Tone of voice of your brand. Let's figure out what it is and why

How many voices does your brand have? I mean, how and where do you talk to clients? Nowadays copywriters, social media managers, chatbots, LLM engines, voice assistants, video avatars communicate on behalf of the company, and if you don’t initially give them a single tone, you will get a cart with all the wheels different and pulling in different directions. Audiences want human interaction: According to Sprout Social, 55% of users will choose a brand for which content is created by people, not AI. The strict “corporate” tone is also irrelevant; it is perceived as dry and dissatisfied, especially by the zoomer generation. Tone of voice is precisely what is needed to determine how you speak and to unite the entire choir of your communications into a single system. The article explained what it is, why it is needed, how to choose and how to use it. 

What is the tone of voice of the brand

Tone of voice (TOV, literally: tone of voice) regulates brand communications. It is written in the brand book and contains clear instructions on how to talk to the audience in all channels. TOV is part positioning strategies, often becomes the company's calling card. It’s hard to imagine that Aviasales will suddenly write a legal manual on insurance, and the Ministry of Finance will send a notification in the style of “baby, how are you?” 

The brand voice unites the team. Copywriters, designers and marketers quickly find common language and reach consensus, even if they work from different countries. 

Why does a brand need its own TOV?

Here are the main tasks that tone of voice solves:

1. Works for recognition. The audience recognizes you from a thousand only by your voice: as if one person is answering the phone, direct message or website. 

2. Sets the framework. You won’t need to return the text with edits 10 times; you immediately say what you need. 

3. Reduces reputational risks. TOV can indicate your attitude towards controversial topics, politics, and so on. As a result, you have less chance of getting to the top with a scandalous screenshot from the comments or having to explain yourself to the RKN. 

4. Helps you scale easily. You can safely test new formats and social networks, launch automatic newsletters, and so on. 

5. Gathers his own. When you clearly adhere to one line, those who come to you are attracted to you, comment, support and buy. If you change something, the audience may run away. 

What does tone of voice consist of?

The TOV guidelines first record the character of the brand: it can be calm, energetic, bold, serious, ironic or as neutral as possible. 

Next, the vocabulary is written down: what words are needed and allowed? Conventionally, do you use professional terminology or speak the language of zoomers? Are emojis and gifs acceptable? 

In addition, it is important to indicate how sentences are constructed. Are you cutting like Mayakovsky or are you writing a second “War and Peace”? How do you address the audience, on you or on you? From what person are you writing? 

How emotional and empathetic can communication be? It's safest to choose a bland neutral style, but many others will do the same. When you go beyond the boundaries and show emotions, you will be remembered better, but besides the fans, there will also be haters.  

An important point: adaptability, it also needs to be indicated in the manual. The tone of voice may vary slightly depending on the channel, for example, in the support service the answers are more calm and sympathetic, in advertising - energetic, in social networks - less formal. The guidelines specify the degree of permissible deviations.

And one more thing: taboo. What can’t be used under any circumstances, even if you really want the hype? This is especially true in an era of global turbulence, when even a neutral post can provoke a conflict. 

Tonality model: 4 dimensions

This model was invented by researchers at Nielsen Norman Group, one of the most respected UX laboratories in the world, in 2016. The idea is simple: any tone of voice can be assessed in four gradations. Similar to the settings in the audio editor interface, move the sliders left and right until you find the desired timbre. 

1. Formal → informal. A purely formal tone suits fintech, government services, and medicine. Completely informal - for services, marketplaces, technology startups. 

2. Serious → funny. Humor enhances recognition, but can work to the detriment of marketing, for example, in the text of a plastic surgery clinic or in a mobile notification where you were denied a loan. 

3. Respectful → irreverent. In this context, irreverence often means not an attitude towards clients, but a provocative presentation of topics. 

4. Facts → enthusiasm. This is about how you present information: clearly, with facts and figures, or with enthusiasm for the product.  

Imagine each gradation as a scale, for example, 100 percent, and put together a cocktail: 15% informal, 70% respectful, +10% humor, seasoned with enthusiasm. To check what works best, take one message and write it in different versions, for example:

1. An error has occurred. We are working to eliminate it.

2. It seems like something went wrong. Just a minute of patience, we'll fix everything now. 

3. Who touched this button?? Just kidding, this is a temporary glitch, the team has already left. 

4. Thanks for noticing! We are already fixing the problem!

Which one is closer to your positioning and will appeal to the audience more?

