Every now and again, I come across a killer brand voice example that glazes my eyes with stars. Whether it’s a personality larger than Bon Jovi’s 80’s hair, the wit of a half-sozzled uncle, or in this case – ultimate creep factor.
To be honest, these stellar brand voice examples are few and far between. So when I stumbled across Fugglers, and landed in god damn brand voice heaven – I had to share it with ya.
Seriously, these legends are truly one of a (creepy) kind. Clever, creative and… just a little bit worrying. Let’s dive teeth-first (that’ll make sense soon) into this epic brand voice example and what makes them bloody exceptional.
Brand Voice Profile
Sounds: Conversational, cheeky, shocking
Feels: Creepy, clever, cool
Brand Personality Playlist: The Renegade
How it’s achieved: Key brand terms, shorter sentences, creative marketing, self-deprecating humour, disruptive punctuation, consciously playful word-choice.
What Makes the Fuggler Brand Voice So Damn Epic?
Here we’ll cover three standout elements of the Fuggler Brand Voice:
- Rule-breaking Brand Elements
- Memorable Brand Quirks
- Clever Opt-ins
Rule-breaking Brand Elements
9.99 times out of 10, brands use sales psychology within their marketing strategies to encourage purchasing. You’ll see this in the form of a brand’s dazzling benefits, their positive life impact and essentially, cleverly strategised copy designed to motivate you to buy.
Yeah, this brand didn’t approach key sales psychology methods in the same way.
So when Fugglers broke that traditional mould? They instantly blew minds everywhere.
The thing is, brands use sales psychology techniques because they work.
You know that feeling of – “how did they know I was thinking that!?”
Yeah, that’s from extensive customer research.
When the CTA button says learn more and not shop now?
That’s because you’re not ready to make a purchase yet, and that brand knows it.
…And those little popups telling you that someone in Hobart just purchased X?
Turns out they work too.
But for the creative team behind Fugglers, they went against the grain. They’re constantly telling their reader why they shouldn’t purchase. And completely playing up perceived negatives such as ugliness, ‘sabotaging your own happiness’ and choosing your ‘toothy weirdo.’
Their website’s hero text is particularly intriguing. “You… Really want one of these things?” They’re tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating. It’s shocking, unexpected and hilarious all-in-one.
Even once you’ve made a purchase, the brand’s packaging warns you yet again.
Key Takeaways: Brand elements have the potential to create serious brand differentiators. In this brand voice example, self-deprecating focus on perceived negatives translates as a strength.
Memorable Brand Quirks
There’s something strangely adorable about these little weirdos. But if you haven’t noticed yet, their teeth are particularly life-like. Turns out the Fuggler lovers think so too, so Fugglers have adopted it as a clear brand quirk and you’ll find teeth references every-damn-where.
Teethy tunes in their FAQs:
Front and centre on their Instagram bio:
Even in their product descriptions:
“Grinning from ear-to-ear, a Fuggler’s tiny mouth is filled with human-like teeth, and their less-than-pearly whites are big, realistic and totally weird, so beware!”
Key Takeaways: Key terms, phrases and themes play an important role in any brand voice. For the legends at Fugglers, they’ve made a conscious effort to focus on the creepy-cool human-like teeth Fugglers have and regularly reference this interesting point of difference.
Clever Opt-Ins
“Don’t worry, we won’t spam you” … “We hate spam, too – none from us, babe” …
These are the types of brand claims we’re used to seeing for email sign-up boxes.
But in true Fuggler fashion, the brand takes the complete opposite approach.
To sign up for the Fuggler’s mailing list, you’re warned not once, but twice about why you should definitely not sign up.
This is a seriously gutsy move and really takes the Fuggler’s customer experience to a whole new level of creepy-coolness.
Take their button copy for example:
Then once you’ve clicked through to ‘sign up & regret everything,’ you’re outright told that spam is probably lurking inside after your subscribe…
Then if we look to typical ‘new customer’ opt-ins for e-commerce stores, shiny sales blare in neon across the screen.
50% off… Free shipping… Discount codes… You name it. You’ve seen it.
But have you ever seen a ‘0% off’ sale? Nope, me either.
Yet that’s exactly what Fugglers has done. Those spiteful little weirdos.
Key Takeaways: Brand voice elements such as personality are particularly influential when extended to standard brand areas such as opt-ins and sales.
Unexpected Finishing Touches
Just when you think you have this brand all figured out, they surprise you yet again. Fugglers means ‘Funny-Ugly Monsters.’ Yeah, not exactly what I was thinking either. They’re candidly not what you think they are (yet again) and you can’t help but want to discover more.
Similarly, purchasing from Fugglers isn’t like purchasing from a regular store. Well, like, it is. But because of their voice and how it’s used, this feels different and interesting. In particular their ‘adoption process’ feels personable and sweet.
The Fuggler ‘adoption process’ feels far more intimate than a simple shop to choose a new toy from. Fuggler’s conscious choice to include the reader in their less than traditional purchasing process is clever, perfectly encompasses their self-deprecating brand voice and adds a multi-dimensional narrative to the brand story.
Key Takeaways: Using conscious wording to excite the reader and jazz up mundane areas (such as brand names and purchasing processes) is a dynamite way to keep your potential customer or client engaged.
Fugglers Creepy-Cool Brand Voice
By mixing playful wording, self-deprecating humour, creative marketing and clever sentence structure, Fugglers is a brand voice example we can all appreciate. Has the creepy-cool excellence of this voice got you thinking about your own brand voice?
Check out our brand voice packages to find your perfect fit – let’s give you a brand voice worth shouting about!
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