How Does Your Brand Sound?

Author name: Liz Drury

Author Organisation: Liz Drury Voiceovers

What adjectives would you use to describe yourself or your business?

This is a question I often ask my clients when I’m trying to determine what style of voiceover delivery to use for their project.

Every business is different, and each will have a different look and feel to their branding. The voiceover for their videos, or commercials, or voicemail needs to have the same look and feel, for the brand to be consistent. Many companies spend a lot of time and money on getting their branding to look right, but far fewer pay attention to how it sounds.

I’m sure we’ve all heard adverts or seen TV programmes or videos where the voice hasn’t matched the pictures in some way. Often, we can’t put our finger on what it is that’s wrong, we just know that it doesn’t sound right. And if it doesn’t sound right, then we don’t believe in it…

Not being believable is a disaster for business – because then your product or service doesn’t come across as trustworthy, and fewer people are going to buy it.

So, when you are designing your brand spend some time thinking about how you want it to be perceived. For example, are you selling a high-end luxury product? Are you a hi-tec dynamic company that appeals to young people?

Is your product aimed at families? All of these businesses will have a very different look and feel to their branding – and to their sound.

If you are creating a project that has music, then the pace, beat, and tone needs to match the look and feel of your brand – and the voiceover is the same.

Sometimes you might want your brand to sound a little different to what people might expect, on purpose, to attract attention. For example, last week I was asked to voice a radio advert for a plumbing company. You might think that a plumbing company would have a ‘blokey’ sort of sound with a male voice, but not this company. They wanted the advert to sound more like a beauty advert with a slow, soft delivery by a female voice – and it worked really well. They were targeting an audience that is looking for a new, high-end, stylish bathroom, rather than a plumber’s mate looking for a cheap ballcock (or whatever!).

So, imagine you are making a radio advert for your company – how would you want to come across? I’d love to know what adjectives you would give me to describe your brand!