CHAPTER 3
Brands and
tone of voice
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A bit about brands
As a copywriter you’re going to hear plenty about brands and the
related issue of tone of voice. Indeed, ‘brand’ is one of the busi-
ness world’s most overused and abused words. According to
some pundits practically everything is a brand. I’m not so sure.
For a person, place, product or service to qualify as a brand it
needs some sort of emotional aura, something for its audience to
get excited about, something to love. Mere existence is not
enough.
In spite of this, many organisations still commission detailed
brand development projects that deliver a hierarchy of elements
starting with some form of big idea, followed by vision, values,
personality and so on. You often see this represented visually as
a pyramid or a crude, playschool-style house. Despite working
on many such branding projects for many different clients, I’ve
yet to see one of these carefully constructed confections achieve
anything useful, at least from a copywriting perspective. All too
often this work is of no benefit to anyone except the organisation
paid to develop it. Radical simplicity – and a hefty dose of
honesty – are the answer. In fact to write for a brand, a copy-
writer usually needs to understand just two components: the big
idea and the brand personality. Everything else is a distraction.
As you might expect, a big idea is a one-word or one-sentence
description of what a brand is really about when all the hoopla
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34 brilliant copywriting
is stripped away. Why is a big idea so important? Well, many
organisations offer essentially similar – some would say inter-
changeable – products and services (so-called parity products).
In this situation the main thing that distinguishes successful
companies from their lesser rivals is their worldview, their atti-
tude, their special way of doing things. In other words, the big
idea that captures and expresses their point of difference. This
emotional logic is expressed along the lines of ‘I like what you
stand for/the way you do business/the way you make me feel’.
This matters because companies that stand for something – as
captured in their big idea – tend to stand out. And standing out
is a big part of what branding is all about.
I’m a big fan of big ideas – they help me do my job. Without a
strong big idea, a brand becomes a rudderless Ship of
Uncertainty dashed against the savage Rocks of Anonymity in
the stormy Ocean of Meaning. Not a good place to be. Asking
‘What’s the big idea here?’ is always a useful question in the early
stages of a project. Remember, your role is to create difference
and interest in the face of sameness. That means animating the
big idea in a way that creates a whole emotional world your
reader can buy into (literally as well as metaphorically).
brilliant
tip
According to David Ogilvy the way to recognise a truly big idea is
to ask yourself:
G Did it make me gasp?
G Do I wish I’d thought of it myself?
G Is it unique?
G Does it fit the strategy to perfection?
G Could it be used for 30 years?
I particularly like the one about wishing I’d thought of it myself; in
many ways that’s the acid test of any piece of work.
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Brands and tone of voice 35
In contrast, a brand’s personality is usually defined in a series of
adjectives – ‘thoughtful’, ‘dynamic’, ‘rigorous’ and so on. Brand
guidelines often bring these to life using example sentences that
show too much, too little and just enough of the requisite
quality. It’s a good system and can be genuinely helpful to us
copywriters. A brand’s big idea can help steer your general direc-
tion; a brand’s personality can help steer your tone.
While we’re on the subject of personality, it was recently brought
to my attention that the words per sona mean ‘through sound’ in
Latin and originally referred to the mask worn by Classical
actors. With the mask in place their face – and therefore
expression – was obscured, so the audience was forced to rely on
words alone for their understanding of the action.
It’s exactly the same with brands – copywriters can project per-
sonality by using language in a way that reveals everything an
audience needs to know. How? Well, that’s the challenge, but a
useful place to start is by picturing someone with the personality
traits you’re being asked to use. How
would they speak? What turns of
phrase and word choices would they
make? How can the bland adjectives
of a brand’s personality be trans-
muted into language that means something? Make your brand a
human and you’re halfway there. All of which means thinking
about tone of voice, and it is to this hottest of hot copywriting
topics that we’ll turn our attention next.
In a nutshell:
G Copywriters need to understand the big idea and the brand
personality.
G Organisations that stand for something – as captured in
their big idea – stand out.
G To bring a brand’s personality to life, try picturing a person
with the personality traits you’re being asked to use.
make your brand a
human and you’re
halfway there
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