I have helped organizations define their brand tone and improved their ability to stand out in a crowded market. The tone clarification exercises and resulting guidelines simplify the asset creation process internally and with outside partners, making it less confusing and more fun for companies to produce good work.
These sample exercises demonstrate a brand tone building process. Each brand is different and requires a unique approach, but these steps provide an overview of how I approach defining brand tone.
It is helpful to know who you are not. An organization often has a clear understanding of how they do not want to be perceived. This is a useful exercise to help stakeholders acclimate to the tone defining process.
writing within a defined tone
I worked with B2B giant Deel on experiences promoting their enterprise services. The offers on hand were fine, but using the brand’s tone creatively made for more engaging copy (25% off is forgettable, but saving a million dollars is compelling).
defining a tone and writing in it
I worked with senior leadership at Crooked to define the tone of the brand, coordinated with show writers to establish tone guidelines and wrote copy for merchandise.
