The ‘Why’ and ‘Who’ that Defines Your Company Should Shape Your Voice Brand, Not the ‘What.’

The ultimate goal of any brand is to transcend the base functional benefits of its products and establish an emotional resonance that brings customers back time and time again. Any company that has established this connection—and let’s be honest, it’s kind of rare—has an ingrained swagger. You can immediately throw out details of its identity; its target audience, its reason for existing. These companies market with a mission. If you’ve ever heard of the “golden circle”—you understand the principle. By clearly defining why your company exists, everything else seems to come naturally—a look, a feel, a loyal buying tribe, and an internal brand compass that maintains a sense of purpose and relevance.

Let’s get horticultural. If your overall brand is a tree, the brand essence would be the roots or the trunk. The Voice Brand, the image you project to customers through your phone automation, would at least be a prominent branch. And if those roots go deep, if your brand is strong and well formed, Voice Branding—selecting a voice your speech applications—should be a fun exercise. Likely, you have an idea of what your voice would sound like. Your other customer touchpoints—advertising, an in-store experience, anything—paints an audio picture, so to speak. GM Voices can help you hone in on the sound to perfectly align with these touchpoints, a sound that immediately reaffirms your identity in the caller’s mind (and ear). If your brand occupies this rarefied territory of actualization, there are no excuses for a Voice Branding disconnect.

And then the other side of the coin. If your brand is too focused on outside-in marketing—a heavily commoditized, product-centric, unemotional image—choosing a voice may be difficult. Likely, anything branding related will be difficult, because it hasn’t been defined. Talk to GM Voices about a persona development project. In defining the attributes that will shape your voice to the marketplace, it may uncover some guidelines that will help you target buyers with a more clearly-established identity and purpose. We enjoy these creative consulting engagements, and would be happy to speak to you about your brand.

Check out this short video about the persona design process:

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Consumer Brands Allow Creative Voice Opportunities for Automation

Selecting a voice for an automated phone application is often a subjective process. In many cases, several decision makers review sound files—independently or with the GM Voices team—and choose the voice that sounds best to them (and hopefully their calling audience as well).

Other times, clients will defer to us to craft a sound that is uniquely suited for their brand. This is when we get to have fun and be creative. Because no two brands are exactly the same, it only stands to reason that no two Voice Brands should be the same either. A voice persona development project at GM Voices involves an analysis of current brand positioning, through our own research and observations, and in consultation with a company’s brand/marketing teams, to find a sound that matches the company image at all its other customer touchpoints.

It must be said: some brands are just better defined than others. This can be a company weakness that can be attributed to not focusing on projecting a compelling and clearly-defined story, sure… and then some companies occupy a space or industry that just doesn’t allow for us much creativity. For many such companies, “friendly and professional” seems to dominate the direction of the voice.

When companies have a very clear brand image, it’s enjoyable to find a sound that encapsulates that identity to resonate with customers. The more distinct the brand direction, the “bolder” the voice tends to be. Often, a consumer brand—defined by far more advertising and insight into the preferences of the buying audiences—affords greater flexibility for customization than a business-to-business brand. Many sounds that wouldn’t be appropriate for a generalized business crowd succeed on consumer-brand applications because they target a specific, niche audience.

Here are some examples:

Beauty, cosmetics, luxury – These companies provide a great opportunity to utilize a more sultry and aggressive female sound. If the brand is passively (or overtly) defined by an air of exclusivity or sophistication, a very confident and assertive sound can be desirable. This would not translate to a healthcare application, for example.

Blue collar, machinery, auto repair, production – On most applications, a neutral, unaccented voice is preferred to connect with the greatest number of callers. If your brand targets a “dude” audience, a folksier sound, maybe with a twang, can be used where it normally would never be considered.

Retail, electronics, mobile, consumer goods – If your company attracts a younger crowd, use a younger sound. Don’t give customers a branding disconnect (overly mature) if that’s not how you’re positioned at other contact points. If your company attracts a more generalized audience, use a good “middle” sound. If you cater to teens and young adults, use a youthful and vibrant sound to affirm your identity.

Check out this video of CEO Marcus Graham discussing our persona development process:

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Client dial-in ensures the best read style for your application. Also: How the GM Voices creative team cajoles voice actors for persona auditions.

A unique benefit to working with GM Voices for brand-consistent voice prompts and phone greetings is our production telephone patch. Our client dial-in allows customers to listen in and/or direct their talent’s recording session. For people who are really keyed into Voice Branding, this provides peace of mind and opens the door to the “Hollywood” aspect of GM Voices. It’s just cool to ride shotgun in a studio session, y’know?

During an expanded Voice Branding initiative, GM Voices will audition voice actors from a persona report, a document that includes vocal characteristics and a biographical summary of a fictional virtual representative. This helps our voice actors “become the persona” after a pre-session reading. But, if that wasn’t enough, our creative team sits in during the recording sessions to ensure a brand-consistent performance that matches the specifications of the persona report. It’s a mutually beneficial experience for both our “office” employees and our talent; the office types learn the strengths of our performers, and the performers learn more about the corporate aspect of Voice Branding. Basically, it’s a thorough process that guarantees that the audio delivered for customer review was recorded with a lot of thought and care. It’s these little extra steps that put GM Voices above the competitive set.

If you missed it a few blog posts ago, check out our persona samples page. Here, you can listen to how our voice actors change their styling for three persona examples.

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