In the wonderful world of branding, tone of voice refers to the consistent and distinct style, manner, and attitude of communication that your brand uses across all interactions—both written and spoken. This tone helps convey your brand's personality, values, and overall identity. It's not just about what you say—but how you say it.

The perfect recipe for brand tone of voice

Here are a few ingredients that comprise your brand’s distinctive tone of voice:

Personality: If your brand were a person, what would they be like? Would they be fun or serious, casual or authoritative? How would they speak? Your tone of voice should reflect this personality consistently.
Consistency: When it comes to tone of voice, consistency across all platforms and touchpoints is key—whether it's a website, social media post, ad, email, or customer service interaction. This creates trust and authority in your brand.
Emotion: Tone of voice can evoke specific emotions in your audience. For example, a compassionate and understanding tone might make customers feel cared for, while a humorous tone might make them feel entertained.
Differentiation: A distinct tone of voice can help your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace and set you apart from competitors. This is where authenticity becomes key—we don’t want you sounding like a copycat of the other guys!
Values-Aligned: Your tone of voice should mirror your core values and beliefs. If you value transparency, you might adopt a straightforward and candid tone. If you value creativity, you might have an inspiring and imaginative tone.
Adaptability: While consistency is crucial, your brand's tone of voice should also be flexible enough to adapt contextually. For example, while you might maintain a playful tone on social media, you may need to adopt a more serious tone in investor communications.

Steps to defining your tone of voice

Follow this simple formula to define your brand’s tone of voice.

1) Understand your identity

First, seek to understand your brand’s mission, vision values and audience. Ask questions like:

What do we stand for?
What is our purpose?
Who are we speaking to?

2) Define your personality

With these details in mind, pick out 3-5 attributes to describe your brand if it were a person. For example, your luxury brand might be classy, sophisticated and refined. Your startup might be edgy, bold and vibrant.

3) Set the tone

There are four dimensions of brand tone: Enthusiasm, Formality, Humour, and Respectfulness. You don’t need to lean fully one way or the other—but instead, think of these dimensions on a spectrum and plot where you want your voice to end up.

An example of tone in action —

Let’s say we have two different brands:

A jeweler whose tone of voice is more serious, formal, respectful and matter-of-fact
A clothing store whose tone is more funny, casual, irreverent and enthusiastic

Knowing what we know about their tone of voice, let’s see how these two brands would differ when writing the following messages...

“Our office is closed for the holidays.”

Jeweler — “In observance of the holidays, our establishment is currently closed. We appreciate your understanding.”

Clothing Store — “Hey folks! We're hitting pause and taking a festive break. See ya after the holidays!”

“We’re excited to launch a new offer.”

Jeweler — “We are pleased to present a distinguished new offering.”
Clothing Store — “We're dropping a fresh offer hotter than your grandma's salsa!”

Same message, but entirely different delivery—and that is why defining your tone of voice is so important. Think you’re ready to tune into yours?

Let's Talk Tone of Voice