For Content That Hits All the Right Notes, Try These Brand Voice Exercises

If you think being conversational and customer-centric is enough for your brand voice, you’re only going to join a chorus of clones.

Developing a distinctive voice defines your brand’s unique identity and builds a sense of authenticity with customers—an increasingly important factor in sales. Research from Asendia found that 65 percent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands they feel are authentic.

Getting there isn’t easy, though. Your team could spend hours debating whether your brand is more of a Beyoncé—powerful, versatile, and inspiring—or a Freddie Mercury—bold, charismatic, and passionately unique.

Brand voice exercises can help channel creativity where it’s most needed and develop a content strategy that hits all the right notes. Here are a few to try at your next brainstorming session.

Choose a celebrity spokesperson

Even if you don’t have the budget for a celebrity spokesperson, thinking about which star you’d pick can be a useful brand voice exercise.

Have everyone on your team jot down the three celebrity spokespeople they’d recommend for your brand. These can be actors, musicians, entrepreneurs, activists, political personalities, historical figures, literary characters, or archetypes—as long as they’re not actually associated with your company.

This branding exercise lets you lean into your brand’s identity or playfully subvert it. Either way, you’ll get key insights about where you can take your brand voice.

For example, if you’re Coca-Cola, you might suggest Tom Hanks. Known for his feel-good roles, the actor is iconic and relatable across generations—just the match for a classic, all-American soda brand.

Already known for infusing its commercials with subtle humor, Capital One might pick Martha Stewart. Her insider trading scandal makes her an edgy pick for a brand in the financial sector, but she could give comically exaggerated tips on turning mundane financial tasks into crafty rituals.

If you’re a bold and creative brand like Ben & Jerry’s, Frida Kahlo could be a great fit. The artist was fearless, expressive, and unconventional—just like the ice cream company’s topping-packed pints.

And who better to represent Cadillac than Samuel L. Jackson? His confident, commanding presence and fearless attitude embody the brand’s image as a symbol of prestige and performance.

Play with your picks, including both obvious and edgy spokespeople, to see how they influence your brand voice.

Describe the opposite of your brand

If you have an established strategy, it’s easy to get comfortable describing your brand voice with the same handful of adjectives. Once your team repeats those four words over and over for a long period of time, they start to lose their meaning. This branding exercise helps combat this creative stall by having your team think about what your brand is not. It’s one of the best brand exercise questions to refine your voice.

Take Ikea, for instance. Ikea is minimalist but not boring. It’s accessible without being generic. Patagonia is eco-conscious but not preachy, and its designs are stylish without sacrificing functionality. Lego is imaginative but not overly complex. It encourages creativity and problem-solving without being overwhelming.

This gets easier as you jump from brand to brand, and you can always try out a few before taking on your own. Rolex is timeless but not old-fashioned. Dove is inclusive but not overly sentimental. Trader Joe’s is fun but not frivolous. You get the idea.

Go to a hypothetical dinner party

This one’s a classic. If your brand could come to life as a person at a dinner party, who would you be? And if dinner parties aren’t a thing with your audience, sub in something more relevant. The high school cafeteria, a frat party, even a busy gym can all work for this brand voice exercise.

Let’s try this one with airlines at a dinner party. Delta might be the dependable, well-traveled guest who effortlessly helps the host take care of everyone. JetBlue makes everyone chuckle by sharing the latest memes on their smartphone. American Airlines is the formal one who knows exactly which utensils to use at every course. And Southwest’s casual and approachable vibe puts everyone at ease.

Consumers do this branding exercise for companies all the time, so you might as well give it a try on your end. For more inspiration, check out this brand archetypes infographic from Printsome. It categorizes household name brands into different archetypes. M&M’s is a jester on a mission to enjoy life, Google is a sage on a quest for knowledge, and Crayola is a creator who’s “non-conforming by nature.” Which archetype would best represent your brand and why?

Read your social media posts out loud

This is an exercise often practiced by novelists, playwrights, and fiction writers who want to make sure their dialogue really sizzles. If a person who doesn’t work as a writer feels odd reading a character’s dialogue aloud, that tells the writer the copy may need work.

Not all your social media copy needs to translate perfectly to the ear, but certain things will become obvious if you take turns reading tweets, LinkedIn posts, and Facebook updates out loud. Your messaging might sound too robotic, or you’ll begin to notice that you’ve peppered into too many exclamation points.

At a previous job, we had an unofficial habit of declaring ourselves “thrilled” to do everything—thrilled to receive invoices, thrilled to send a draft, thrilled to attend a conference. It got disingenuous very quickly.

If you stumble over certain words or find yourself cringing over a phrase, it’s a sign that the language might need simplification or a more conversational touch to help your brand voice come through.

Study your audience from afar

Social media marketers are eager to talk to their audience and build a sense of community. But simply reading—without commenting or interjecting—can be a helpful brand voice exercise. It teaches you what your customers actually sound like and gives you ideas for tailoring the way you communicate with them.

Let’s say you’re in charge of audience engagement at a tech startup that’s just developed an app for working mothers. Before you start creating content, find out how these mothers speak to each other on Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram. Do they use a lot of emojis? Do they quote-tweet each other with commentary instead of simply retweeting?

If they’re sharing inspirational, positive videos, that’s a move you can follow. If they share stories about modern parenting, set up some Google alerts and post on-brand articles about relevant aspects of your audience’s lives on your feed.

What you say and how you say it matters.

There’s no right way to do these brand voice exercises. However, you do have to decide how closely you want your brand to sound to your target demo. Some consumers might enjoy being addressed by brands who see them as equals, especially if you’re in the food and beverage industry, but many others follow brands in a more aspirational sense that warrants authority and professionalism.

For instance, I would very much like to be a Free People woman, but budget-wise, I’m more like a TJ Maxx woman. If Free People started branding themselves as a hub for bargain shoppers, I wouldn’t be so inclined to save for a sweater as soon as it goes on sale. That would seriously dilute my concept of what they sell—the dream that a young woman might leave Manhattan, move to Santa Fe, and dress only in naturally dyed linen pants and learn to paint.

Is your brand a friend to your consumers where they are today? Or do you sell the goods they hope to buy frivolously in 5 years? Your brand voice has to make that clear.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about brand voice exercises

How often should I do a branding exercise and update my brand voice?

It’s a good practice to review and potentially update your brand voice annually or whenever significant changes occur in your market or business strategy. Regular check-ins ensure your brand voice remains relevant and resonant with your audience.

What if my team has conflicting views on the brand voice?

If there are differing opinions, consider using a structured approach to decision-making, such as voting or consensus-building sessions. Clear guidelines and objectives can help align the team and focus on what best represents the brand’s goals.

How do I ensure that my brand voice remains consistent across different platforms and channels?

Consistency can be achieved by creating a detailed brand voice guide that outlines tone, style, and messaging rules for each platform. Regular training and audits will help maintain uniformity across all channels.

Looking for more creative ways to define and refine your brand voice? Subscribe to The Content Strategist for insights and practical advice.