TOV SOS
Tone of Voice Guidelines are a critical part of any brand deck – but they don’t always shine as brightly as they could. We’ve called out the biggest offenders when it comes to getting to the core of your brand’s personality.
Too much talk, not enough trouser
We all love a big, clever headline that’s concise and witty, and looks great in a shop window with a sleek graphical treatment.
But one clever headline doesn’t define a tone of voice. While it’s great to have gold standard copy examples in your guidelines, the best guides also have a curated selection of real-world examples that show off the nuances of the tone across your messages and platforms. Not just in showcase copy, but the everyday bits too.
Too many bells and whistles
Hey it sounds good, it looks good, and has lots of clever branding words in it. But so many of the guides we see are theoretical examples that don’t help writers on a practical level. Tone guidelines should be easy to implement – without needing 30 years‘ copywriting experience and a PhD in Marketing.
Incomplete or impractical tone values
Tone values (e.g. words like expert, witty, and evocative) must be robust enough to carry the brand voice. For example, we often see words in guidelines that aren’t actually tone values at all, but rather, brand values or personas. For example, affluent or home-maker. Similarly, words like cosy or modern that reflect, say, the brand’s products. If in doubt, ask yourself, “how would I write in an [affluent] tone of voice’? If the answer is I don’t know, or it’s complicated, then you might need to reassess your chosen tone values.
Conflicting ideas
Strawberries and cream. Mario and Luigi. Netflix and chill. Some things just go together. Others…don’t. Tone values should never outwardly contradict each other (e.g. playful with buttoned-up). A little tension between values is fine (e.g. playful with trustworthy), – and in fact this tension is necessary to strike difference and achieve a unique voice. But too much tension just leads to confusion and makes your writers’ jobs very difficult.
Yawn factor
Be honest: is it boring? Do people (including you) actually want to read it, or is it a long and confusing document that’s just gonna sit gathering digital dust?
We see way too many vanilla (and AI-generated) tone guidelines that aren’t really about tone at all – they’re just basic guidelines that any brand would follow. Simply being “friendly, professional and enthusiastic” does not constitute a tone of voice. Your guidelines need to be distinctive, nuanced, engaging, and push your brand into an original, ownable space.
Conflating tone with messaging
‘What we say’ and ‘how we say it’ are easy enough to separate in theory. But it’s surprisingly common for tone guides to creep into messaging practices rather than pure tone…
Need brand voice guidelines that actually... guide you? Give us a shout and we can talk about how to help your brand’s tone of voice shine at its brightest.