‍When people talk about tone of voice, they often mean word choice. The vocabulary. Maybe a list of ‘words we use’ and ‘words we don’t.’

That's not wrong, exactly. But it's not where you start.

Tone of voice is strategy. It's a tool for differentiation – just like your visual identity, your positioning, your product. Treat it as decoration, and it will decorate. Build it from a strong strategy, and it will work hard for you.

Three voices, three strategies

I've developed brand voices for very different organisations. Take three for example; a life sciences company, a broadband provider, and a craft cheesemaker. On paper it’s the same exercise each time – define how the brand should sound. But the solutions couldn't be more different.

The life sciences company is building an ecosystem of companies to advance personalised medicine. They need investors, partners, and world-class talent to take them seriously. The strategy is about vision, ambition, transformation.

So the voice is aspirational, heroic and future-focused. Asking questions – ‘What if medicine were transformed for good?’ Deliberate repetition to build momentum – ‘Turn research into medicine. Turn to Aton.' It's confident without being arrogant. It inspires from above.

You couldn't write that voice as informal, chatty or casual. The strategy won't let you.

The broadband provider operates in a category full of jargon, frustration, and faceless organisations. Their strategy is to be a nimble, human alternative – helpful, responsive, easy to deal with.

So the voice is warm and grounded. Punchy sentences. Easy informality – ‘lightning-fast', ‘we're people it's easy to connect with.' It deflates corporate pomposity – ‘Thankfully, we don't always take ourselves too seriously.' Where the life sciences company asks grand questions, this one gets straight to the point.

The voice has to sound like a real personality talking directly to you. Otherwise the positioning is a lie.

By contrast, our award-winning cheesemaker isn't competing on service, speed or their vision. They're leading with craft, heritage, and the delights of the sensory experience. Their strategy is a stand against the artificial, the rushed, and the bland.

So the voice is tactile – you can almost taste it. ‘Sumptuous.' evoking ‘rain-green paddocks' and ‘salt-edge sweetness.' It's philosophical about craft. Real names appear – the people who actually make the cheese. Where the others talk about what they do, this one makes you feel something.

Sounding corporate or generic here would undermine everything the brand stands for.

Three companies. Three completely different voices. None of them wrong – because each flows from a different (well defined) strategic position.

Why does this matter?

Because in a world where products and services are increasingly similar, how you say things is one of the few differentiators left.

Think about it. Your competitors probably offer something similar. They might even be cheaper. But do they sound like you? Do they feel like you?

A distinctive voice creates recognition. Memory. Trust. It builds a relationship before any transaction takes place.

And crucially – it's hard to copy. A competitor can match your features. They can undercut your price. They can't easily replicate how you speak and the way it makes people feel.

Voice follows strategy

Here's where most tone of voice projects go wrong: they start with a list of words.

Someone says, ‘We need a tone of voice.’ So a copywriter or agency produces a guide – maybe with personality traits, some example sentences, a list of dos and don'ts.

It's not useless. But it's not strategy either. It’s style, bolted on.

If you haven't answered the strategic questions first – What do we stand for? Who are we talking to? What makes us different? What do we believe? – then your tone of voice has nothing to build on. It's just... words.

Voice should flow from brand. Your positioning shapes what you say. Your personality shapes how you say it. Get those foundations right, and the voice almost writes itself.

Back to those three examples. The life sciences company's voice works because their positioning is about transforming human health – the visionary tone earns its place. The broadband provider sounds human because their whole point is being the dynamic antidote to frustrating, faceless institutions. The cheesemaker sounds sensory and philosophical because their positioning is delicious craft standing against the bland and artificial.

Same process, different answers. Because strategy came first.

The practical bit

So how do you actually do this?

Start with strategy, not style. Before you think about words, be clear on your positioning, your purpose, your principles, and your personality. If these aren’t defined, do that work first.

Listen to how you actually communicate. Often, the best tone of voice is already in the business – in how a founder speaks, in how your best salespeople explain things, in how your customer service team handles problems. The job is to capture and codify it, amplify it, not always to invent something new.

Be specific. Be different. ‘Friendly and professional’ isn't a voice. Everyone says that. What kind of friendly are you? What does professional actually mean to you (and your customers)? The more precise you can be, the more useful the voice becomes.

Give people a proper toolkit. A single page of personality traits bolted onto a visual identity guide? That’s not a voice – that’s a token. A real voice guide shows the voice in action: at different registers, for different contexts, stretched to its creative limits. A lexicon of words to embrace and avoid. Maybe your brand story in flexible versions at different lengths. Examples of the hard stuff – complaints, errors, legal. Something people can actually use, not just nod at.

Test the voice against the hard stuff. It's easy to sound good in a brand manifesto. What about a price increase email? A service notification? A legal disclaimer? That’s where your voice gets tested – and where a thin, generic guide soon falls apart.

Consistency. Not monotony.

One more thing. Consistency doesn't mean sounding exactly the same everywhere.

You adjust your tone depending on context – a social media post is different from a legal disclaimer. But the underlying personality (based on your values) stays consistent. Same person, different situations.

Think of it like this: you speak differently to your best friend, your kids, and your bank manager. But you're still you.

Fancy a takeaway?

Brand voice (or ‘tone of voice’) is not a nice-to-have. It’s not the last thing you do before launch. it’s more than a lone page in a brand guide. It’s a strategic brand asset – as important as your logo, visual identity, your positioning, or your product.

Get it right, and every time you publish it reinforces who you are.

Get it wrong – or ignore it entirely – and you’re just more noise.

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If you’re working on your strategy and/or brand voice and need some help, let me know

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