Brand voice

Brand Voice

When to Activate

• A company needs to define its brand voice for the first time
• Existing copy feels inconsistent across channels or teams
• A rebrand or brand refresh is underway
• New writers or agencies are being onboarded
• The brand is expanding into new channels (podcast, TikTok, community)
• Customer feedback suggests the brand "sounds different" in different places
• A voice audit is requested

First Questions

1. What three to five adjectives describe how you want your brand to sound?
2. Who is your primary audience, and how do they speak among themselves?
3. Which brands (in any industry) have a voice you admire, and why?
4. What voice traits would be actively wrong for your brand?
5. Are there specific contexts where your tone needs to shift (support, crisis, celebration)?
6. How many people create content on behalf of the brand today?
7. Do you have any existing voice documentation, even informal?

Core Concept: Voice vs Tone

Voice is your brand's personality. It stays consistent everywhere. Think of it as who you are.

Tone is the emotional inflection applied to that voice depending on context. Think of it as how you adapt to the room.

Analogy: A person's personality (voice) stays the same whether they are at a funeral or a birthday party, but their manner (tone) shifts appropriately.

Voice Attribute Framework

Define voice using three to five attribute pairs. Each pair names the trait and draws a boundary to prevent overextension.

Attribute	But Not
Confident	Arrogant
Friendly	Flippant
Expert	Jargon-heavy
Bold	Reckless
Warm	Saccharine

For each attribute, provide:

1. Definition — one sentence explaining what this trait means for the brand.
2. In practice — a concrete behavior (e.g., "We use first-person plural 'we' to sound inclusive").
3. Boundary — where the trait crosses the line (e.g., "We never mock competitors by name").
4. Before/After example — a real sentence rewritten to demonstrate the attribute.

Tone Spectrum by Context

Map tone shifts across common brand situations:

Context	Tone Shift	Example
Product launch	Energetic, celebratory	"We've been building this for months — and it's finally here."
Customer support	Calm, empathetic, clear	"We understand this is frustrating. Here's exactly what's happening and what we're doing about it."
Error/outage	Direct, accountable, no humor	"Our checkout system is down. We're working on it and will update every 30 minutes."
Thought leadership	Authoritative, measured	"The data suggests a shift that most teams haven't accounted for yet."
Social/casual	Playful, conversational	"Monday called. We sent it to voicemail."
Crisis communication	Serious, human, transparent	"We take this seriously. Here's what we know, what we've done, and what happens next."
Sales enablement	Confident, benefit-focused	"Teams using [Product] close 23% faster — here's how."

Voice Documentation Template

# [Brand Name] Voice Guide

## Our Voice in Three Words
1. [Attribute] — [one-sentence definition]
2. [Attribute] — [one-sentence definition]
3. [Attribute] — [one-sentence definition]

## We Are / We Are Not
- We are [trait]. We are not [overextension].
- We are [trait]. We are not [overextension].
- We are [trait]. We are not [overextension].

## How We Write
- Sentence structure: [short and punchy / longer and flowing / mixed]
- Vocabulary level: [accessible to all / industry-informed / technical]
- Person: [first person plural "we" / second person "you" / third person]
- Contractions: [yes / selectively / no]
- Humor: [frequent / occasional / rare / never]
- Jargon: [embrace it / translate it / avoid it]

## Tone by Situation
[Table mapping context → tone shift → example]

## Words We Love
[List of words and phrases that feel on-brand]

## Words We Avoid
[List of words and phrases that feel off-brand, with alternatives]

## Before & After Examples
[3-5 pairs showing off-brand copy rewritten on-brand, with annotations]

Before/After Examples

Off-brand (generic corporate): "We are pleased to announce the launch of our new product, which leverages cutting-edge technology to deliver best-in-class solutions for enterprise customers."

On-brand (confident, clear, human): "We built [Product] because teams kept telling us the same thing: reporting takes too long. Now it takes five minutes."

Off-brand (trying too hard to be casual): "OMG you guys!!! We literally CANNOT with how amazing this update is!! You're gonna FREAK!!"

On-brand (energetic but controlled): "This update changes how you work with dashboards. We're genuinely excited — and we think you will be too."

Voice Audit Checklist

Use this to evaluate existing content against the voice guide:

• Does this sound like it was written by the same "person" as other brand content?
• Can you identify at least two of the three voice attributes in this piece?
• Is the tone appropriate for the context (support, marketing, crisis)?
• Are any "words we avoid" present?
• Would a new team member understand the brand personality from reading this?
• Does the vocabulary match the target audience's level?
• Is the humor level (if any) appropriate for the channel and situation?
• Read it aloud — does it sound natural, or forced?

Common Pitfalls

1. Confusing voice with visual brand. Voice is how you write, not how you look.
2. Making voice guides too abstract. "Innovative" means nothing without examples and boundaries.
3. Forgetting tone shifts. A single "voice" applied identically everywhere sounds robotic or inappropriate.
4. Writing aspirational voice, not actual voice. Document what the brand sounds like today, then evolve deliberately.
5. No enforcement mechanism. A voice guide nobody references is decoration. Build it into review checklists and onboarding.

Quality Gate

Before finalizing a voice guide, confirm:

• Three to five voice attributes are defined with boundaries and examples
• Tone spectrum covers at least five contexts (launch, support, crisis, social, thought leadership)
• At least three before/after examples demonstrate the voice in action
• Words-we-love and words-we-avoid lists have 10+ entries each
• The guide is concise enough to be usable (not a 40-page PDF nobody reads)
• At least two stakeholders have validated that the guide "sounds like us"
• The guide includes channel-specific notes where voice adapts (email vs social vs docs)