When establishing your brand voice, it’s important to keep your target audience at the forefront. The more clearly defined your target is, the more easily your brand’s personality comes to life.
It’s easy to play it “safe.” Your target audience is anyone with money, right? You wouldn’t want to turn off any potential customers. But if your brand resonates with everyone then it’s probably bland. It’s probably not memorable and it’s probably not in a healthy state.
If you want your brand voice to be memorable, you need to be willing to take risks. With big risks come big rewards. Here are six brands that have taken risks; risks that pay off.
1. Denny’s
Denny’s (“America’s diner”) has become known for its irreverent voice (in all lowercased letters) in social media.
apple watch review: can not eat/is not edible, confused about the point of it
— Denny’s (@DennysDiner) April 8, 2015
happy women’s day! tell a woman in yr life how much you appreciate her. no good with words? buy her breakfast, idk. #watchthequeensconquer
— Denny’s (@DennysDiner) March 8, 2015
2. Modcloth
Modcloth’s voice is dripping with puns and alliteration. Their style is kitschy, yet unique. And they feature cats in their shipping boxes on their Instagram channel weekly.
3. Chubbies
Another apparel brand, Chubbies, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Chubbies is known for its (sometimes foul language ridden) humor and outward hatred of pants. Its weekly email, “The WeekENDER,” ensures a few laughs, usually some gifs, and just the right amount of “bro”.
(http://www.chubbiesshorts.com/pages/facts)
4. DiGiorno
DiGiorno does a great job of taking current topics and making them about pizza. Sometimes it’s a little out there, but because it’s consistent and it’s their brand, it’s funny instead of feeling forced. (Shout out to Pringles and Oreos — two other food brands who are doing this well.)
Halftime show? More like Halftime SHOW ME DELICIOUS PIZZA. #PreGiorno pic.twitter.com/DnNYZsEmPH
— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) January 26, 2015
5. Urban Daddy
Urban Daddy is the king of storytelling and tangents. But it makes the tangents and long copy work.
6. Spirit Airlines
There’s something great about brands embracing who they are. Spirit touts the fact that it’s cheap and has infamously taken on an “auto pilot” approach to its Twitter customer service.
Of course there are plenty of others that could be on this list. These are just a few of our favorites.
When a brand has a personality that’s engaging and entertaining, it’s almost as if it becomes your friend. You look forward to seeing what it has to say in your inbox/newsfeeds. Talk about staying top-of-mind.
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