Then go back and rework, slowly, and read your writing out loud. It is only once you define the core purpose of your communication that you can start to build your tone of voice. In one of ad, Lego recreated in stunning detail the most famous sights of the world. This may seem like a tall order until we consider the use of our own language in everyday life. Lego used the simplest technology possible: blocks. Thinking about the best way to sum up the tone, how to get it working across everything else and how to get other people doing it in case their writer got run over by a bus all came later.
The following list is our picks for ten great brand guidelines. Technical language Exercise: Try reading your copy aloud. Libertine, thus, addresses an area previously neglected by the media — inner beauty. Nike places so much importance on branding, they gave their football equipment its own brand manual. Get more content like this:. Not who you might be tomorrow, but what you look and sound like today. We see wild exuberance—some faces calling to mind the passion and thrill of winning, others exuding the primal tension of a coming riot.
Storytelling version: Scottish Widows has transformed the lives of both women and men, and will continue to do so for many years to come. The true holy grail is the style guide—and the same is true for anyone working in social media. I am thinking, in particular, of trying to embrace the finer things in life while being tech nerds here. Helvetica and Roman are the only fonts allowed. Never cheesy, never shy, Macaroni Grill presents a beautiful manual that has something new to say in the Italian restaurant chain—higher scale than Olive Garden, but with a menu and atmosphere that appeals to a more compromising American palette. Rather, it must grow out of who you already are as a company.
What makes a good story? The aim is not for your audience to remark on your great writing but, instead, to remark on your great business. Exercise: How would you describe your company in three different ways, using different degrees of colloquial language? Instead, an innocent brand will charm you with something more powerful: Nostalgia. Exercise: Form a focus group or interview customers and ask them to describe your brand using single words or short phrases. Perhaps we should all get less hung up on restrictive clauses. Such trouble is exactly what a punk-identified brand covets, this all bolstering its story as one of doing things differently. Moreover, the writers may be accused of an inability to express themselves well or of being recklessly offensive. It pays homage to the flavours that were never turned into ice cream with its — a visitable place with makeshift tombs and plaques.
Many branding or brand language companies are happy to sell that to clients. Work out how you feel about language by mulling over these considerations. If values are what you say, personality is how you say it. A good tone has a point of view The reason a lot of brands struggle with tone of voice is that they shy away from the one thing that makes them and their tone more interesting — a point of view. Beyond earning an income, what was the drive behind it all? Lots of companies have tone of voice guidelines; not many brands have a memorable tone of voice. We almost started with our core values before anything else - a few years of research had taught me that consistency with those was key to being authentic from a consumer perspective.
Take and , for example; both sell skincare products. Yet each has its own unique approach. This is how we begin most projects. Carl Jung Joseph Campbell Margaret Mark Psychologist who introduced the term Archetype in 1919 Demonstrated that the collective unconscious is cross-cultural 1949 Applied Archetypes to Marketing and Branding Archetypes are a collectively-inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc. The style guidelines recognize this, and they appear to be a little more lenient than most of the style guides looked at here. All copy might have to be sent to an editing team before publishing, for example.
How did you go about shaping your tone of voice? Chapter 3 Funny business: the role of humour Humorous sites such as Buzzfeed and Cracked are currently dominating the internet. The University of Connecticut has a nice one designed by Peter Good. Colloquialisms and slang The use of colloquial language is a sure-fire way of injecting personality. There are some grammatical rules you may not wish to follow because you see them to be out-of-date or unhelpful to your way of speaking. What gave Innocent the edge? In turn, it seems likely that other brands will follow suit in their use of comedy. While some of these may seem like small and unnecessary details, they paint a much bigger picture.
In addition, a guide will serve as a critical tool for training new content team members. Using links Shortening your links on social will not only free up more room for copy in your posts, it will also give you a measurable way to. Image and design guidelines The images and design assets you use on social media should be closely aligned with the visuals your business uses everywhere else. Everyone who works here knows the innocent story inside out. However, there may be times when it lends a certain gravity to a sentence. For example, politicians tend to speak using short, simple sentences as a way of projecting the idea of honesty and self-evident universal truths.