Typical types of tone of voice and examples of brands 

Conservative/serious

Used in finance, B2B, infrastructure, government services.
Character: formal, precise, without unnecessary emotions. As an example, State Services will do: exemplary restraint and not a hint of humor. 

Friendly/human

Suitable for services, e-commerce, logistics, lifestyle. Personality: warm, understandable, communicates in conversational language. Examples: Yandex Food, Cooper.

Humorous/ironic

This is an option for entertainment services, travel aggregators, and manufacturers with a strong brand. Character: easy-going, engaging, with a good personality. Examples: obviously, Aviasales, you can also add 2GIS, Read-Gorod. 

Professional/Expert

Suitable for IT, industry, financial services, medical technology. Character: speaks confidently, to the point, with terminology, but without arrogance. Examples: Yandex Cloud, hh.ru statistics. 

familiar/familiar 

It is chosen by youth brands, pizzerias and bars, and merch manufacturers. Character: “Hey, friend, come in!” Examples: Dodo Pizza (especially on social networks), Burger King. 

Mentoring/training

Relevant for EdTech, psychological support services, coaching companies.
Character: soft expertise, “we’ll tell you how to do it right.” Examples: Yandex Workshop, RBC Trends.  

Provocative / bold

This tone of voice is possible in the field of fashion, cosmetics, and 18+ products; it is often chosen by creative studios. Character: harsh wording, phrases on the verge of a foul. It is important to take the blow here; any provocation leads to the same response. Examples: Durex Russia, Vizit. 

How to choose your tone of voice

1. Define the company's values and mission. Based on these, select three adjectives that most accurately describe the brand.  

2. Highlight the main advantages of goods/services, their differences from analogues. 

3. Make a portrait of your target audience and see how they speak in reviews, comments and correspondence. 

4. Decide what distance you keep: equal as a friend, close as a mentor, slightly higher as an expert. 

5. Go through the tonal model and create your own formula. 

6. Please be aware of industry restrictions - YMYL services require responsible handling. 

7. Lock in a TOV that you can hold for years, including when scaling and entering a new market. 

How to create a guide for a team

The guide is written when branding development or separately, in any form, but it needs to indicate who your brand is as an interlocutor, what vocabulary it uses (acceptable words, stop words, slang, English words, emojis/gifs, etc.). In addition, the guide provides recommendations on syntax, sentence length, active or passive voice, and always provides examples of “how to do” and “how to do under no circumstances.” If this is a document for everyone, add adaptation for channels: how the brand sounds in social networks, in service messages, in push notifications and technical support. Final: list of prohibited topics and wording. 

Implementation of tone of voice in all channels

The first thing to do is to rewrite the key points of contact with the user under TOV. This is the main page and “About the company”, product cards, system letters/messages, chatbot and support service scripts, social network profiles, advertising banners. 

Inform all authors of the new rules; it is better to do this in the format of a meeting or call. If you go through 5 examples of what to do and what not to do on the air, and discuss common mistakes, the next text will be in the right tone. But this does not mean that after one conference call you can forget about the guide; on the contrary, apply it to each task, record it in your work folders, make a checklist for self-testing or an agent in the neural network so that you can quickly go over the main points. 

For technical support, a separate regulation is needed, since there are more emotions there than in the usual “Can you tell me the price?” People who have already encountered problems come here, so even a provocative TOV needs to be softened. Polite treatment, understanding of the problem and help with its solution, direct formulations: “We will do it”, “We will check”, each answer must be beneficial for the client is required. The ending is always neutral: “If you need help, we are in touch.”

Common mistakes

1. The tone of voice is chosen like Durex, but you are sewing teddy bears. There will be a significant desynchronization, at first it may be possible to advance due to hype, but in the long run something will have to change. 

2. The guide is not elaborate, only general words: “TOV is confident, lively, energetic.” There are no examples and anti-examples, taboos and other things. As a result, each member of the team reads it like a horoscope and applies it in the same way. 

3. You want to joke, but don't follow the topic. If you don’t have a brilliant social media manager who knows how to stay within limits, a scandal cannot be avoided. 

4. On social networks you are the soul of the company, and in technical support, any problem will be answered by a stern saleswoman from the 90s: “There are many of you, but I am alone!” 

5. Replaced all people with AI. At first, you will have a neophyte's delight in smooth texts and round-the-clock communication. A month later, it turns out that the neural network, without control, confuses important nuances, does not grasp the context, and periodically switches to English. The audience sees this perfectly and goes to humane competitors. 

Do you want your brand's voice to be louder than your competitors? Fill out the brief, we’ll do everything wisely and prepare it for implementation across all channels.