What are interesting ways you’ve seen brand tone of voice served up in brand guidelines docs? Trying to get beyond the “we are x but never y”

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It’s less about the construct and more about how you use it. “We are ‘good thing’ but never ‘bad thing’” has always like a pretty useless artifact to me. Obviously, no one wants to be a bad thing. Make a choice between two good things. That’s an actual line in the sand.

Instead of “we are clever but never condescending”, give me “we’re more goofy dad humor than ironic and tongue in cheek”.

Adlobs are good, too, though. What does your brand sound like, in action?

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Base it off of super distinct TV/film characters

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the Are/Are Not framework is a bookend method for (typically) defining brand values. using a character is great for defining one end of the idea-shelf here, but doesn’t always work. As in, “Bart Simpson but also a little bit Hey Arnold” gets pretty abstract fast. Replace Are/Are Not with Verb Yes/Verb No.

I’ve heard adjectives are a good way to describe things

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This will sound a bit crazy but bear with me here. Headlines.

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Must be a writer

I saw a euphemism guide recently that was solid. “instead of saying X like Y, we say Z.” I like it because it feels less rigid/polarizing, more room to stretch organically than prescribed.

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