Finding Your Brand Voice: How Bimstr Built a Platform Through Authentic Language

A couple of months ago, Anicet Nemani, the head of Bimstr, shared a motivation letter on LinkedIn and Twitter. Bimstr had announced the position of a community manager and had asked interested candidates to send in applications. He said that as he was scrolling through the applications in his inbox, the subject line of one email caught his attention. The subject line read “I Am Coming To Take Up My New Role as Community Manager”

This is rather bold, Anicet told himself as he opened the email to check out what that person could have written.

The motivation letter itself was written as one would write a music promotional content on BImstr’s page; full of wit and written in colloquial French and Franc-Anglais.

When he posted it on LinkedIn, I noticed that a lot of people that do not know what Bimstr is did not approve of the motivation letter. Everyone else, including me, found it ingenious. The guy gamed the system and wrote his motivational letter in the same voice in which Bimstr has been communicating and promoting songs on social media since it came into existence.

He used Bimstr’s brand voice.

For those who have no idea what a brand voice is, it is quite simply the way you talk to customers. It is your own (unique) manner of communicating with your public and your target market. It is the choice of vocabulary, the slangs, the expressions, the level of colloquialism or the formality. It is even to an extent, the medium chosen to communicate. There are many other elements that you can add to that but I think you caught my drift already.

What Bimstr did in choosing the Brand Voice of their platform was truly clever. They knew that urban music was taking off in a loud manner in Cameroon and that young people who were listening would be the driving force of this musical genre. They also knew that unlike older, more established artists, young musicians and their fans were present on social media and were more tech-savvy than that old guard.

They also knew that in order to be relatable and to look hip and be in the time, they had to speak the preferred language of the many people that they wanted to interact with on their platform; FRANC-ANGLAIS. Too often, when we open our little businesses here and there and we decide to use the internet to communicate about our products, many do not stop to think about the brand voice that they are going to use. In other words, they do not think about how they are going to EFFECTIVELY communicate with the public.

This usually arises from the fact that very often, we make the mistake of trying to sell to everyone. Not everyone can be your customer. You have to decide who it is that you want to sell your product to. You have to draw up a mental image of who your typical customer is. Ask yourself, what product are you selling? Who is it really for? What type of customer needs this product? What is their level of education? What are their income, consumption habits, and interests? How would they normally relate with and interact with my product?

Once you ask yourselves these questions and more, you begin to have a good idea of who your ideal customer is and how best you can talk to that customer relative to your brand’s identity and personality

This means that you have to first decide what you want your brand to be. And then choose how best to talk to that talk to your target customer in a way that flows with your brand.

And like I always preach here, there has to be a layer of authenticity in it. It has to be something that you either believe in or at the very least are familiar with and practice.

I will take an example to illustrate. I might get a knock on the head for this but that is one battle I am willing to fight.

My main man Tino is what you would call an outspoken person. And I love him for that. His honesty is refreshing and I’m always eager to get his opinion on a varying number of issues. For those who have never met him, the Tino that you know online is basically the same person in real life; albeit less abrasive, calmer, and in a funny way…. rather endearing.

Some girl called him a sweetheart, but I won’t go that far.

The way Tino approaches topics on his personal page and right here on PoiseSocial is essentially the same way he does in life. I’ve worked with him on a few projects and I have watched him work from a distance on his own project, and I can tell you for a fact that the principles and ethos he preaches about online are things that he applies in his life and in his approach to work.

His brand voice is being vocal and outspoken without sugar-coating whatever bittersweet thing he has to say. Some people are uncomfortable with it –granted. Others are not. We have had many conversations and I know that he is more interested in the people that are not uncomfortable with that brand voice, whether they agree with him on an issue or not.

That’s the layer of authenticity.

The people that founded BImstr are essentially all francophones. The language they decided to use is one that they speak and understand and one which they knew their target would understand. Short, witty, vivid, anecdotal pop-culture references that could capture the reader;

« Le son-ci est bon comme la koki avec le plantain mur / Le man-ci chauffe mes oreilles comme le soleil de Yagoua / Les gars ne lap pas ici dehors. Ecoutez un peu ca, ca glisse comme la boue de Nkolmesseng apres la pluie. »

They are not for long analytical content on music and culture. They have left that for us, PoiseSocial lol.

And their brand voice strategy worked. Someone wrote a job application in that voice… and hopefully got hired.

#FindYourBrandVoice

Part 2 tomorrow.

- Wandji Wilfred