28/02/25 – BY APRIL BUTTEN
Would Chanel Ever Use Exclamation Marks? A Guide to Tone of Voice
And the power of staying true to your roots.
Repeat after me: ‘tone of voice guides should underpin my entire brand’.
Yes, I’m that serious.
Your tone of voice is—quite literally—your brand. Sure, visuals matter, but the way you communicate to your consumer using voice and tone entirely dictates how you connect with them. So why are you tackling it last? (Or worse, not at all).
Your tone of voice guide is essentially your character as a brand. If you haven’t yet established what that is then how do you expect your consumers to buy into who you are, and what you stand for? You can’t.
This isn’t just not internal marketing fluff and we’re here to prove that it’s an important part of your marketing bible. For some, their tone of voice guides are even a publicised selling point to offer insight and transparency. One of the most popular examples of a crystal clear tone is Duolingo, who publicise their narrative, principles and style. (Think, ‘unhinged owl with a vendetta’).
Don’t be everyone’s bestie
The reason many brands attach a character to their company is because it’s easier to imagine and embody how ‘Emily, a 34-year-old who likes pilates and also a spicy margarita spends her money on facials and a makeup bag full of luxury staples’ shops versus ‘someone of a high income who shops for makeup’.
Since consumers are buying into your community, they first need to know where they fit. This should be paramount when starting a brand, particularly a beauty brand. Not only does this help solidify who you are—which informs major business decisions too—but it also helps you decide who you’re not.
One of the biggest mistakes we see brands make is try to be and do what every other brand is doing out there. If Chanel suddenly started behaving like Shein on social, people wouldn’t come to celebrate, they’d be confused.
Don’t try to be your consumer’s bestie if that is not the foundation of your brand.
It’s Tilbury’s world and we’re all living in it
Take Charlotte Tilbury’s famous ‘darlings’ phrase. It’s become synonymous with her brand and even made its way onto TV. This isn’t by accident.
Every time we see Charlotte and her team, they welcome us into their world. A fantasy world for makeup lovers. They do this by staying true to their brand in every facet of their marketing, be it website copy, huge billboard ads, fun commercials and even replying to social media comments (yes, the latter should be part of your tone of voice guide). The team doesn’t surprise you by one day talking in corporate lingo or abandoning their glitzy fairytale language. You know what you’re getting when you escape to Charlotte Tilbury’s beauty land—and that’s down to a carefully strategised tone of voice.
And guess what? Not everyone loves the ‘darlings’ phrase. In fact, some people detest it. This works perfectly in the brand’s favour because nothing gets engagement quite like rage bait (I feel fine condoning this when it’s harmless fun).
Hone that tone
While we’re here using Charlotte Tilbury as an example, another element that the brand nailed in its earlier days was taking customer feedback into account. It took comments, feedback (good and bad) and reviews seriously, turning them into its bible for pivoting. Making it clear that the customer’s voice would influence the brand’s voice to better appeal to those it’s trying to win over.
As much as we don’t want constant, random change, your tone of voice isn’t set in stone, it’s tweaked. Honing your tone is (sorry, couldn’t not) done in a way that’s deliberate and strategised. It’s carefully adapted as opposed to ‘throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks’.
What’s really clever about Charlotte Tilbury’s strategy, though, is that it’s informed how eternal brands and publications write about their products. You’d be hard-pressed to find a dedicated media feature about the brand that doesn’t mention the word ‘darling’ or ‘glowing’. By the same token, describing Chanel often uses phrases like ‘chic’, ‘enhance’ or ‘embellish’.
This consistency has meant that it’s done what every brand strives to; have others explain your brand for you.
Is tone of voice dead?
To get serious about tone of voice guides, for some, it’s as simple as reframing (and rephrasing) them. Conversation has turned to the way we refer to tone of voice guides to make them seem like an unimportant, nice-to-have rather than need-to-have document as part of a brand. As we’ve established, they need to be a forethought not an afterthought.
While tone of voice is very much still alive (and more important than ever), the term may have had a makeover, with some opting for more serious ‘writing principles’ to encourage attitude changes.
Whatever you want to call yours, at the crux of it, your tone of voice IS your brand and your watertight strategy is there to underpin it. After all, a strong voice is difficult to ignore.