Brand Tone and Language

3.1 Your tone of voice affects how people respond to you. In this instance, brand tone is how the character of your brand comes through in the written and spoken word. To make sure that a brand is consistently and correctly expressed it is important to manage the tone used on the web, in organisational literature, e-mails, stationery, signage, and in recruitment advertisements. A brand’s tone should be recognisable and ideally distinctive through, for example, the use of repeated expressions. There is also a strong link between familiarity and trust. Consistent use of messages will do much to embed the brand and enforce it as genuine. It will also ultimately influence how people within the workplace, who buy into the brand, subconsciously choose their language when describing their employer.

3.2 When translating brand attributes into an appropriate tone of voice, think about how you react to or feel about the same messages written in different ways and what they may tell you about an organisation. For example, two different styles, from formal to informal when confirming receipt of an enquiry are illustrated in the examples that follow. They are giving the same information.

Example 1; I write to acknowledge receipt of your e-mailed enquiry about the Finance role (job number 444232) sent to this office today, i.e. 11:00 hours on 21st June. We will investigate the matters described therein and will communicate our response ideally within 2 working days. Please quote reference xyz221 if you have cause to contact us further pending a reply, failure to do so may create delays in identifying the case. Yours Data Enquiry Team

Example 2: Steven – thanks for your enquiry about the Finance role which I received earlier today. I’ll need to check a few details and will aim to get back to you by 5pm on Thursday. In the meantime, if you need to contact us please could you quote reference xyz221. We will then be able to find all your details quickly and without you having to repeat. Regards Julie, Data Enquiry Team.

Using these examples, if one of the organisation’s brand attributes is ‘fun to work here’, the first e-mail suggests otherwise.

3.3 When you are defining your writing style and the links to brand attributes it may be worth considering where the organisation sits on a continuum such as:

Formal Chatty

Impersonal Engaging

Conventional Creative

Serious Fun-loving

It is useful to prepare written guidelines on the choice of words. For example, if a brand attribute is a listening organisation, people should not only be encouraged to seek feedback in all communication routes but to write in an open, clear style that suggests a great communicator. As we touched on previously, repeated use of phrases will also increase the awareness of the message. So, an organisation that places great importance on employee career advancement may take every opportunity to state ‘we build careers’ or similar byline.

3.4 It is easy to post information on the Web. It can be difficult to write content. Cliched communication styles can make your message sound inauthentic or lack originality and the same as other recruiters. Think about how many organisations use the message, ‘we value’ staff.

Apart from the very large or well-resourced organisation, most will need to manage, in house, brand communications such as social media or recruitment advertisements. But for core and longer lasting copy, such as the website, consider engaging professional writers. If you are writing for the web, there are multiple guides that are available. Ten tips specifically on communicating the brand are:

People start viewing web pages from the top left corner.

Unlike books, people skim read all types of web communications.

Avoid jargon – if you have tested the brand as previously described, this shouldn’t be a problem?

Keep it brief.

Lists are better at keeping your reader focused rather than long paragraphs of prose.

Tell as it is. If everything isn’t perfect, admit it and stress what you are doing to change.

Aim to meet the reader’s expectations, not the organisation’s. Most people won’t be interested in, for example, how you’ve developed your brand.

Images should enhance and never contradict the brand values.

White space is good visually.

If you need to re-read, you need to re-write.