Ah, the world of craft distilling! Where the aroma of fermenting grains mingles with the promise of entrepreneurial spirit. An air of whimsy, a splash of imagination…
And the cold hard light of day.
Just as every spirit has its unique character, each brand must also have its own distinctive tone of voice to successfully find its audience.
What is Tone of Voice?
Tone of voice is not what you say but how you say it. It’s the unique character and emotion imbued in your brand’s communication.
Think of it as the personality of your brand conveyed through words. Would you want your brand to come off as formal and elegant, like a traditional Scotch? Or as fun and rebellious, like a Spiced Rum? Maybe it’s about subverting expectations and doing the opposite to category norms.
Why do you need a unique tone?
Imagine a bar lined with bottles, all filled with clear spirits. Without tasting each one, how would you choose? You base it off what grabs your attention and makes a connection with you. That may be a distinguishing label, an embossed logo, a strap line, a dash of colour…
All of that is part of a brand’s aesthetic and at the heart of all aesthetic is the tone of voice. Not only does it have to be cohesive with the look and feel, once you’ve got someone’s attention, words are the next thing they engage with as they pick up a bottle and start to open it.
A good tone of voice establishes trust, cultivates loyalty, and more importantly, makes your brand memorable.
How to find the right tone of voice for your brand
Developing your brand’s tone isn’t just about picking adjectives out of a hat. It’s a thoughtful process. Here’s some of the elements to consider.
- Understand your audience: Who are they? What do they value? A younger audience might appreciate a bolder tone, while a mature audience might lean towards something more nuanced. (more on this below)
- Know your story: Every distillery has a story. Maybe it’s in the family-owned fields of barley, or in the innovative distillation process. That story, infused in your communication, will form the foundation of your tone. Be brave in how you tell it.
- Personify your brand: If your brand were a person, who would it be? A busy professional? A spirited young adventurer? This exercise helps in visualising the tone of voice.
- Test and refine: Just like your initial spirit runs, your tone might need refining. Get feedback, adjust, and keep refining until it feels just right.
Apply it consistently
Consistently is the single hardest part of building a distinct tone of voice. Your tone of voice should echo in every tweet, every blog post, every label, and every advertisement. This requires training your team, creating guidelines, and most importantly, regular audits. Here’s a few ways you can ensure it’s always being applied.
Use tools & KPIs to guide you
- Brand voice chart: Create a chart that clearly defines your tone with do’s and don’ts. This is a handy reference for anyone creating content for your brand. It’s useful to be specific, and don’t be afraid to go as far as a list of must include words, and a list of veto’ed phrases, words and topics.
- Regular training: Just as you’d train someone to understand the nuances of a spirit, train your team on how use your tone of voice. What should they look out for? What should they sidestep? Often, it can be as simple as making someone aware of their words and what you are trying to avoid using in comms (just as you would when trying to get a teenager to stop using the world “literally”, or “like” in every sentence).
- Engagement & feedback: Talking of likes, track them! Also track shares, comments, and other engagement metrics on social platforms. A consistent and resonant tone will usually see higher engagement. Consider using surveys, focus groups, or online tools to gather feedback on your brand communication. Use word cloud generators to see frequency as scale. Are you coming off as intended?
- Content analysis tools: AI enabled writing tools can be customized to some extent to check the tone of written content, ensuring alignment with your brand voice.
Understanding your audience and spirit category:
At the heart of any successful brand is a deep understanding of its audience. Combine the nuances of your spirit category with insights into your target audience, and you’re on the path to crafting a resonant tone of voice.
Understanding your audience
A distillery isn’t just selling booze; it’s selling an experience. And that experience must be tailored to the preferences, values, and expectations of its audience.
- Demographics: Start with basic data points like age, gender, location, and income. As we mentioned earlier, younger demographics might appreciate contemporary twists on tradition, while older audiences might gravitate toward authenticity and heritage.
- Psychographics: Go deeper. What are their interests, hobbies, and lifestyles? The typical example is of a city-dwelling professional who might want something sleek and modern, whereas someone rooted in the countryside may value rustic charm. Be as nuanced and insightful as possible.
- Preferences and values: Are they sustainability-minded? Do they prefer craft and artisanal approaches or the reliability of more established brands?
Understand the stereotypes around your spirit category
Each spirit category carries its weight of tradition, expectation, and existing market perceptions. Understanding these shades will help either align or differentiate your tone. You can’t break rules unless you understand what they are in the first place, right?
- Whisky: A category steeped in tradition, it’s fair to assume that audiences might expect tones of authenticity, heritage, and sophistication. Yet, there’s also overwhelming proof that it’s time for evolution. A craft whisky might want to disrupt this, bringing in more overtly playful or rebellious tones.
- Vodka: Often perceived as modern, versatile, and neutral. A tone that emphasizes clarity and mixability might resonate, but is it bold enough to differentiate? A craft vodka might emphasize local ingredients or innovative distillation processes.
- Gin: With its botanicals and flavours, gin carries a whimsical, experimental aura that allows for the full spectrum of brand styles to exist. Anti-establishment challenger tones all the way to more traditional ideas can work here – there is no stereotype anymore.
- Rum: Historically this spirit has carried a tropical, sun-soaked vibe. The tone might reflect adventure, warmth, and fun. Yet, aged rums might lean into elegance, depth, and the dance between sweetness and oak. That said if the brand is not from rum’s Caribbean heartlands, why not embrace a completely different tone of voice?
- Tequila/Mezcal: Often associated with boldness and vibrant Mexican culture. While the tone might reflect festivity and vigour, there’s also room to delve into the art of agave cultivation and traditional production methods. Modern Mexico exists side by side with the rustic, ritualistic and mysterious. Just like Gin, there’s scope for distinct voices here as they all exist already.
Blending the two for the perfect tone of voice
By understanding both your audience’s expectations and the preconceptions around your spirit category, you can navigate the balance between meeting expectations and differentiating yourself. Here’s a few approaches that have worked across many different brands you see on shelf today.
- Meet and challenge: If you’re in a traditional category with a traditional audience, meet their expectations with a tone rooted in heritage and authenticity. However, challenge a little by introducing elements of modernity or unique brand stories. Same, same… but different.
- Differentiate boldly: For audiences open to experimentation in a well-known category, go bold. Embrace a tone that stands out, whether it’s through humour, rebellion, or innovation. Be the outsider.
- Educate and elevate: If you’re in a lesser-known category, your tone can be educational, guiding your audience through flavours, processes, and experiences. Elevate their experience by building the category. Be the category beacon.
Crafting the right tone of voice is like distilling the perfect spirit. It requires understanding, patience, and an appreciation of both the ingredients (your spirit category and your brand’s place in it) and the consumers (your audience). Most of all, it requires consistency in the way it’s implemented.
Have a look at Building Brand Equity, and how Brand Values Matter on a similar theme to this article.
Whatever you chose to do – in the end, remember that just as the world doesn’t need another generic spirit, it doesn’t need another me-too brand voice either.
Be bold, be authentic, and most importantly, be you!
