Every brand wants to be likeable – even loveable. And yes, showing your customers love is a great way to make it mutual. But go in too hard and things can get weird.
Making customers like your brand starts with satisfying them. To make them love you, you need to trigger a broader range of emotions – think joy, affirmation, surprise, delight, gratitude. (Side note: If you haven’t already, try writing down how you want your customer to feel about your brand.)
Brand voice can play a big part in triggering these emotions and helping you differentiate against competitors by making every customer interaction feel right. Across your customer experience (CX), brand voice can create continuity and display your individuality, making your brand more memorable.
Every now and then, a brand voice makes us sit up and pay attention at Brandsome. Like period-proof underwear, whose straight-talking, politicized and emoji-sprinkled voice upended the fauxness of the feminine hygiene space.
And then there’s the brands that make us go hmmm. New beauty and personal care brand Native Deodorant did that recently with their hyperbolic emails. Here’s the CX., where the brand voice is a little, well, frosty.
Once we ordered, we got a series of confirmation emails.
Do you see what we see? A brand gooey with enthusiasm for customers and surreally grateful for their business. (It’s deodorant, guys.)
Out of curiosity, we flicked over to Instagram, and it’s like meeting someone new all over again.
Don’t get us wrong – Native Deodorant is a new brand. Kudos for trying to create an engaging voice right from the start. The confirmation emails are fun copywriting, and made us smile. But they also made us face palm, because they feel self-indulgent. (we want you to know how much we value our customers) rather than (we get that you’re busy and just want to know your deodorant is on the way). For starters, they’re soooooo long. (It’s a tracking update, guys.)
Of course, some of this is down to personal taste – for some Native users, the humor really landed.
Whether you dig the emails or not, one thing’s clear: the brand voice is all over the place. The keeps it super clean and simple with evidence and testimonials. Then the emails arrive. It’s like someone hijacked the voice. And the new tone doesn’t carry through to Instagram or any other touchpoint.
Like everything brand, voice evolves. It’s early days for Native Deodorant – with a little discipline and creativity, they’ll harmonize these different voices and get to the right place – a brand voice that keeps the customer love coming.
The takeouts? Daring to be different is a great idea. It makes life (and brands) more fun. And your brand voice may not be for everyone. That’s okay. If you’re convinced your quirky, boudoir or cutesie voice will earn you customer love, go for it. Make it the foundation of your brand personality and CX. Just be sure to carry it through all your brand communications so your customers always know who’s talking.
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