5 fun exercises to help you find your tone of voice

When it comes to brand tone of voice, most businesses face one of two challenges. Either you try to be everything to everyone: chatty and upbeat one minute, sombre and emotionally intimate the next. Customers are left feeling confused as to who you really are. Or, you’ve established your brand personality but it’s pretty generic. You want to sound human, authentic, professional and friendly. Which is the safe bet, but could mean your customers won’t remember you because your brand sounds just the same as the next one on the shelf.

What’s the solution? Getting really clear on who your brand is, who it’s not and most importantly: why. That means sitting down with a few trusted colleagues (or yourself and a packet of biscuits if it’s just you) and getting specific. But if you’ve never done it before, it can be hard to know what to do once you’ve got the space and time to think about your brand voice. So let me get you started.

First off, what should the ideal brand voice workshop look like? To an extent, that depends on the type and size of the business. But here are the fundamentals:

The right stakeholders

That means anyone with a view on customer need, marketing and communications, as well as those at the very top of the business. If the guestlist exceeds six people online or ten in person, it might be worth splitting down into two workshops.

Time

It’s no good rattling through a jazzy presentation about the brand, leaving five minutes for discussion at the end. You’ve gathered these great minds together, give them the time and space to share their insights, have ideas and solve problems together. If it’s just you, it can feel challenging to dedicate time to just thinking. But the outcome will be worth it. I promise.

Undivided attention

That means phones and laptops away, and notifications off. Having gathered to do this important work, it’s essential that everyone is focused and involved to get the best out of the session.

Relaxed participants

The best ideas happen when everyone feels valued and included. Not everyone will agree all the time, but that’s where the magic happens. Kick off with a quick warm-up activity to get everyone talking and collaborating.

Now the stage is set for a productive and creative brand voice workshop, let’s look at some fun exercises that will get the ideas flowing. The aim of this is to walk away with three or four personality pillars on which to hang your brand voice and your tone of voice guidelines.

1.       The sliding scale

An oldie but a goodie. Create several slides where you have one personality extreme on the left-hand side and the opposing extreme on the right-hand side. In the middle, you have a sliding scale between the two. So you might have Conservative > Extravagant, Necessity > Luxury, Fun > Serious. Choose your sliding scales carefully based on the brand and what you’d like to find out.

Give each participant a Post-it note (or another way to make a mark if working remotely) and let them plot your brand on the sliding scale where they think it should sit. Discuss the results, noting where there’s cohesion and division.

2.       Customer relationship exercise

This exercise explores your brand’s relationship to your customer and the role you play in their life. Ask participants to write down how customers feel before they encounter or approach the brand. For example, if it’s a kitchen company, the customer might feel excited: they’re about to get a new kitchen! But they might also feel wary: is it going to be very expensive?

Now, ask the participants to write down how the customers will feel after interacting with your brand. So, our kitchen customer might feel relieved, even more excited, impatient for the work to begin.

Finally, invite everyone to explore the gap in between. What does your brand need to do to bridge that gap and get customers from point A to point B? Discuss the most popular answers and explore any others the participants find interesting. You should find some golden nuggets that point to your brand personality.

3.       Word buckets

This exercise is great if you’re already writing copy for your brand and you can sense the copy which feels the most ‘you’. You’ll need around ten examples of copy. This could be copy which you feel embodies your brand particularly well or was particularly successful. It could also be copy you like from other brands that share personality traits you aspire to.

You’re going to analyse it word by word. Pick out any words that give you a particular feeling or convey a particular personality. Start creating personality trait buckets with the words underneath.

So, with this copy from Rubies in the Rubble:

“Gooder for your plate. Condiments are more than just a bit on the side. They can transform a sad sarnie or lacklustre lunch!”

We can split out the following personality traits:

Playful

Gooder

Lacklustre lunch

Informal/relatable

Sarnie

Bit on the side

Positive/uplifting

Transform

Gooder

As you explore more copy you can fill those buckets and start to build an idea of what your brand personality might be. Your results can also form part of your tone of voice guide to give anyone who writes for your brand a ready-made list of words that embody the spirit of your brand.

4.       Your business as a person

This one’s great for really getting into the head of your brand as a person. Ask yourself, if you were sat next to your brand on the bus, who are they? Where are they heading? What job do they do? What do they like to do at the weekend? Where do they hang out? What’s their order at the bar? And their ultimate snack? What’s their favourite TV show? And song? Build up as comprehensive a picture of your brand as a person that you can.  

If personifying your brand in this way feels like a bit of a stretch – which it can for B2B businesses – try picking a celebrity spokesperson instead. What is it about this person that makes them perfect to represent your brand?

Discuss your answers, explaining the reasoning behind them.

5.       Personality bingo

This is a good one for the end of the session to find out which personality traits are resonating with your participants. Gather a list of 30 or so personality traits on a big board or page. Include words across a whole spectrum of personalities: accessible, classic, fun, quirky, sleek. Ask each participant to mark three they think best describe your brand.

Again, discuss the results. Where is there most agreement? Are there any outliers that deserve a look-in?

If you have any questions while you plan your workshop, just give me a shout. After your session, I’d love to know how you got on. Find me on LinkedIn or send me an email.