In the wake of the global economic crisis, financial services brands have had to drastically change their offerings and how they behave. OLIVER Copywriter, Dom Bury, discusses how financial institutions have tackled this from a tone of voice perspecive. 

Trust me. I’m wearing a suit…

Or, as the 2007-2008 global economic crisis has shown, in which major banks’ reputations crumbled quicker than their share prices, perhaps not. Now, almost a decade on from the crisis we have a chance to look retrospectively at it. To see what effect, if any, the crisis has had on how financial institutions behave.

One impact that has slid under the radar is how financial institutions have attempted to change their tone of voice, the way they talk to their customers. In order to appear, at least on the face of it, more human.

Humanising the voice of the financial brand

In the wake of the crisis consumers began to re-evaluate what they were looking for in a financial service brand. Trust became the key factor in consumers’ decision making. So naturally, banks and financial institutions responded by softening the way they talked. They made their messaging more personal, more conversational to appear to be more like a human. The goal was to gain consumer trust by changing public perception of them as faceless robots.

However, it’s all very well changing the way you talk, but if you’re still wearing the same old clothes, or so to speak, you can come across as disingenuous.

Changing financial tone of voice with integrity

Imagine being greeted by your bank manager in a sparkly jacket saying “Hey! Lovely to see you today. Aren’t you looking fabulous?” Would you trust him?

So the challenge has become a balancing act. On the one hand you need to come across as human being, but not to the extent to which you appear as just as a veneer. The voice has to be genuine. It cannot be a separate part of your brand, it must be part of the whole. When it’s not, that’s when authenticity becomes an issue.

Since Innocent Drinks first used tone of voice to differentiate themselves many brands have wanted to jump on the chatty, ‘ooh, aren’t we fun to hang out’ with bandwagon. But this tone of voice only works for certain products, for certain industries.

Tone of voice – what not to do

In 2006, before the crisis, Barclays famously renamed (and tried to trademark) their cash machines as ‘Hole in the Wall’  and wrote “Through these doors walk the nicest people in the world” outside their banks.

These words were quickly scrubbed down when Barclays realised they had massively misjudged the public mood. After all, you don’t want to run through strawberry fields or go for a beer with your bank manager. You want to be able to know that you can trust him. That he will offer you sound advice on your mortgage, should you need it.

Using tone of voice effectively

So how then do you use tone of voice effectively in a financial context? One possible way is to not see tone of voice as a veneer but to put it actively at the core of your business. To make it part of your value proposition. After all, tone of voice is a reflection of your brand’s personality. And if banks are attempting to appear more human, it must be at their core that this occurs.