DIGITAL MARKETING
STAND OUT WITH RIGHT
TONE OF VOICE
By Catherine Kiiru
A
pple Inc. celebrated their
IPhone’s 10th Anniversary
recently and companies
were quick to join the hash tag train
#iphoneat10 to congratulate the tech
giant on their achievement. Throw
back images of old IPhone models,
videos of the first IPhone launch
and little known facts about their
success were dug up by companies
hoping to capture their audience’s
attention by appealing to their sense
of nostalgia in order to draw traffic
to their websites and social media
pages.
Some were successful in getting
re-tweets and favorites but not many
were able to translate that social
media activity into a meaningful
marketing campaign. smoothie. This resulted in hundreds
and thousands of organic re-tweets
and likes.
However, there was an interesting
stand out. A company called
Innocent Drinks who manufacture
healthy smoothies, juices and pop
drinks, based in the UK, posted
an image of their Apple smoothie,
drew witty and catchy comparisons
between their product and the
IPhone with captions that read
“10 years since the IPhone was
launched, 18 years since Innocent
Drinks was launched, 28 years of
Apple technology”- all this while
presenting an image of their Apple A quick scan through their twitter
account and you get the feeling that
Innocent Drinks is that buddy who
you share witty jokes and smart
commentary about every day issues
rather than a beverage company.
‘‘ Rather than deciding on the tone of voice,
then expecting the rest of the company to
use it, involve people in the early stages
of planning especially with the senior staff
who are invested in how the company is
represented. Ask for new ideas, areas of
improvement and keep them updated on new
developments.’’
26 MAL 19/17 ISSUE
Innocent Drinks and other
companies such as Mail chimp,
Buzzfeed and our very own KCB
Group have managed to do what
most of us marketers dream about:
identifying the right tone of voice
that appeals to your target audience
authentically and conveys the
message, while smoothly meshing it
with the company objectives.
Tone of voice is not what you say,
but how you say it. This encompasses
not only the words you choose, but
their order, rhythm and pace. How
do you determine the right tone?
It’s an expression of a company’s
values and way of thinking. It has to
grow out of who you are as a company.
Once you define your values, use the
right vocabulary to convey your brand