recent research puts the expected increase at 10-20%. Brand voice is a major piece of that consistency.

McKinsey reports that marketers can achieve a 15 to 20 percent lift in marketing ROI through full-funnel strategies that shift spend toward higher-return channels and test and learn (2021). When your brand voice is true to itself, your marketing message carries further and needs less frequency to make an impact.

Customer loyalty and lifetime value

Trust is still a major driver of buying decisions: in Edelman's 2019 "In Brands We Trust?" report, 81% said they must be able to trust the brand to do what is right. The often-quoted claim that 46% of consumers will pay premium prices for brands they trust, up from 30% in 2021, could not be traced to a source.

The effect on loyalty is even more striking. Motista research (2018) found that consumers with an emotional connection to a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value than merely satisfied customers; the figure is often misattributed to Harvard Business Review. Your brand voice is key to building those emotional connections at scale.

Brand recognition and differentiation

A consistent, distinctive voice can strengthen brand recall, although the often-quoted claim that it can boost recall by as much as 80%, attributed to Nielsen, could not be traced to a source. In a crowded digital climate, any recognition edge helps you cut through the noise.

Most importantly perhaps, Qualtrics cites research in which 33% of consumers said a distinct personality is what makes a brand stand out on social media; the figure is not on the SurveyMonkey page it is often attributed to. Because brand voice is how you share that personality, it is one of the best ways to set yourself apart in busy markets.

Marketing efficiency gains

McKinsey's performance branding research found marketing efficiency gains of up to 30% from data-driven marketing (2020); no Deloitte source for this figure was found. A well-defined brand voice used consistently makes content production more efficient, message testing more targeted and campaign performance more predictable.

And the stronger your brand voice, the lower your customer acquisition costs will be, due to natural word-of-mouth and retention. When people can clearly see and relate to the personality behind your brand, they're more likely to go from satisfied customers to advocates who refer business.

Brand voice FAQs

What's the actual difference between brand voice and brand tone?

Brand voice is your unwavering personality, it never changes. Brand tone is the way you take that personality and use it in different situations and channels. Voice is your character's heart, and tone is how your character acts in a particular environment. You may be more casual on Instagram and more professional on LinkedIn, but your core personality traits should be consistent across both platforms.

How many voice attributes should we define for our brand?

3-5 core characteristics work best. Too few and you risk not being different enough from competitors, or too many becomes heavy and a burden to maintain. An attribute should be precise and action-oriented, and not generic. Rather than just using the word "friendly" identify the type of friendly, "neighborhood coffee shop friendly" compared to "best friend friendly."

Should our brand voice be the same in all marketing channels?

Your core voice should be the same, but tone can change based on the situation. Your core traits should be recognizable no matter when someone encounters you, on TikTok, on LinkedIn, in customer service emails. But of course, you'll adjust what you say to fit the culture of each platform and the expectations your audience has there.

How do we ensure voice consistency when content is published by more than one person?

Develop detailed procedures and examples, provide regular training and implement a review process. Everyone who publishes customer-facing content should know your voice guidelines. Provide positive examples of your voice and "anti-examples" that show what to avoid. For a lot of companies, it turns out anti-examples are actually more useful for guiding uniformity.

How frequently should we assess and refresh our brand voice?

Review every three months for small adjustments, every year for major evaluation, and at strategic inflection points. Language is ever changing, and your voice should too, while retaining its essence. If it's a major shift in your brand, the passing of a leader, or a dramatic change in target audience, you may need to execute an entirely new iteration.

We're in a formal industry, how can we bring personality into that?

Absolutely possible. There can even be ways for highly regulated, traditionally formal industries to inject warmth and humanity. The trick is to find your comfort zone of personality without crossing into unprofessional or non-regulatory territory. Slack successfully brought warmth to B2B software communication, financial services companies such as Charles Schwab have maintained approachable voices within the confines of regulation.

How do we measure if our brand voice is effective?

Track engagement metrics, run customer sentiment surveys, A/B test various voice styles, and check social listening for brand sentiment. Look for increased brand awareness and better engagement rates about your communications. You're successful when people recognize your content without seeing a logo.

What is the biggest brand voice development mistake companies make?

Using abstract, meaningless terms without getting into actual implementation. Most brands want to be "friendly and professional," but this makes you look like every other company out there. The trick is to get specific about what friendly looks like in your version of the world, and define it with concrete examples and clear boundaries.

Related Terms

Brand Positioning - Strategic process of establishing brand's unique place and differentiation in market
Brand Identity - Visual and verbal elements including logo, colors, typography representing brand
Content Marketing - Creating valuable content to attract and engage target audience
Marketing Automation - Technology automating repetitive marketing tasks that agencies use to scale client campaigns efficiently

Expert insights and best practices

Successful brand voice development requires strategic thought and authentic delivery, top marketing professionals stress.

i

"Above all, managers must believe in the power of brands. Ultimately, brands are built by people who passionately believe in their brands."

Tim Calkins, Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, in Kellogg on Branding (2005)

i

Editorial summary, not a quotation: Kellogg on Branding, which Tybout co-edited with Tim Calkins, argues that brand builders understand and believe in the power of brands.

Alice M. Tybout, Harold T. Martin Professor of Marketing, now Professor Emerita, at Kellogg

i

"In today's hyper-connected digital landscape, brand voice has become the ultimate differentiator. Companies that master authentic, consistent voice across all touchpoints don't just build customers, they build communities. Since 2008, I've seen brands rise and fall based purely on how well they communicate their true personality."

