brand-voice

Brand Voice

Define how a brand sounds in writing. Document it in a way that anyone (writer, designer, founder, AI assistant) can apply it consistently.

This skill produces a standalone voice document that can either live in the brand style guide or feed into it.

When to use

• Defining brand voice for the first time
• Auditing existing copy for voice consistency
• Training a team, freelancer, or AI assistant on the brand voice
• Refining a voice that exists but is inconsistent across applications
• Adapting voice when a brand evolves (new audience, new positioning)

When NOT to use

• Writing specific copy (use content-and-copy)
• Brand visual identity work (use brand-identity)
• Documenting a complete brand system (use brand-style-guide, which incorporates voice)
• Initial brand exploration (use brand-ideation)

Required inputs

• The brand and its positioning
• The audience and what they need to hear
• 5 to 10 examples of existing brand writing (if any)
• 3 to 5 reference brands whose voice resonates with where this brand should go
• Any voice attributes already specified in the brief

The framework: 4 layers

Voice has four layers, stacked. Each layer constrains the one below it.

Layer 1: Voice attributes

The constants. The personality traits that define how the brand sounds across every context.

Pick 3 to 5 attributes. Pair each with what it is NOT (the failure mode if overdone).

Common attribute pairings (NOT a menu - generate your own):

• Confident, not arrogant
• Direct, not blunt
• Warm, not saccharine
• Witty, not sarcastic
• Smart, not academic
• Honest, not harsh
• Playful, not silly
• Practical, not boring
• Bold, not loud
• Curious, not unfocused

The "not" half is what saves writers from overshooting. "Confident" alone produces swagger. "Confident, not arrogant" tells writers where the line is.

Layer 2: Tone shifts

Voice is constant. Tone adapts to context.

Map the major contexts the brand writes in. For each, document how voice expresses differently.

Common contexts:

| Context | Tone shift | |---|---| | Onboarding | Warmer, more enthusiastic, slightly slower pace | | Hero / marketing | Confident, signature voice fully on | | Product copy / UX | Direct, helpful, brief | | Error messages | Calm, matter-of-fact, no apology theater | | Success states | Brief celebration, redirect to next action | | Empty states | Helpful, slightly playful, suggest action | | 404 / not found | Self-aware, light, points the way home | | Account deletion / cancellation | Quiet, respectful, no jokes | | Pricing | Direct, transparent, confidence-inspiring | | Legal / TOS | Plain language version sits next to the legal version | | Support / help center | Patient, thorough, no condescension | | Crisis communication | Calm, factual, accountable | | Product announcements | Excited but not breathless | | Email subject lines | Specific, never click-bait |

Voice stays consistent across all of these. Tone is what shifts.

Layer 3: Vocabulary and grammar

The granular dial settings.

Vocabulary preferences:

• Words and phrases the brand uses
• Words and phrases the brand avoids
• Words the brand has redefined (if any) - e.g., a SaaS product calling its features "huddles" instead of "meetings"
• Industry jargon: keep it (signals expertise) or strip it (signals approachability)
• Sentence-opening preferences (some brands lean on imperatives, some on questions, some on statements)

Grammar and style:

• Contractions (use them = casual, avoid them = formal)
• Sentence length default (short = punchy, medium = considered, long = literary)
• Punctuation marks favored or avoided (em dash is famously polarizing)
• Pronouns ("we" / "you" / "I")
• Capitalization style (title case, sentence case, all-lowercase deliberate)
• Number formatting (spell out under ten, or always digits)
• Oxford comma (use or skip)
• Active vs passive voice (most brands prefer active)

Layer 4: Examples and patterns

Voice is taught through examples, not rules. Build a library.

For each major content type, show:

• Bad example (off-voice)
• Good example (on-voice)
• Brief note on what changed

Common content types to cover:

• Headline
• Subheadline
• Hero CTA
• Feature description
• Testimonial intro
• Email subject line
• Email opening
• Push notification
• Error message
• Success message
• About page paragraph
• Social post
• Sales page paragraph

Aim for 15 to 25 paired examples. This is the most-used part of the voice doc in practice.

Workflow

1. Audit existing copy if it exists. Identify what is on-brand, what is off, what patterns recur.
2. Layer 1: Voice attributes. Generate 5 to 8 candidates with "we are X, not Y" framing. Pick 3 to 5.
3. Layer 2: Tone shifts. List 8 to 15 contexts the brand writes in. Note the tone shift for each.
4. Layer 3: Vocabulary and grammar. Define preferences. Skip default rules unless they actually distinguish the brand.
5. Layer 4: Examples. Build the paired-example library. 15 to 25 minimum.
6. Stress-test. Pick a fresh writing brief and apply the voice doc. Does it produce on-voice copy? If not, the doc is incomplete.
7. Document. Use the template in [references/voice-document-template.md](references/voice-document-template.md).
8. Distribute. Voice docs only work if they get used. Make the doc easy to reference inline (link to it from CMS templates, brief templates, AI assistant prompts).

Failure patterns

• Generic attributes ("friendly, professional, approachable"). Every brand says this. Means nothing. Pick attributes that genuinely distinguish.
• No "we are NOT" pairings. Without the rejection, attributes drift toward extremes.
• Voice doc with no examples. Rules without examples cannot be applied.
• Examples that are obviously bad and obviously good. Real voice work shows nuanced shifts, not cartoonish before/after.
• Skipping tone shifts. Treating voice as one-size-fits-all leads to a brand that sounds wrong in error states or legal contexts.
• Documenting aspirational voice. If the brand does not actually sound this way today and has no plan to shift, the doc is fiction.
• Voice without distribution. A perfect doc that no one references is worth nothing.

Output format

Default output is a markdown document at voice.md in the brand folder. Sections:

1. Voice attributes (with we-are-not pairings)
2. Tone shifts by context
3. Vocabulary preferences
4. Grammar and style rules
5. Paired examples library (the most-used section)
6. Anti-patterns (specific phrases or constructions to avoid)
7. References (the brands and writers we are inspired by)

This doc can stand alone or feed into brand-style-guide.

Reference files

• [references/voice-document-template.md](references/voice-document-template.md) - Fillable template.
• [references/voice-frameworks.md](references/voice-frameworks.md) - Detailed walkthrough of the Nielsen Norman 4 dimensions, Jung archetypes, and the "we are X not Y" approach.