15 Brand Voice Examples You Must Know to Inspire Your Own

• Read original article here

One of the goals of branding is to create a unique brand voice that stands out from competitors. 

After all, in today’s competitive business world, it can be easy to get lost in the noise, which could lead to you losing out on business and revenue as customers go towards other companies. 

While you may know that a brand voice is an important tool to have in order to create well-rounded branding in your company, you might not know where to begin. 

Thankfully, there are plenty of brand voice examples from other brands that you can use to inspire your brand voice creation. 

In this article, we’ll go over some of the best, most effective brand voice examples from top companies and see how they create a unique voice that works for their messaging.

Before we can dive into brand voice examples, you first need to understand what a brand voice is. 

A brand voice is the distinct personality that a brand has in the communication and connections it creates with customers. 

That means that a brand voice might not be in all marketing or sales materials, but will appear in any content that directly addresses consumers. 

Having a unique brand voice helps companies stand out on social media platforms and in their consumer marketing. It helps to create consistency in your messaging and communications. 

Typically, brand voice examples begin with several descriptive words that work together to create the unique brand personality. 

A brand voice might be “powerful and uplifting”, “professional and educational”, or “fun and off-the-cuff”. 

Determining what your own brand voice should be depends strongly on what type of relationship you want to have with customers. 

To help you begin, let’s take a look at 15 brand voice examples that cover a wide variety of personalities.

The beauty and self-care brand Dove is most well known for its uplifting and powerful brand voice that encourages customers to embrace their inner beauty. 

The brand voice works to build awareness of body positivity, female empowerment, and self-love. 

By creating such a powerful message in the communication Dove has with customers, the brand is able to promote its products and reinforce its values.

Mailchimp, a popular platform for email marketing, has a brand voice that is amusing and informal. 

This might seem like it doesn’t fit with their SaaS platform, but it actually creates a unique connection to customers and uses off-beat humor and genuine messaging to connect on a personal level to their audiences. 

However, Mailchimp also emphasizes that jokes in messaging and communication should come naturally, rather than be forced to happen.

Nike, the sporting goods brand, is perhaps most well known for its effective tagline of “Just Do It”. 

The brand voice follows along with that message by being confident and assertive. The communication and messaging from Nike are simple, effective, and to the point. 

Rather than obfuscate the point with wordy descriptions, Nike instead uses its efficient messaging and brand voice to encourage audiences to go for their goals and never give up.

Coffee giant Starbucks uses a functional yet expressive tone in their brand voice that helps to simplify their messaging while expressively telling their story with coffee and helping prepare customers to enjoy what is to come. 

This helps to strengthen the connection customers have with the product while still making their copy and communications simple and clear, avoiding any confusion and making it simple for customers to make a purchase.

When thinking of brand voice examples, most people would assume the word “aggressive” never really comes up. 

However, the motorcycle company Harley-Davidson demonstrates that for the right audience and product there isn’t any descriptive word that can’t work. 

The brand uses a somewhat aggressive and confident brand voice to emphasize the power of the product and challenges audiences to be bold enough to purchase it. 

While not for every brand, it works well for Harley-Davidson audiences.

Coca-cola is a major leader in the beverages industry, and has had the same brand voice for over a century, making it a great brand voice example of consistency over time. 

Coca-Cola has a brand voice that focuses on positivity and friendliness. 

Their marketing and messaging are full of examples of happy lives made better with a drink of Coke, which over time has helped to build a strong connection between the product and good times.

Tiffany, the luxury jewelry industry giant, has a witty and elegant brand voice that emphasizes the classic experience people relate the brand with. 

Tiffany uses simple, clear, and concise messaging to get its point across and help cultivate the elegance of the brand. 

People who connect with the brand voice are much more willing to pay the prices of Tiffany to connect with that brand voice than other competitors who aren’t as well-known.

Spotify, a music streaming company, has a brand voice that is funny, direct, and concise. 

Rather than taking itself too seriously, Spotify plays up the humor of different playlists, music genres, and new releases. 

Spotify uses this brand voice to connect with customers in a casual and friendly manner, helping to build a positive association between the brand and its audiences.

As one of the biggest names in the rideshare industry, Uber’s brand voice is considerate and bold, focusing on the audience while making clear statements. 

Uber wants to address the customer directly, asking where they are going and encouraging them to order a ride while still making their copy and communications easy to understand and compelling across different areas and languages.

In contrast, Slack, the workplace communication tool, has a very neutral, direct, and straightforward brand voice. 

Rather than trying to play up humor or create witty anecdotes, Slack uses its direct brand voice to help remind customers of the value of efficiency and work, which helps to promote the value of the tool itself. 

By keeping their communication simple and avoiding distractions, Slack emphasizes why its product is important in the workplace.

Old Spice, a men’s deodorant company, has one of the more recognizable brand voices by design. 

Old Spice was rebranded in 2010 once it started to get more competition. The brand voice of Old Spice is both masculine and humorous, often exaggerating masculinity to have a humorous effect. 

This combination, along with clever video marketing, helped to make the brand stand out and become a household name once again.

Duolingo is a language-learning app, but you might not know that from the brand voice. 

It has a wacky and out-of-pocket brand voice that embraces the antics of its green owl mascot, Duo. 

Ever since the owl became a meme for the somewhat aggressive reminders that the app sends, the brand has embraced that and often uses darkly humorous threats and antics to play up the humor of the situation and create a truly unique brand voice.

Skittles is one of the best brand voice examples that takes humor and irreverence to another level.

The candy company is incredibly clever and original, often using social media to post funny polls, mischievous behind-the-scenes pleas, and other examples of fresh and exciting content that plays up the fun elements of the product. 

Skittles will often post directly about their main competitor, M&Ms, and find ways to make the rivalry fun.

Fitbit is a health brand known for its smartwatches and health tracking tools. 

The brand voice of Fitbit is encouraging and inspirational, helping to uplift customers and encourage them to live healthier lives. 

Rather than being in-your-face and bold like many health and wellness companies, Fitbit instead uses its brand voice to appeal to audiences regardless of ability and helps encourage them to try new things while supporting them with messages of comfort.

HubSpot is a marketing, sales, and service software company that has an optimistic and positive brand voice. 

They encourage their customers to improve their business with a brand voice that encourages growth and hope. 

By pushing the message that improvement is possible, they create a strong association between their brand and the products that they offer to customers.

Having a distinct brand voice helps you cut through the competition and create a memorable, enjoyable experience for your audiences. 

And, with so many different directions you can take brand voice, there will always be brand voice examples that can help inspire you to find the voice that works best for your brand.

A brand voice is only part of a company’s brand identity. 

To learn more about what constitutes it and why it matters, check out our blog on brand identity. 

There you’ll learn the key steps to creating a strong brand identity and get some helpful examples of what brand identities have been most successful among top brands!