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.

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## 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`)

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## 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

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## 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.

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## 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).

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## 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