Exploring Brand Tone (2023 Edition)

Many companies now emphasize brand tone, which sounds abstract and obscure. From the perspective of the brand, what is the role of brand tone? How to maintain it? This article provides a systematic answer.

We have collected some questions and thoughts about brand tonality from various sources:

Brand tone is often mentioned, but few people really explore its boundaries.

In an advertising company, I am often driven to collapse by the client’s “high-end, classy” responses.

After going to the client's office, I found that "high-end, elegant and classy" is actually a specific direction, and I feel that this brand should maintain this tone.

Does brand identity need to be placed in the brand house? If so, what is its role?

Brand tone is often described in a metaphysical way. Is there a common understanding of it in a more physical way?

At the meeting, the boss suddenly asked me what the tone of the new brand was, and I was stunned.

…

The more abstract the concept, the more difficult it is for us to understand, which naturally makes us more anxious. When we gradually break down a concept and make it more specific, we get closer to its essence.

Next, let us start reading the following article with the above questions in mind, hoping that it will be a starting point and help everyone find the essence of brand tone.

1. What is the brand tone?

The application scenario of brand tone is communicating with consumers, and the concretization of communication is to humanize the brand for better communication.

Enterprises, products and promotions themselves do not have life. They only have life when they are endowed with human characteristics.

We divide brand tone into two keywords: style + characteristics. Therefore, we define it as: when a brand communicates with consumers, it reflects the style/personality in the impression of consumers and conveys certain characteristics of the brand.

Brand tone is like personal personality, which is reflected in behavior, tone of voice, values ​​followed , etc.

Brand tone is not a short-term behavior, but a summary of long-term patterns. Tone is long-term unity that is maintained over the years.

2. Why do companies need brand tone?

1. For brands, accumulate brand assets and build a brand house

Ake divides the connotation of brand assets into three major sections, namely brand awareness, brand association, and brand loyalty, and brand tone can be classified into the brand association section.

Brand association refers to the psychological association/impression that consumers have through a brand, including product features, product design, social image, quality, user image, brand personality, representative symbols, etc.

Tonality itself is a kind of association that settles in the consumer's impression. This association needs to be implemented with specific emotional keywords. Through this keyword, consumers can be impressed and their purchasing decisions can be driven.

The brand house is mainly divided into four major sections, from the roof to the foundation, namely mind occupation (brand positioning, brand proposition, brand tone, brand slogan), interest expression (core population, functional/emotional interest points), argument support (RTB), and product matrix (distribution of various product series).

The brand tone is a link between the upper and lower levels. It is an expression of positioning and proposition, and it also guides the divergence of interests, arguments and products.

2. For products: convey product features and increase product premium

Brand tone inherits the brand spirit. From the perspective of category, brand tone reflects the attributes of the category, so the brand tone itself conveys the characteristics of the product.

Product value = functional value + emotional value. Brand tonality belongs to the emotional value layer. The addition of brand tonality will increase the comprehensive value of the product, thereby increasing the premium.

3. For communication: communication management, providing standards

Brand tonality is about setting the tone and drawing the standard, and communication management is about standardizing communication actions. Standardization is about unifying identification and avoiding useless work.

To determine the brand tone is to determine the personality. Once the personality is determined, it will be a matter of "what to do and what not to do", and ultimately, great achievements can be made in communication.

4. For organizations: It is a lubricant for organizational cooperation

From the perspective of the enterprise, ineffective communication and cooperation within the internal organization is a waste of enterprise resources. Every improvement in internal efficiency is a big step forward for the enterprise.

Brand tone is to establish a benchmark, and only by using this standard can we achieve synchronous communication and cooperation.

5. In terms of manpower: attract more like-minded people

Brand tone is the embodiment of corporate tone. One of the cores of corporate competition is the competition based on talent. As the saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together." When other factors are not much different, brand tone may become an important influencing factor.

Personally, we are always pursuing and consolidating a certain kind of persona. The type of company you work for determines how others see you to a certain extent, and the brand tone affects personal characteristics.

Sometimes we reject certain types of companies simply because they don’t match the tone of this enterprise.

3. Refinement and examples of brand tone

The brand tone can be refined from three dimensions: target group, corporate value proposition, and what keywords will resonate with them.

Let’s take Fotile’s brand tone as an example.

1. Target group: middle class people born in the 1980s and 1990s who are ready to get married or are newlyweds

2. What value proposition does the company provide : Greatness due to love

3. What keywords will resonate with them:

Positive: We are full of positive energy and are happy to share it. We are good at proposing solutions to the pressures or challenges faced by users and the public in life, rather than just general empty talk.

Elegance: This comes from our confidence in our own strength and the Chinese culture we have inherited. We are always neither humble nor overbearing, and we are calm and measured. Facing users and the public, we focus on showing our professionalism, unique taste and insights.

Affinity: We always treat our users and the public like family, in a friendly and easy-going manner, without being condescending or flattering.

Fun: Family life with us is always pleasant, relaxed and full of fun.

Summarize:

From the perspective of time, brand tone is a long-term asset. Tone comes from communication with consumers, and tone is a subjective term. When we judge a brand's tone, we need to take the dimension of business into consideration, such as what the other party's purpose is and what the primary and secondary contradictions are.

Tonality has boundaries, because human emotions themselves have boundaries. The right and wrong of tonality is judged by specific groups of people. There is no one person that everyone likes, and there is no brand that everyone likes.

As the saying goes, "One man's poison may be another's honey." Every brand faces different contradictions and the main contradictions they face are different.

Author: Zang Feng

WeChat public account: Strategy person Zangfeng (ID: clrcf2020)