Style is substance
/Let’s bring up an area of branding that’s so neglected I can’t find a single helpful article on it either from practitioners or academics. I’m talking about brand voice—not Morgan Freeman’s baritone but the words, written and sometimes spoken, that communicate what a brand is, what it stands for, and what it offers the world. They way you choose and arrange words reflects your brand. Writing style is substance.
Firms spend a lot of time perfecting their brand imagery and design, less time on their brand voice. This neglect is understandable. Brand voice is hard to define. The New York Times, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, and The Economist all have distinctive, recognizable voices. But could you say exactly why? Even harder, could you write a set of instructions that a team of writers could use to mimic those styles?
For most firms, words aren’t the product, as they are for the media properties I just mentioned. But words are at least as important as design and images in communicating brands. In expertise-driven industries like investment management, consulting, finance, and much of the law, it’s arguable that words do more of the heavy lifting for the brand than design or images.
Many corporate brand guidelines—maybe half—don’t define the brand voice at all. Guidelines that do address brand voice usually devote one page to it, in a document that’s typically 25 pages or longer. They also miss some very low-hanging fruit.
Brush and floss
Many brands lack what I’d call basic verbal hygiene: grammar mistakes, inconsistent or incorrect punctuation, spelling goofs. They bring otherwise good marketing down like a really smart, put-together salesperson who hasn’t brushed her teeth.
Good verbal hygiene is an easy fix. Agree on a style guide—Words into Type, The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, or any other guide whose standards you agree with.
Then follow it. Refer to it in your brand guidelines. Make it available to your in-house and outside creative teams. Insist that people use it. Finally, use a proofreader—a pro or someone internally who’s good at and has never read what they’re about to proof. Give them the style guide, too.
Simplify, simplify, simplify
Many brand guidelines that define brand voice include “simplicity” as a brand attribute, as if it were a differentiator. It’s not. Simplicity and clarity should be objectives for every firm, and part of every firm’s brand voice guidelines. General Electric is right, even if it could say it more clearly: simpler, clearer words have greater impact.
Simplicity and clarity should be part of any brand voice because all of us need to be reminded to simplify and clarify every day—almost every time we face a blank page.
I just said that simple, clear writing shouldn’t be a differentiator. And yet it is, practically speaking, because most firms won’t be able to carry it off. Not even with the very clear advice I’m about to give you.
A few style guides also include advice on writing simply and clearly. By itself, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style isn’t a complete style guide (you’ll want to supplement it with a more complete authority like one of the aforementioned style guides). But its chapter “An Approach to Style” is timeless, despite recent challenges by self-proclaimed rivals.
The best advice on keeping things simple may be the forward to The Economist Style Guide by John Grimond, included in older editions. You can go far with just this excerpt:
The first requirement of The Economist is that it should be readily understandable. Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible. Keep in mind George Orwell’s six elementary rules (“Politics and the English Language”, 1946):
1 Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print (see metaphors).
2 Never use a long word where a short one will do (see short words).
3 If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out (see unnecessary words).
4 Never use the passive where you can use the active (see grammar and syntax).
5 Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent (see jargon).
6 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous (see iconoclasm).
Microsoft’s style guide does it differently but equally well:
Use bigger ideas, fewer words
Our modern design hinges on crisp minimalism. Shorter is always better.
Example
Replace this: If you're ready to purchase Office 365 for your organization, contact your Microsoft account representative.
With this: Ready to buy? Contact us.
Write like you speak
Read your text aloud. Does it sound like something a real person would say? Be friendly and conversational. No. Robot. Words. To learn more, see Brand voice.
Example
Replace this: Invalid ID
With this: You need an ID that looks like this: someone@example.com
Developing your voice
Beyond accuracy and consistency, beyond simplicity and clarity, is a tone of voice that is truly yours and no other firm’s, a style that’s tightly aligned with your firm’s brand essence. You will not borrow this from another firm or grab it off the web. You will create this layer of your brand voice in-house, perhaps with the help of an agency. It’s what will give your firm an unmistakable identity.
Here, high-level guidance and flexibility are virtues, and rules are replaced with examples:
Final thought: I think all too often brand guidelines are developed, rolled out, and never revisited until years later when the brand is tweaked or changed wholesale.
I think this is a mistake, especially for elements of the brand like imagery and tone of voice that require trial and error over time to get right. It’s one thing for an internal team or consultant to create brand voice guidelines and quite another to give life to that voice. Some attempts at that new voice will be brilliant out of the gate. Some will be a struggle to produce. Some will fail. The bits of knowledge that remain from these experiences are hard-earned. Find a space for them in your brand guidelines.