If you do this, a chimp might be smarter than you…
Thinking about copying another brand's ToV? Think again.
Have you ever tried to copy a big brand’s tone of voice (ToV)?
If yes, I’ve got some bad news: chimpanzees might be smarter than you.
Here’s a video of a scientist showing a chimp how to get a Starburst sweet out of a box. She does a series of pointless things to the box — tapping and poking — before triggering the mechanism that releases the sweet. Then it’s the chimp’s turn.
As you’ll see, the chimp skips all the pointless stuff, instantly going for the step that will give him the Starburst. Clever.
Then they swap the chimp out for human children. This time, the test subjects all repeat the pointless tapping and poking step by step before finally doing the action that gives them the sweet.
Why?
‘That children expect to be taught is the vital difference. While apes can copy, most researchers believe that they do not teach each other.’
This means that, while chimps do learn from each other, they pay closer attention to cause and effect when observing, rather than assuming the chimp they’re watching knows best.
Speaking to Science magazine, cognitive scientist Laura Schulz from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says:
‘We have a very strong bias to assume others are acting rationally. I think this is good, robust evidence that children around the world treat adults as rational and imitate them even if they don't understand what the adult is doing — especially if they don't know what the adult is doing.’
But it’s not just kids doing it. Like the happy world of Haribo, grown-ups love it, too.
It’s why LinkedIn users can’t get enough of the alleged daily schedules of successful people. (5 a.m. ultramarathon, anyone?)
But correlation isn’t causation, and the reason why Elon Musk is rich isn’t because he always has an omelette for breakfast.
Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg is known for constantly wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans, but that’s not why he’s successful. Sure, his fashion choices might be something people talk about, but if he hadn’t co-founded Facebook, nobody would be talking about him at all, let alone about what he’s wearing.
Therein lies my point.
People see what big brands say and assume THAT’s why they’re successful. Sure, having an interesting ToV might help, but that’s not what gets the Starburst out of the box.
Their branding decisions are successful because they have the requisite reputation, budget, strategic planning, and media reach to see ROI from them — not because writing in a more or less informal way is a key trigger for purchase.
And yet copywriters at SMEs often try to ape (pun intended) the tactics deployed by big brands, even though they don’t know the strategy behind those decisions.
For example:
Imagine you’re setting up a new brand of bottled smoothies.
Both your biggest competition and inspiration is Innocent Smoothies, so you decide to copy what they’re doing. You design some wacky packaging, send out a load of quirky tweets, then ask Sainsbury’s if they want to buy ten pallets of it. Spoiler alert: they don’t. Because that’s not why Innocent went from start-up to smash-hit.
Innocent’s (at the time) unique branding may have contributed to their success, but it was far from foundational. It was the business decisions they made as part of a wider strategy that made Innocent what it is today, not putting jokes on the labels.
New Smoothies Ltd would be better off observing what Innocent did when they they started out: namely selling at music festivals, finding that difficult first investor, selling drinks to local cafés, and eventually winning a trial run at Waitrose.
Or, better yet, do the same with a younger, medium-sized smoothie business for a more up-to-date steer on what you should do. Because, just like how getting up at 3 a.m. for an ice bath won’t make you a billionaire, copying a big brand’s ToV won’t make you a big brand.
Take your brand’s copy seriously by all means, but think about how your copywriting skills can be more fruitfully applied for the stage you’re at. Writing convincing emails is more important at the start than writing a ‘brand bible’. Actually, scratch that — writing convincing emails is always more important than having a brand bible.
Tl;dr: Without an understanding of the complex strategy behind the output of big brands, mindlessly copying their tactics is pointless.
Otherwise you’re no different to a child tapping a box with a stick, hoping that a Starburst falls out. And even chimps know not to bother with that.
Comments, questions, suggestions? Send them all to: theboss@duckmancopy.com