3 Mistakes to Avoid When Crafting a Brand Voice
8 MIN READ
Lifestyle brands are important. We hope you're not sick of hearing it because we never tire of saying it. In a world of continuous, unconscionable commerce, these companies that offer valuable products or services associated with a particular manner of living or identity, often focus on providing a carefully curated experience for their customers, rather than just pushing individual products. They prioritize purpose over everything and seek to reach an audience equally as eager to truly stand for something, be it sustainability, social issues, or all of the above.
No matter the specific industry, an essential element of a successful lifestyle brand is the ability to create that cohesive brand identity. This includes everything—from the design of the products themselves, to the advertising campaigns, to the online voice and overall aesthetic of the brand. It’s a strong brand identity that helps to create a sense of familiarity and trust with customers, allowing a lifestyle brand to stand out in a crowded market.
Arriving at the Point
Had enough exhaustive introductory text? Good—let’s move on to the meat here. A successful lifestyle brand has a strong connection to their customers. This can manifest itself in many ways, like, say, creating a sense of community through events or online groups, providing audiences a holistic customer experience, or engaging with and building meaningful relationships with customers through social media.
In addition to the obvious offering of products or services that speak to the needs and interests of a particular group of people, that cultivation of connection with a consumer online is the most important part of a brand’s image. It’s also the single easiest element to screw up on social media.
Why is brand voice the easiest element to screw up on social media?
The answer is as follows: the key challenge for a lifestyle brand’s social media marketing is maintaining consistency and, even more important, authenticity. Too many brands try to take the quick-and-easy route when it comes to creating an online persona and voice—simply parroting the latest phrases and “trending” tones, rewording generally accepted ideas, and sticking to the most obvious and accessible audience segments.
And all of these things, inevitably, lead to a loss of trust by an audience, not to mention a total indifference to a brand (perhaps the worst fate a company can have in the online age *gasp*).
To help you avoid some of these pitfalls, let’s explore those three mistakes that we referenced above in a bit more detail and what you should be doing instead in order to embody an authentic brand voice that truly resonates with audiences and drives online actions.
TRYING TO SPEAK FLUENT “GEN Z”
We don’t need to put anyone on blast in this blog by dragging out the screenshots of brands (tragically) attempting to appeal to Gen Zers by “adopting” their native tongue, but you’ve definitely seen them out in the wild.
It sounds like an obvious rule-of-thumb, but when you don’t use words like “the ick,” “simp,” or “periodt” in real life, it does not behoove your brand to try and co-opt them as a means of marketing. Case in point: I had to outsource the compiling of those three words because I’m in my late 20s and couldn’t care to be bothered. It’s also worth noting that many of these terms or phrases are appropriated from AAVE (African American Vernacular English) yet their popularity is frequently attributed to white influencers. But that’s for a different blog post.
It’s not hard to sniff out a narc in the feeds of your favorite social platforms, and Gen Z is particularly adept at spotting bullshit online so, please, don’t even try unless you’re fluent in words, phrases, and emojis. Not only does it signal your inability to do the work of crafting a meaningful brand voice that actually has something to say, but it exposes your willingness to misrepresent your brand for the sole purpose of profit.
Instead, allow your brand to be its authentic self. As we saw during the pandemic, content and social copy that is unpolished and emotionally vulnerable outperformed its polished counterparts. In fact, TikTok and Instagram are now seeing a significant uptick in “low-fi” videos, which are garnering the algorithm's highest engagement. Embracing your message without placating a valuable segment of your audience is actually the best way to reach them—and do so effectively.
JUMPING ON THE DIGITAL BAND WAGON
We’re not talking about content trends here. Like it or not, embracing trends and injecting your own brand’s personality into content—be it a video, a social copy convention, or otherwise—is actually one of the best ways to gain traction on the major social platforms. No, what we’re referencing is more of the “hive-mind” variety often found online.
This can be specific to the tone so often found on the social media channels of brands. You know the one: sarcastic, somewhat cynical, usually fishing for easy win by stating sentiments more or less shared by everyone. If it’s especially egregious, it will sometimes be packaged as a rhetorical question.
Take for example the recent ChatGPT conversation online. This is, potentially, a tectonic shift in the digital marketing landscape and guess what? Your tweet claiming “let’s give ChatGPT a chance…P.S. this was definitely not written by AI…” does not offer any valuable commentary on this. Social media managers across the country have strained many an eyeball the past few weeks from non-stop rolling, so please be more thoughtful when contributing to this or any online discussion.
Again, working with lifestyle brands, we are not immune to recommending that these companies use social media to be a part of larger online trends, but we do so very judiciously. If a meme, let’s say, can genuinely be applied to a brand’s offerings and values while taking part in the fun, by all means. If your social team is simply looking for low-hanging engagement opportunities, don’t. Instead put your time and energy into saying something aligned with your brand’s purpose.
Being an authentic brand means being a transparent one. Audiences are more likely to trust and resonate with a social voice that prioritizes originality. So if you’re looking to inject a playful element to your brand’s social channels, go for it, but do the work. No one said social media was easy, and audiences are unlikely to reward a brand that’s just jumping on the bandwagon, avoiding using their voice to stand for something. Even if it is divisive.
DEPRIORITIZING DEI
As a reminder these headlines are the mistakes brands are making—and, boy, is this a big one. Even five years ago, it seemed perfectly acceptable for brands to simply exist to profit and cater to an audience segment with the money to make it happen. Many perceived diversity as a nice-to-have, not a must-have.
Today, consumers are smarter and more eager to follow brands that are willing to make a stand….they’re also more eager to attack those that do not. While the term “cancel culture” has largely lost its meaning due to how broadly it's used (and often incorrectly), consumers are holding brands and public figures accountable for any and all bad behavior, while celebrating and supporting those who honor their values as a consumer.
In fact, people expect the brands and companies they support to take a stand and prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). According to The Sprout Social Index for 2022, 40% of consumers will “pick a brand over a competitor because the brand aligns with their values.” So don’t disappoint…if only because you will lose an audience segment both 1) willing to spend money on your service and 2) are ready to ride-or-die with you.
Speaking of which, for those of use operating in the social media landscape, it’s easy to forget that the proverbial social user isn’t a homogenous blob. Instead they are actual human beings. Even more, as Pew research indicates, the “Post-Millenials” is the most ethnically and racially diverse. Translation: for your brand to truly represent your audience, it must appeal to a diverse group of people with intentional marketing, especially on social media.
Conclusion
Your brand’s success relies heavily on its ability to appear authentic to an audience—an audience that has increasingly high standards and expectations. And rightly so, in our opinion.
The ideal way to do this is to cultivate a brand voice on social media that is comfortable in its online persona (or willing to create one that is genuine), wholly original but able to add their own spin on trends, and dedicated to diversity both by vocalizing such messaging and amplifying others’.
Here’s the best part: if you have no idea where to start or if you’re concerned you may be making one of the mistakes above, well we know an award-winning agency capable of collaborating with you to create your authentic brand voice to appeal to the right audience. Contact them today…it’s us. That award-winning agency is us.
