Branded Content: Discover Your Brand Personality and Voice

Crafting a strong brand personality is essential for standing out in today’s crowded digital landscape. By defining your brand’s unique traits, tone of voice, and language, you can build an emotional connection with your target audience and create consistent, engaging content across all your social media channels.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key steps to define your brand personality, voice, and tone – from choosing three core adjectives to establishing comprehensive language guidelines. We’ll also share examples of successful brand personalities and provide tips to help you bring your brand to life with an authentic, memorable voice.

What is Brand Personality

If your brand was a person, what kind of personality do you think they would have? This concept of brand personality is a crucial aspect of branding that helps build an emotional connection with customers and differentiate your brand in a crowded market.

Brand personality refers to the set of human characteristics and traits that are associated with a brand. It encompasses the brand’s tone of voice, core values, beliefs, and visual identity. 

By defining and consistently expressing a unique personality, brands can enhance their image, positioning and communication.

A strong brand personality can:

• Make your brand stand out from competitors
• Develop an emotional bond with customers
• Enhance your brand’s image and positioning
• Improve how you communicate with your target audience
• Make it easier to create consistent content and communication. 

The most widely-used model for brand personality was developed by marketing researcher Jennifer Aaker in the 1990’s. Similar to the Big Five human personality traits, Aaker identified five key dimensions of brand personality:

• Sincerity – down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful
• Excitement – daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date
• Competence – reliable, intelligent, successful
• Sophistication – glamorous, charming, upper class
• Ruggedness – outdoorsy, tough

Brand personality examples & key traits

The concept of brand personality is about giving your brand human-like traits and qualities that make it feel more personal and relatable to your target audience. 

However, brands don’t have to fit into just one personality type. In fact, some of the most compelling brands are multidimensional – they embody a mix of different characteristics that make them more engaging and three-dimensional.

So when defining your brand personality, don’t feel limited. Think about the combination of traits that will resonate best with your audience and make your brand stand out. This could be a blend of rugged toughness and refined sophistication. Or sincere, down-to-earth honesty combined with proven competence. You could even add a dash of exciting edginess if it fits your brand.

The key is to get creative and have fun bringing your brand to life with a personality that’s authentic to who you are and what you represent. 

Let’s look at some examples to spark ideas:

Excitement

Exciting brands like Starbucks, Coca Cola and Nike are playful, imaginative, energetic, and modern. They seek to inspire their audience and evoke a sense of fun and adventure through their branding.

✅ Key traits of exciting brands:

• Spirited
• Young
• Unique
• Trendy
• Adventurous
• Imaginative

Sincerity

Sincere brands like Hallmark, Dove, and Amazon are perceived as authentic, honest, and down-to-earth. They aim to build trust and emotional connections by sharing meaningful stories, demonstrating transparency, and communicating in a warm, relatable manner.

✅ Key traits of sincere brands:

• Honest
• Wholesome
• Cheerful
• Family-oriented
• Small-town
• Genuine

Competence

Competent brands including Microsoft, AT&T, Google, Apple and Mercedes are perceived as reliable, successful, and knowledgeable experts in their respective fields. They aim to project an image of capability, efficiency, and trustworthiness.

✅ Key traits of competent brands:

• Reliable
• Intelligent
• Successful
• Secure
• Hardworking
• Corporate

Ruggedness

Rugged brands like Timberland and Jeep have an honest and active personality. They are associated with durability, toughness, and an outdoorsy, adventurous lifestyle. These brands appeal to consumers seeking products and experiences that can withstand the rigors of an active, outdoor-oriented lifestyle.

✅ Key traits of rugged brands:

• Outdoorsy
• Masculine
• Tough
• Rugged
• Sturdy
• Earthy

Sophistication

Sophisticated brands like Chanel, Rolex, and Tesla exude elegance, exclusivity, and refinement. They target consumers who appreciate the finer things in life and seek to associate themselves with prestige and status.

✅ Key traits of sophisticated brands:

• Charming
• Glamorous
• Upper class
• Good-looking
• Feminine/Masculine
• Prestigious

Edginess

Edgy brands like Duolingo and Wendy’s have embraced a bold, irreverent personality on social media that doesn’t fit neatly into Jennifer Aaker’s five core brand personality dimensions. These brands are young and modern. They’re unafraid to engage with trends and current events in ways that may push the boundaries of appropriateness. to create viral content and stand out in a crowded digital landscape.

✅ Key traits of edgy brands: 

• Witty
• Sarcastic
• Humorous
• Bold
• Youthful
• Cool

How to Define Brand Tone and Language

Now that you’ve established your brand’s desired personality, it’s time to determine the specific language and tone to use in your social media content. This is critical for conveying your brand’s unique identity and building a connection with your audience.

Language refers to the specific word choices you’ll use in your social media posts, comments, replies, and profile information.

Tone is the general vibe or feeling that people get from your brand’s communication. Is it playful and casual, or more formal and serious?

Here are some key steps to define your brand’s tone and language:

1. Describe Your Brand Voice in 3 Words

Defining your brand voice in just three words is a powerful exercise that helps distill the essence of how you want your brand to communicate.

Choosing three adjectives to describe your brand voice serves several key purposes:

1. It forces you to prioritize and focus on the most essential aspects of your desired communication style. With limited space, you can’t include every nuance – you have to hone in on the core elements.
2. The three words become a memorable shorthand for your brand voice. They act as a quick reference point and guiding principle for content creators.
3. The adjectives you choose set the tone for your brand’s language and tone across all touchpoints. They influence everything from the specific words you use to the overall vibe you convey.

