How to Identify Your Brand Personality and Voice

Your brand is more than your business name, your logo, and the colors on your website. Your brand is the full identity of who your brand really is. Your brand identity includes your values, vision, and mission. It includes your tagline, value proposition, and messaging pillars. And, yes, it includes your logo, colors, and fonts.

It also includes your brand personality and voice.

In fact, it’s your brand voice that elicits feelings in your ideal clients—and anyone who engages with your brand. And it’s your brand personality that informs your brand voice.

Think about yourself. You are more than how you look: Your body, what you wear, how you style your hair. This isn’t who you really are. This is part of how you express yourself to the world—just like your brand’s logo, colors, and fonts. 

But really it’s how your act in the world that speaks to who you really are: What you do and what you say. It’s what you make people think and, more importantly, how you make people feel.

Your personality dictates all of this. And it’s your voice—literal and figurative—that you use to translate your personality into words and actions.

My personality is sophisticated with an edge, intellectual without stuffiness, inspiring, creative, and silly. This totally comes across in my voice. So, my clothes are a mixture of elegant and edgy—nice jewelry, pretty much all black or navy, an embroidered vegan leather jacket, and choppy, mussed hair. And I have visible tattoos on my arms. I’m constantly analyzing the world and sharing my thoughts, but I try not to be didactic, and I try to speak in a way that’s easily understood. I often inspire people to take action. I am constantly creating in the form of websites, blogs and podcasts, and art. And my sense of humor is silly (though also dark).

Does your voice match your personality? It would be shocking if it didn’t. And if it doesn’t match, it does shock people. The one thing about me that surprises people is when my Texas accent comes out. People tend not to associate a Texas accent with intellect. So, if they hear the accent before they get to know me, they can underestimate me. Cool.

With your brand, you want your brand personality and voice to match completely. You do not want to shock people with a brand voice that doesn’t match your brand personality. This feels out of alignment and can repel people. It can be disarming in your personal life. But it’s confusing in a brand. And it doesn’t help to attract your ideal client.

So, let's discuss your personality first because your voice will come out of your personality. 

Your brand personality will reflect your brand values, vision, mission, and your brand name. If you value imagination and optimism, you wouldn’t have a brand personality that’s closed off, down, or too conservative.

With a name like Twitter, the brand can’t have an overly serious personality. With a value of creativity, Adobe can’t be staid or stoic. With a mission to “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world,” Nike’s personality has to be inspiring.

For information about creating your vision and mission statements, see my blog post called “Best Vision and Mission Statements and How to Write Yours.” This is part of creating a full brand identity, which you can learn about in my podcast called “How to Create a Brand Identity.”

1. Write down all the adjectives you think are associated with your brand

If you’re a freelancer, some of your personality traits will probably be the same as your brand’s personality traits. For example, my brand personality is sophisticated, creative, inspiring, authentic. Sophisticated, creative, and inspiring are the same. Of course, I’m authentic. I think that naturally comes through since my voice is an accurate reflection of my personality.

In addition to mine, some other personality traits could be:

Quirky, dependable, supportive, kind, ambitious, earthy, mature, youthful, playful, uplifting, inspiring, empowering, wise, stylish, and witty.

Look at your brand values, vision, and mission. Pull out key words that can be personality traits. Write all these down. 

Also look at your brand name. Write down personality traits that you think of when you see your brand name.

2. Think of an animal that represents your brand

Okay, you can think of a couple of animals because just one probably doesn’t cut it.

My animal archetypes are Hawk and Spider. Yes, Spider. Spider represents creativity. Think about how spiders weave webs—every night. Constant creativity. 

Hawk represents intelligence, vision, and communication. Think about how hawks circle in the air and get a big view of the world. Then they perch high up in trees to get a view of their prey. They are very strategic. And they use their voice judiciously. 

So, what animals represent your brand? Think off-the-cuff. What animals jump out at you? Google “animal symbolism” for some lists. And just think about what animals you particularly like, then look those up. No pets though! Only wild animals.

3. Think of a celebrity that is similar to your brand

Is there an actor or actress who you could see being a spokesperson for your brand? Who is an influencer you would love to see promoting your brand? What are their personality traits?

Is there a spiritual leader, a political figure, or even a fictional character who could fit your brand? What are their personality traits?

4. Think about your clients

You’re not molding your brand personality to fit your clients. Your brand has got to be authentic. But you do want your brand personality to attract your ideal client. So, you’ve got to consider your ideal client when coming up with your brand personality.

What are they looking for when they are searching for your services? What kind of brand personality would make them want to hire you?

5. Think about your competition

You want to be different from your competition. So, look them up and see what trends you see in your industry. Now, most of the time, you’ve got to have some overlap. In website design, we’re all creative. Some of us are sophisticated. Others are quirky. 

In coaching, you’re all inspiring. Some are playful. Some are earthy. Some are mature.

What personality traits can you come up with that would make you stand out?

6. Narrow your list to 3 to 5 traits

I know this is tough. You may have a long list of personality traits, and they all fit. But more than five gets unwieldy. You want to be really precise with your personality, not all over the place. I’ve got just four personality traits. It’s hard to portray more than 3 - 5 in your personality and your general branding.

Now we move on to brand voice.

Your brand voice is how your brand communicates its personality. It’s how your brand sounds on your website, on social media, in emails, on your blog, in your podcasts, in your logo—wherever and whenever people interact with your brand.

When finding your brand voice, a big question you want to answer is how you want your ideal client to feel when they interact with your brand. Your brand voice is responsible for eliciting feelings.

If you want them to feel safe and protected, for example, you need a brand voice that’s dependable and trustworthy. If you want your ideal client to feel relaxed and grounded, you need a brand voice that’s calming and earthy. 

So, to determine your brand voice, you’re going to take your brand personality and translate it into your brand voice. Some of the words may be the same. Some may be different.

My brand voice is inspiring, knowledgable, curious, and authentic. Inspiring and authentic are the same as two of my brand personality traits. 

I want my ideal client and anyone who engages with my brand to feel inspired to take action. I want them to believe that I am knowledgable and also for them to feel knowledgable. That’s why I create blog posts and podcasts. I want them to feel curious about learning. And I want them to see that my brand is authentic and for them to make their brand authentic.

Everything I do with my brand commits to my brand voice. My website, my colors, my fonts, my blog posts, my podcast, my social media posts, how I work with my clients, and how I speak with people..

Just like with your brand personality, keep your brand voice to 3 - 5 words. You want to be very succinct and make it easy on yourself to communicate your voice and easy for your audience to understand your voice. In other words, you want to make for your audience to feel what you want them to feel and to take the actions you want them to take.