What’s the Voice of Your Brand?

Imagine everyone having the same look, the same voice, and the same personality – that would be quite boring, right? But most importantly, no one would recognise your unique features. The same goes for brands. 

As a brand, it's essential to differentiate yourself from your direct competitors. You can do this through your own logo, visual identity, tone, and building your own brand personality. An increasing number of brands are also using on-brand audio to achieve this. Think, for example, of a sound logo, a brand score, or that famous waiting music during a phone call or in stores. These touchpoints are becoming increasingly top of mind for brands that want to stand out. What is often missing, however, is a distinctive brand voice-over. And here lies an opportunity: You don't want to sound like a jeans brand in the same commercial break when you're a mobile service provider.

A recognisable voice-over can help build brand recognition and is just as important as anything else that belongs to your brand personality. When a consumer hears the voice, they can immediately recognize the brand and associate it with the product or service the brand offers. This can be invaluable for brands seeking customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

In practice

So how would that work in practice? Check this out, if you read the following sentence, we bet you can imagine the voice to it and even the person that is starring in their commercials since 2006. Let’s try it: 

Nespresso, what else? 

Yes, if you have George Clooney’s voice in your head, you are absolutely right. Maybe you even have a picture in mind of him sipping a cup of coffee. That just shows that Nespresso did a great job in finding not only their perfect voice companion but also the brand ambassador that made coffee, let’s call it what it is – sexy. In fact the brand got so successful because of its brand ambassador that sales in 2016 soared despite pods costing up to 15 times as much as instant coffee, and the market even coined its own word for this consequence: the Clooney effect. Another example is actor Tim Allen who voiced the Pure Michigan commercials for a solid 10 years, from 2008 until 2018. According to Michigan’s tourism website, Tim Allen’s distinct voice-over helped drive the state’s economy. Forbes, meanwhile, ranked the ad as one of the top travel campaigns of all time.

Another advantage of working with a recognisable voice-over is that it can help build emotional connections with consumers. A voice consistently used in all the brand's advertisements can evoke a sense of trust and reliability in consumers. This can ultimately lead to a stronger bond between the brand and the consumer. However, it is important to remember that working with a well known voice-over talent is not suitable for all brands. It is important for the brand to choose a voice that fits its brand values, the target audience and the message it wants to convey. For example, a voice that works perfectly for a fast-food chain like McDonald's may be less effective for a luxury brand like Chanel.

But which voice suits your brand? How should an insurance company or supermarket sound? To determine this, as a brand, you need to delve deep into who you are as a brand, what your brand values are, your tone of voice, who your target audience is, and through which channels you reach this audience. All of this is the starting point for finding the right voice for your brand.

The team at Amp.Amsterdam can help you with this process. In the past, our team helped brands such as Interpolis, TeamNL, and Zilveren Kruis, to find their voice-over: unique, distinctive and above all on brand – because let’s face it, no one wants to sound like everybody else, right?

Curious who the voice-over of your brand should be? Then don't hesitate to get in touch with our brand client manager Maurice Paans (mauricepaans@ampamsterdam.com).