A million different channels, one tone of voice. That would be ideal, wouldn't it? That every time you set out to interact with your audience through your social media channels, website, webinars, etc you want it to sound and more importantly feel the exact same! But does it? If it does not, you're missing the mark with your inconsistent communication.
“Define what your brand stands for, it’s core values and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in those terms.”
— Simon Mainwaring
You may have come across a ton of different strategies online to clarify your brand tone to achieve that much-desired consistency in your communication. Have you found them to be too overwhelming? If yes, I couldn't agree with you more. I am all about making things super simple for you busy creatives, so let's carry out this fun + easy activity to clarify your brand tone! Remember, the results of this activity can always be tweaked and perfected through experimentation. This is just a starting point to get things rolling so for now, just follow the steps and let your intuition guide you!
STEP 1:
List out keywords/phrases that are your brand values. I suggest writing down these keywords in multiples of 2. Write a minimum of 4 but 6 would be ideal.
Let's take an example of an Organic Handmade Soy Candle brand. Now, let's list out the brand values.
Thoughtful, committed, rooted in love, positively aligned, grounded, ethical work
STEP 2:
Next, let's categorize the keywords/phrases into two groups based on their similarity.
Group 1 - Thoughtful, committed, grounded
Group 2 - Rooted in love, positively aligned, ethical work
STEP 3:
This is the fun part! Let's name these groups based on what you think these keywords/phrases represent. Play around with the naming until you feel right about it. These names are the key elements of your brand tone so, try to be thorough.
In our example - thoughtful, grounded, and committed, I feel are the values of a "conscious" brand. So, I will be naming Group 1 as CONSCIOUS.
Our second set of values - rooted in love, positively aligned, and ethical work depicts the "intentions" of the brand. Therefore, the name of Group 2 will be INTENT.
STEP 4:
After you are happy with your group names, simply combine them. What we have here is - CONSCIOUS INTENT. This combined phrase becomes your most basic guideline for your brand tone!
That's it, it's that simple! This phrase will act as a filter for your brand communication from now on. Go on, test it out. When you write your next piece of social media post, website copy, or blog post, etc make sure you pass it through your defined brand tone filter. In the case of our example, ideally, every piece of communication should give a feeling of Conscious Intent to the audience. Make your friends read it and ask them what they feel after. If you see a disconnect, feel free to reword and make tweaks till you hit the nail on the head with clarified communication that emotionally connects with the audience :)
Another awesome benefit of this activity is that the resulting phrase also acts as a filter for your brand identity design. Whether you are branding your creative business for the first time or re-branding it, this guide will help you and your designer set a mood for the future brand identity + narrow down on a creative direction for your brand's identity design based on an already defined tone.
Have fun doing this activity! Comment below with the brand tone filter that you came up with. So excited to be a part of your experiments!
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