BRAND VOICE: HOW AUTHENTIC IS YOUR PERSONAL BRAND?
“Your voice is your thumbprint to the world, a calling card to tell who you are, and the most crucial element in your personal brand.
Brand Voice helps you stand out from the crowd, put at play a compelling story that shows your core values. Doing so puts your brand on top of your audience's mind.
It’s impossible to have a distinct personality without a distinct brand voice, without it, your brand becomes generic and dull.?
"I'm an email marketer and we provide great ideas for your business."
"We provide the best service for click funnels and website creation."
"I'm a financial coach and I can help you move towards financial freedom."
To be fair, the examples above mentioned what they do, but brand voice is more than just listing what you do and how you can help.
And what makes a brand memorable is when the brand voice hits the right notes and you feel like you both know each other.
Since we’re talking about personal brand, let’s start with the known speaker of our time.
Martin Luther King, Jr
Martin Luther King’s famous, I have a dream speech, in which he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Martin Luther King was fighting for the rights of the negro community, for their civil rights and to free millions of Negro slaves from withering injustice.?
It is through his brand voice that he shares this message and needs to change with strong conviction and passion.
Not just he share his passion, but this message resonates with his own personal brand because he went through it.
Because of this familiar relatability, people built an emotional bond with it.
Steve Jobs
Apple’s Steve Jobs used to say: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet -- keep looking.”
Steve Jobs was an innovative thinker who stepped outside the confinement of society.
According to an Inc. cover story from October 1981, Jobs mentioned that he envisioned a future with computer on every worker’s desk, a progressive culture where technology creates more opportunities for employees and a workplace without secretaries.?
His passion for technology just oozes as he market Apple, he knows and shares that work is a big part of people’s lives, hence, he advocates for people to follow their own passion.?
The way he positioned Apple as a product that passionate people use is amazing.
He crafted a way to market the brand, Apple products as the technology to keep you inspired.?
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Both individuals are visionary thinkers — one in a humanitarian way, and one through the use and advancement of technology.?
There’s a level of emotional bond that brand voice creates, and it goes beyond the words said, and is merely influenced by your PASSION, PURPOSE and ADVOCACY.
And it will always be like that regardless how and where it is communicated, and even if the situation changes, the brand voice remains the same.?
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“Don’t just listen to the words, listen to the intent.”
It helps your customer (or audience) to get a feel of your core values, the mission of your company, how the stories are communicated and even to how the main central message is promoted.
When you have a distinct voice that helps humanize your brand, you start to bridge in the trust, and is often established through the shared values. Here’s a few reason why having a strong brand voice sets you apart:
Living an authentic personality means fiercely staying true to your roots, hardship, and values.
The need to satisfy and please everybody, or look eye-to-eye with a competitor falls out of the list because that is NOT a great way to showcase your brand voice as authentic.
An authentic brand has the ability to dominate a field and industry, and be known by its audiences since it just stands out.
How the brand voice is targeted to a specific interest of a group of people.
How it is communicated to influence and spark people's inactive desire.
Brand Voice does not just go for Individual People and their Personal Brand, but a strategy that is also played out by big brands and businesses. One is the clothing line, DIESEL and the imaginative land of LEGO.
DIESEL
The brand portrays very rebellious visuals, its tone of voice is bold and daring, and often leads to disruption.?
For the brand voice of Diesel, risky and adventurous. If you were thinking of doing something you shouldn't, Diesel would be the daring voice saying “Do It”.
LEGO
If you’ve heard of the phrase, “you can’t please everyone” then you haven’t heard of Lego. Lego is a brand that is well loved by the majority since it plays in a world of fantasy and creativity for kids, young and adults.?
You can imagine how their brand voice is shared, most often fun-loving with characteristics of creativity (on a broader scale since they market a variety of themes of pop culture)?
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A strong, and authentic brand voice serves as your unique personality that can be shared to the world.?
So whether you are a brand, freelancer, an entrepreneur or a jobseeker — you got to be aware of the impact of your brand voice.
Master the craft of how you connect to your audience on a personal (and emotional) level, and this is also how you get to spotlight your influence.
Remember: Your brand voice is what makes you sound human, it sits at the core of the relationship between you and your customer.
Your audiences are looking for differentiated experiences from your brand to another.?
They want brands that they can connect with.
The need to leverage finding and crafting your own brand voice to build and have a meaningful connection with your audience has begun to become more impactful (and influential) than ever.
“The brands that speak to everyone speak to no one.” - Morgan Brown, VP of Marketing, Shopify
Above & Beyond,