Examples: 

Here are some examples of strong 3-word brand voices and why they work:

• “Passionate, quirky, authentic” – This voice is engaging, memorable, and human. It suggests a brand that is enthusiastic, a bit playful, and true to itself.
• “Empowering, bold, inclusive” – This voice is inspiring, confident, and welcoming. It implies a brand that champions people and embraces diversity.
• “Refined, elegant, timeless” – This voice is sophisticated, poised, and enduring. It suggests a brand with classic style and quality.

Tips for choosing your 3 brand words: 

Here are some tips to help you choose the perfect 3-word brand voice:

• Refer back to your brand personality – Choose words that align with and reinforce the key traits you identified earlier.
• Consider your target audience – Select words that will resonate with and appeal to the people you’re trying to reach.
• Aim for contrast and balance – Having one word that contrasts with the other two can add depth and interest. For example, “sophisticated, playful, honest.”
• Test the words out – Try using the 3 words to write some sample social media posts. Do they work well in practice?

2. Create a Brand Voice Chart

After you’ve defined your brand’s core voice in 3 words, the next step is to create a more detailed Brand Voice Chart. This chart serves as a comprehensive reference guide for your content team, ensuring consistent brand communication across all touchpoints.

Start by listing out the 3 adjectives you chose to describe your brand voice. These will be the main focal points of your chart. For each trait, provide a brief 1-2 sentence explanation that captures the essence of what that word means for your brand. This helps give context and clarity. 

💡 For example, if one of your traits is “approachable”: 

“Approachable: Our brand voice should feel warm, friendly, and accessible. We want customers to feel like they’re talking to a knowledgeable friend, not a faceless corporation.”

Under each trait, include 2-3 specific examples of how that voice should come across in your actual social media content. This could include:

• Sample social post copy
• Tone of voice in customer service replies
• Language used in brand bios or descriptions

Finally, for each trait, list 2-3 things that would be considered off-brand or inconsistent with that particular voice. This helps your team steer clear of undesirable communication styles. For example, under “approachable”, you might list:

• Overly formal or stuffy language
• Excessive use of industry jargon
• Impersonal, robotic responses

3. Establish Language Guidelines

In addition to defining your overall brand voice, it’s important to establish specific language guidelines that reinforce your desired tone and communication style. These guidelines help ensure consistency in the words, phrases, and writing techniques used across all your social media content.

Preferred words and phrases

Compile a list of words, idioms, and expressions that align with your brand voice. These should be the go-to options for your content creators. Decide whether industry-specific terminology and jargon should be used sparingly, or avoided altogether in favor of more accessible language.

For example, if your brand voice is “friendly and approachable”, you might include phrases like:

• “Let’s chat about…”
• “We’re here to help!”
• “In our experience…”

Conversely, you’ll also want to identify words and phrases that don’t fit your desired tone, and should be avoided.

Writing style

Outline specific guidelines for the overall writing style you want to cultivate, such as:

• Use of contractions (e.g. “we’re” instead of “we are”)
• Sentence structure (e.g. favoring shorter, more conversational sentences)
• Tone (e.g. casual and conversational vs. formal and academic)
• Voice (e.g. first-person “we/our” vs. third-person “the company”)
• Punctuation (e.g. liberal use of exclamation points to convey enthusiasm)

Formatting choices

Include any specific formatting preferences that support your brand voice, such as:

• Capitalization (e.g. using all lowercase for a youthful, playful vibe)
• Emojis and symbols (e.g. using emojis liberally to add visual personality)
• Paragraph structure (e.g. keeping paragraphs short and concise)

4. Ensure Writers Understand the Brand Voice

Gather your team of writers, social media managers, and any other key content contributors and go over your brand personality, voice, language, and tone. Provide clear explanations and examples of how each element of the brand voice should be brought to life. Encourage questions and discussion to make sure everyone is on the same page.

In addition to the guidelines, share several examples of social media content that you feel perfectly embodies your brand’s desired tone and language. Analyze what makes these posts effective and impactful.

Compile all of the brand voice information – the 3-word description, Brand Voice Chart, language guidelines, and content examples – into a comprehensive brand voice document. This serves as an invaluable resource that your content creators can refer back to whenever they need a refresher, have questions about the appropriate brand voice to use, or are onboarding new team members.

Maintain Brand Consistency with Metricool

Maintaining a consistent brand voice across your social media channels is crucial for building recognition and resonance with your audience. 

Metricool offers several features to help you achieve this:

✅ Content Approval Process: Metricool’s content approval process allows you to assign roles and permissions to team members or clients. This ensures any mistakes or inconsistencies in your brand’s content are caught before publishing, so you can maintain a cohesive personality across all your social media platforms.

✅ AI Social Media Assistant: Metricool’s AI-powered social media assistant can generate content tailored to your brand’s unique tone and voice. By specifying your desired style, tone, and platform requirements, the AI can produce high-quality social media posts that authentically reflect your brand identity.

✅ Canva Integration: Integrating Metricool with Canva allows you to create visual content that aligns with your brand. You can upload your brand kit to Canva, create your content, then schedule these posts directly within the Metricool platform. This helps ensure a consistent look and feel across your social media presence.

With Metricool you can create, schedule, and analyze your content across multiple channels. By using Metricool’s content approval workflows, AI content generation, and Canva integration, you can streamline the creation of branded social media content that maintains a strong, recognizable voice for your business.

Gretchen Oestreicher , 02 July 2024