From chaos to clarity: a brand voice case study

It’s hard enough identifying your brand voice when it’s your own business, let alone when you inherit something that’s already established. 

Our client came to us, having bought a travel and tourism business. A travel and tourism business that was... how do we say this politely? In a bit of a mess. 

As part of their overhaul of the brand, they wanted to establish a new voice and brand identity that would reflect the new direction of the business.

This was about more than a fancy new website. 

It was about completely redefining the brand’s position and setting them up for success as they took their adopted baby and moved it forward.

Let’s start at the very beginning 

After all, it’s famously a very good place to start. 

We started by letting the client throw all their thoughts at us. 

What was the brand now? 

Who were their customers? 

What were their likes and dislikes? 

What did they need their customers to do? 

What did they want the brand to be in future? 

You get the picture. 

If we’re doing more talking than the client in our discovery meetings, something’s not quite right. All the while, we’re tuning in like Miss Marple, listening to how the client is talking about what they do and how they want to do it. 

We walked away with tired brains, but plenty of juicy nuggets of wisdom to help us start establishing the new and improved brand voice. 

Don’t run before you can walk 

Before developing content to use as brand voice examples, we knew we needed to nail down the mission, vision, values and key messaging for the client. We also had to figure out how these key messages would connect with the brand's target audience. There’s no point coming up with glittering messaging if you’re speaking to the wrong people. 

Not having these before getting stuck into writing is like trying to build a house over quicksand - you have no foundations to keep your content focused and grounded. You don’t have a north star. 

In other words, you’re throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it sticks. 

Getting to the good stuff 

Once all this groundwork had been done, it was time to have some fun. Taking the revamped key messaging, we started developing content relevant to the client that they could use in the future. 

Why do we do this?

Because it gives the client a chance to see the voice in action. It’s only when they see it in real life that they can make informed decisions about whether it’s working. 

Who wants to receive guidelines filled with rules that don’t actually work? Not us. Certainly not our clients. 

Define and refine 

Once these content pieces were perfected, we could start crafting the ‘rule book’ for the client. This is where the spelling, grammar and word nerds truly come to play. 

Let’s look at an example of what this looks like: 

What is the brand name?

Pretty straightforward, right? 

Wrong. 

Consider: 

Do we always call ourselves by that name?

Do we ever use an abbreviation? 

How do we type our name? Is it sentence case or title case? 

Do we use our name differently on different channels? 

Do our customers know us by that name?

This is the kind of detail we’re talking about, people. Suddenly a brand voice becomes much more than three adjectives or ‘personality’ traits on a page. 

Getting to this granular level of detail meant we were able to hand over a foolproof set of guidelines to our client, as well as their fully functioning pieces of content. They now have everything they need to put their best foot forward.

Bob’s your uncle. Sally’s your aunt. 

Now, if you’re reading this thinking, ‘errrm, our brand voice process isn’t nearly as thorough as this’, you’re in luck. Call us Susie Dent because we’re all about the words, and this is our bag. 

To get a slice of the brand voice pie, whether you’re a client looking for an overhaul or an agency wanting to add that extra layer to your offering, we’re all ears! 

Drop us a message or email hello@socontented.com and turn your chaos into clarity.