When a client comes to me saying, "We need to differentiate from our competitors," I already have a set of working hypotheses.
One of those hypotheses is about voice. More specifically, I expect that within their product category, the measurable aspects of brand voices will converge. And when I run the numbers, that's almost always what I find.
The reason is simple: teams pay attention to what their competitors are doing. Obviously, it’s important to know what’s up in your space, but when teams don't have clear voice guidelines to fall back on, they unintentionally start copying competitors.
In a recent client engagement, I analyzed the client's control in relation to their competitive landscape. From a measurable standpoint, what I found was that everybody’s cadence and tone markers (client included) were within a point of one another. And because nobody (client included) was making specific vocabulary choices either, they were operating in a sea of sameness. Fully confirmed by the numbers.
The client also gave us a set of brands they liked and could point to specific aspects of each voice they liked. When I looked at the metrics, those specific parts of the voice were (of course) also visible in the voice metrics. In other words, the client’s instincts about what they wanted were measurable, which means they were replicable.
In B2B, a complete voice guide is still an exception, not the norm. (It's far more common in B2C and e-commerce than in B2B.) That's a shame, and frankly a danger.
Default voice choices are undifferentiated, well, by default. The sameness lacks texture. And that’s a problem, because our brains are wired to pay attention to things that are different.
The silver lining? Right now, there's a huge opportunity for B2B brands to make bold voice choices.
'Til next week,
Carolyn
How I can help you:
Boxcar helps marketing leaders at sales-led B2B tech companies fix their messaging. We start with why it's not working and end with a messaging strategy that actually drives pipeline.
I also work with a small number of clients to operationalize that strategy using AI, building tools their marketing team can actually use to create high-quality, on-brand outputs. (If you’re curious about this, mention it when you reach out.)
Interested in working together? Reach out by filling this form.
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