up:: [[Modern Entrepreneurship Toolkit (METK)]] tags:: #on/branding #on/copywriting # Tone of Voice for Brands Everybody talks differently, as an artifact from their upbringing, culture, experiences, and media consumed. *A good exercise is to imagine brands as **people**, how would they speak?* Language is culture, a lot of companies focus on their external tone of voice but overlook their internal tone of voice in everyday communications (i.e. emails, meeting notes, etc.). Imagine your brand wants to say that something is good, can you say: - It is good. - It is sick! - It is stupendous. (more complex, higher class) - It is great! (staying on the safe side). - It is amazing! (bit of an energetic word). - It is awesome! (targeted as a specific age group). - It is dope! (targeted as a specific age group). Different writers would bring their own personal experiences to a copy even if they were following a tone of voice guide, this is a good thing. The idea is to establish a guide, but not a set of rules. *Tone of voice helps people form a **relationship** with your brand.* It is difficult to imagine forming a relationship with someone that constant changes how they talk to you (e.g., a friend who completely changes their way they speak every few days); that relationship would be difficult, much like it would be for brands. Now, some examples of tone of voice: > The leathery, undeteriorative, and almost indestructible quality was an inherent attribute of the thing's form of organization, and pertained to some paleogean cycle of invertebrate evolution utterly beyond our powers of speculation. - H.P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness" Lovecraft fans love this sentence, it is in the region of 35-words, very few stops, and contains some difficult words. It is definitely fitting only for some specific audience. > Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. - John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath" Steinbeck's sentence is just as long, but contains much simpler words with some repetitions. This tone of voice is more application towards a wider audience. > This oat milk ad came to Log Angeles looking to make it as a giant billboard on sunset. Oh well. - Oatly, Bench Ad > We've made a new drink. It's blue. It's tasty. It's blue. It's good for you. It's blue. It's made from apple, line, guava, and coconut water. It's blue. It's boosted with vitamins. It's blue. It's the perfect subject for a Venn diagram. Did we mention it's blue? - Innocent Drinks, Facebook Advert These are very conversational and playful, note the use of short sentences and the speech pattern that mirrors young children. Other examples incorporate using number directly instead of text (i.e., "2 of 5 benefits" vs. "two out of five dentists", starting sentences with numbers). This is intended as a very natural tone of voice. > I'm so mad at you, I can't believe you did that is amazing. - Tiffany & Co., Print Advert The undertone is that between "did/that" the other person in the conversation pulled out a piece of Tiffany jewelry. This is a sentence structure that deliberately pivoted its focus mid-sentence. The idea is to express that life and change in an instant. The same pattern is also used in some insurance company copy, followed by the reassurance that you are covered regardless of the changes in life. Note the use of punctuation and lack of usage. *Remember that communication is **relative**, a single brand or person would talk **differently** under different context when talking to different people (or other brands).* Reflecting on how your personally change the way you talk in different situations will help with understanding tone of voice. --- Related: - [[Creating a Tone of Voice Guide]] Resources: - [Tone of Voice in Copywriting for Brands](https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/3681-tone-of-voice-in-copywriting-for-brands)