could your brand voice please shut up?

At wieden + kennedy london we often talk about the need to find 'the voice of the brand'. By this we mean the way the brand looks, feels, behaves, thinks; the way it expresses its character. Because how you say something can be as important as what you say. And because everything you do communicates. This kind of thinking is by no means exclusive to us. Innocent is a great and oft-cited example of a brand with a strong and consistently-expressed voice. Something charming to read on the side of a carton seemed like a real break-through at first, and they've developed the Innocent voice in loads of interesting ways since. Some marketing person has clearly been persuaded that a similar 'Brand Voice Touchpoints TM' (or other bollocks) approach is a good idea for Malmaison hotels. Now, I like Malmaison. They provide quite nice hotel rooms and facilities at a fair price. I would actively choose to stay there and pay with my own money, even. But on a recent stay in Leeds, after a long day, when I got to my room I became irritated by the voice of the Malmaison brand. It was a persistently annoying voice (I imagined it as sounding a bit like Graham Norton) and it wouldn't shut up. Every inanimate object in my room - from the pillow to the light switch, it seemed like - apparently wanted to engage me in a bit of jokey, vaguely risque banter. The toiletries were chatty...

The 'do not disturb' signs were garrulous...

And the mouthwash was on the verge of being a sex-pest:

I know what they're trying to do. And at least they're trying. But there comes a point when you just want to say, 'Enough! Can't a bath mat just be a (silent) bath mat? Does EVERYTHING have to bloody talk to me? I just want to go to sleep!' It's possible to take this Brand Voice thing too far, to the point where it feels like you're in some dodgy sci-fi movie (The Fifth Element? Total Recall?) where, to establish that we're in the future, when the hero wakes up in the morning in his futurepad, everything from his alarm clock to his coffee machine talks to him in a Star Trek computer voice.

Or is that just me?

Comments

[Stenski]

fith element and total recall are great films boss

[neil]

Total Recall was actually pretty good, granted.

[Jason]

The pollution part of advertising is only getting worse, I'm afraid with the increasing push from agencies and advertisers to put a message on everything. My favorite brands are the ones that don't seem to try to hard... or maybe I just like the brand voices that are more quiet and respectful?

[André Breda]

I think a brand is like a girlfriend, to much love and you start taking it for granted and soon enough you'll be fed up of the relationship. We all need our own free space.

[André Breda]

I think a brand is like a girlfriend, to much love and you start taking it for granted and soon enough you'll be fed up of the relationship. We all need our own free space.

[André Breda]

I think a brand is like a girlfriend, to much love and you start taking it for granted and soon enough you'll be fed up of the relationship. We all need our own free space.

[André Breda]

I think a brand is like a girlfriend, to much love and you start taking it for granted and soon enough you'll be fed up of the relationship. We all need our own free space.

[André Breda]

sorry, don't know what happened there, I didn't intend to sound like the subject in cause.

[Paul H. Colman]

Try a Travel Lodge, I think you'll find that remedies the problem.

[Sylvain]

I completely second this.
And think Innocent is no exception: they've become so self-conscious and full of themselves with the whole "We're not into marketing, we're just natural and sincere and all so cool and clever" approach.

They've simply become irritating (and they did not invent anything, because let's be honest, the first guys who invented this were Ben & Jerry's back in the last century).

I'd rather sleep in a Travel Lodge with a glass of Sunny Delight.

[L.Vazquez]

Hey, the Fifth Element and Total Recall were not dodgy. Come on. Total Recall is so quotable "Get yer ass to Mars."

L.