Tessar Napitupulu, Founder and CEO of Arfadia

Seven best practices for brand voice success

1. Ensure voice is reflective of real company values and mission. Instead of trying to take on trendy communication styles that don't click with your culture, go back to your company's core purpose. Lauren Naturale, social media manager at the nonprofit Tides, told HubSpot: "You cannot take a values-based approach to marketing if your company is not actually living or enacting those values in any meaningful way."

2. Go with specific descriptions rather than generic adjectives. Select 3-5 voice attributes that are specific enough to inform content creation. Instead of just "authentic," describe what authentic looks like for your brand: using real customer stories, keeping corporate speak at bay, even admitting when you don't know something.

3. Create detailed guidance with positive and negative examples. Record both what your voice sounds like and what it most definitely doesn't sound like. Most companies realize that showing what NOT to do is actually more informative for their team to maintain consistency versus positive examples alone.

4. Train everyone who is customer-facing, not just marketing. Brand voice training should also apply to customer service, sales, social media managers, and anyone else who speaks with customers. Lack of voice consistency between touchpoints confuses customers and undermines trust.

5. Create tone frameworks for various contexts with consistent voice. Develop guidelines for how to adapt your tone for particular circumstances, more informal for social media, more empathetic for customer support communications, more formal for press releases, while maintaining the recognizable core elements of your personality.

6. Regularly audit and optimize for voice and performance. Review quarterly to check your content for voice consistency and effectiveness. Study your most successful content to find voice patterns that are most appealing for your audience.

7. Test and iterate against real customer feedback. User interviews and customer surveys are the best way to determine whether your voice is resonant. A/B test different voice styles, and make decisions based on data, not internal opinions.

Common issues that prevent brand voice from being effective

Don't imitate viral trends without knowing your audience. Many brands try to utilize Gen Z slang or phrases that are trending without proper understanding of the culture and end up getting hit with authenticity backlash. Gen Z consumers have an especially keen eye for inauthentic brand messages.

Don't trade message clarity for personality. People are often so focused on being funny or quirky that they forget to communicate their message. Ryan Shattuck, who ran Dictionary.com's social media, tested posts with two questions: "Is this post educational? Is it entertaining?" Substance matters as much as style.

Avoid the temptation to play it too safe with corporate language. Many people are afraid of making mistakes and end up with stilted impersonal conversations that have no emotional impact. Find a tone level where personality can be injected while maintaining professionalism.

Don't assume internal teams will know how voice will be perceived externally. What sounds genius in company meetings can sometimes fall flat with real customers. Voice perception testing and regular customer feedback sessions avoid internal echo chambers.

Developing Your Brand Voice: A Practical How-To Guide

When it comes to creating that successful brand voice, you need to be methodical rather than just hoping personality will spring up naturally from your content process.

Begin with solid foundational research by articulating your mission, vision and core values and richly detailed buyer personas that look beyond demographics to understand communication preferences, values and pain points. Leverage social listening tools to learn how your audience actually talks and what speaks to them.

Audit existing communications by collecting examples from all channels and gathering your top performing content to review what voice attributes are already at work. Take note of inconsistencies among channels and creators to see what needs improvement.

Define 3-5 specific voice traits with detailed description of each voice trait as it looks in practice. List both the positive traits and some "We are NOT" statements to make boundaries clear. For example: "Authentic: we share real customer stories, are free of corporate jargon and don't pretend to have all the answers. We are NOT: overly casual, unprofessional, nor are we flippant about serious matters."

Produce comprehensive guidelines that encompass voice attributes and explanations, dos and don'ts with examples, platform nuances, word choice and phrase preferences, and anti-patterns of what not to do.

Train and launch incrementally by training all applicable team members, keeping easy-access reference materials, and piloting the program with smaller projects to monitor effectiveness, then developing review and approval processes for consistent application.

Always monitor and refine by measuring against performance criteria and responses, auditing brand voice quarterly, adapting guidelines based on usage and brand evolution, and keeping team sharp by providing regular refresh training.

The Value of Authentic Brand Voice

As the digital marketplace becomes more crowded, brand voice has shifted from nice-to-have to business must-have. The brands that make it are the ones that cultivate a unique, authentic voice that truly serves their customers, one that is consistent with their company's actual values and mission.

Philip Kotler, longtime S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Kellogg, often called "the father of modern marketing", put it this way: "The art of marketing is largely the art of brand building." (Kotler, 1999)

Your brand voice stops you from being a commodity. This is what drives customers to choose your product or service over a competitor's, even if that product or service is essentially the same as what the competitor offers. It's what fosters the emotional connections that inspire loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals and premium pricing power.

The evidence is clear: companies with a strong and authentic brand voice achieve measurable business success such as revenue growth, customer loyalty, greater brand recognition and more efficient marketing performance. The operative word is authentic, it should truthfully reflect your company's true self, not what you think you should be.

The brands that are thriving in today's market are not the ones with the wittiest copywriters or the biggest budgets. They are the ones who have the clearest sense of who they are and the most consistency around expressing that through every customer touch point. Your brand voice is the way you transmit that identity at scale, making it one of your most strategic assets.

The question is not whether you need a brand voice, you already have one, whether you have consciously thought it through or not. The question is whether you are going to cultivate it strategically to achieve a business outcome, or let it happen by chance. In a world where consumers have unlimited options and ever-shortening attention spans, that's a risk few businesses can afford.