Developing a Brand Voice and Persona

Whether you’re an academically trained marketer or a motivated catering professional, you know the importance of defining your brand to set your company apart from competition. A brand is much more than a company logo or tagline. In fact, many caterers take the time to think through value, vision and mission statements to clarify what their brand represents for customers and employees.

Regardless of your position on the continuum of branding expertise, the brand voice and persona are often overlooked. Small and mid-size organizations, not just well-established corporate, should take the time to decide what these should be.

It’s important to do, because clarity in messaging is critical to success. Confusion is the enemy of customer engagement, and it can destroy the possibility of a memorable connection with customers and prospects. Defining your brand voice can help prevent future miscues in communicating with your audience. It will ensure that all messaging reinforces your brand’s qualities and benefits.

Brand voice example:

Here are some examples to help get you started. I created the following brand voice template for a fictional full-service catering company.

Brand voice should be:

• Simple and straightforward

• Pique curiosity and build excitement

• Informative and inspiring

• Welcoming, friendly and engaging

Messaging should answer these questions:

• Is there a clear objective for our message and will it resonate with our target audience?

• Is this message informative and will it be of value to the recipients?

• Does the message reinforce our expertise and contain a clear call to action?

Brand persona example

Working together with your brand voice is your brand persona, which can be created simply by establishing a set of binaries as a check-and-balance for brand messaging. Use the binaries to help test the message you developed, the language you used, the tone of the overall communication and even the look of the final deliverable.

For example, the brand persona for a fictional full-service catering company might be:

We Are                            We Are Not

Friendly                            Indifferent

Experienced                      Untested

Flexible                             Rigid

Affordable                         Cheap                     

Creative                             Stagnant

Accessible                         Aloof

Focused                             Narrow-minded

Confident                           Pretentious

Defining both your brand voice and brand persona are not hard to do, and it’s a step that will ensure your message is in alignment with your brand. Take the time to do this, and it will be much easier to create customer outreach materials that accurate depict your services and—best of all—produce results.

See Donna Hansbury at Catersource 2018! Click here for a description of her session.