Watch Yuh Mouth!
- Writer for DDI on Medium
- Jul 7
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 29
My definition of the brand voice for 1-3 man shows has 3 characteristics:
It must have a unique tone
It must tell your ideal client why you’re calling them
It must instruct them on a better approach to achieving their goal
To talk about tone, I’ll be using a youth meeting I attended yesterday. While the voice remained stedfast, the tone of the message was altered to amplify the intended audience's resonance.
This is the function of tone, and this is how it's used in branding.
Cru Nonpareil's brand tone on TikTok is humorous and culturally authentic:
Dbig4: “Hello, good day?!
Store clerk: Yes, sir, how may I help you?
Dbig4: I really like this shoe! Yuh have any size 15?!
Store clerk: Weyy boi! Size 15? Nah, we doh ha dat size yuh know! I feel is best yuh wear de box!”
vs. on the website, where it's more opulent and client-centered:
“Custom-made Spanish leather shoes for men"
"Put frustration in your past by stepping into a variety of comfortable dress shoes.”
(Review of the original design)
THE KEY TO GETTING THE MESSAGE TO LAND!
Yesterday, 5 kids got baptized after the message was delivered. The youngest was 6.
Inspired by a Facebook group conversation on horror stories, Kenwin dropped this piece of content on 2022-03-01. His no-AI-creativity shines through because of how the brand's voice is used to deliver the message. Each time he did this, men in this situation related to what he was talking about.
An article written for 1-3 man shows caused local AI-voices to do something they haven’t done in a while.
That is the power of tone when your brand's style of communication is prioritized.
Have you analyzed yours lately?
If you're not using it the right way, you're doing your “brand” a disservice.
But, once your tone lands (and there are many ways to detect this), remain consistent in how you speak when in certain spaces.
Your tone isn't for throwing a temper tantrum on social media, but to be used in the service of what your brand cares about:
Eg: What The BrandTUB's tone expresses care towards:
"Here's a thought: Don't worry about what your industry thinks, they not known for doing that!"
Eg: What a temper tantrum tone expresses care towards:
“It’s the way ChatGPT uses the em-dash that’s a big giveaway!”
The first tone expresses value in thinking for yourself: using your experiences and insights, with your results, and delivering your services to clients. It's tapping into the brand's voice in a conversational way.
The second tone is argumentative and trying to save face while staring at the reality of MIT's ChatGPT study.
Your tone is also not for gaslighting people who follow your ideology:
Eg: What The BrandTUB's believes:
"Less prompting, more thinking"
Eg: When you flip-flop on what you preach:
"50.3% of users are less likely to engage with content that is explicitly marked as AI-generated."
The first tone is clear and confident. It gets to the point about a story you're being sold that's hurting you in the long run.
The second tone is confusing because of the attempt to challenge the reality of initial advice. The statement also feels like a departure from the original position of a 58% AI-generated "brand voice" absent accountability.
Like I said earlier, tone can tell you a lot:
It can tell you if something got under someone's skin.
It can tell you if someone is trying to save face.
It can tell you if someone is hurt or offended.
It can tell you if someone is grasping at straws.
It can also reveal the insight someone has on you.
Tone, if not given consideration, can speak louder than your words, instead of working in harmony. As my proofreader told me in 2020, "if you want the message to be heard, how you say what you say is important." But, once you understand what's being said or not said in most cases locally, it places the listener in a position to be guided by their gut to write a blog on tone, for example.
Most people's gut doesn't work, and some don't use it until it's too late. Service providers need to understand they're not speaking to everyone and give the message space to catch on. If ChatGPT teaches us anything, it's the consequences of shortcuts. After 3 years of hearing me say Let your freak flag fly, someone following my content recently told me they now understood what it means. Don't lose sight of the mission.
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB
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