Oatly has a great voice, but how do they do it? What goes into creating a strong verbal identity?
Building an engaging and consistent narrative requires more than just hiring wicked writers. There’s the tone of voice guide. There’s the training and performance assessment. And there’s the strategy that sits beneath all of that.
Yeah, OK, we know this already. And what?
So, today we’re going to focus on the tone of voice guide, specifically how to create a cohesive framework for the brand’s personality, or tonal values.
What are tonal values?
Tonal values break down your brand’s personality into key attributes. They’re basically a few characteristics of the voice with a title and a short explanation.
It’s tempting to rely solely on adjectives for the titles of these tonal values, and that can work well.
The adjective heavy
An example of a well-executed adjective heavy approach is the Reed Words F1 tone of voice guide where they used “commanding”, “charismatic”, “audacious”, and “intense” as characteristics.
This article, though, is about methods of grouping our tonal values beyond simply adjectives.
I’m bored already. When does it start getting interesting?
Sure. Well, inspired by writers like Aristotle and Hunter S. Thompson, we’re going to travel between different framing devices, discovering new ways to bring together our tonal values and help firms speak with a focused and differentiated voice.
The Greek
As with many things in life, when faced with a problem, ask what the ancient Greeks would have done.
So, it’s not just weddings where the Greeks ace it?
No. It’s not just weddings. As Chris West said in his (amazing) book Strong Language, Aristotle defined three rhetorical appeals as they related to the art of persuasion. And we can base a tonal value on each of these elements:
- Ethos (what are our brand credentials?)
- Logos (how do we discuss facts?)
- Pathos (how do we handle emotion?)
This is a good approach for grouping characteristics because the three elements are well differentiated. And this will make your tonal values richer.
The famous phrase
Another way to give your attributes coherence is to adapt a famous phrase and make it your own.
Like, “thank you for not smoking”?
Umm, not really but…
…For example, I recently wrote a spec guide for the ad agency Mischief in which I took the famous rallying cry of the French Revolution “liberté, egalité, fraternité” and twisted it so it read “liberté”, “egalité”, “fun for an eternity”.
This was a relatively simple way of making the attributes entertaining.
I’m also in the process of writing a tone of voice guide about Donald Trump with the voice attributes “Fear”, “Loathing”, and “Las Vegas”. This was, of course, inspired by the Hunter S. Thompson book.
The structural
Another way of creating coherence across our attribute titles is to build a structure such as adjective + noun or verb + noun.
That sounds way too complicated.
No, it’s not nearly as difficult as it seems. This approach is great because it gives you lots of flexibility for interesting word combinations. Monzo for instance, split their attributes into the adjective + noun structure. From this groundwork, they created the attributes “Straightforward kindness”, “Everyday magic”, and “Warm wit”.
The Yin and Yang
We’ll often divide attributes into three.
Just like that song, “Three is a magic number”.
Yes, exactly. At last, we’re on the same page! In fact, neuroscientists say that our brains like patterns. And, apparently, three is the smallest number that will create a pattern.
That said, you could use just two attributes with each offering a contrasting quality that makes up a whole, like Yin and Yang.
Starbucks for example broke down their guide into “functional” and “expressive”. We see this sort of practical/creative division quite a lot in guides. It distils the information that copywriters need simply.
The rule-breaker
The best thing about rules is the chance to break them. So please take everything above as a starting point and not absolute law.
Don’t worry if your tonal values aren’t perfectly aligned. They can be a bit rough around the edges and still work well.
If it feels right, title your tonal values individually without stressing about a cohesive framework. I did this when I was writing a spec guide for Oatly. I used adjectives for the first two tonal values (“Chatty” and “Clever”) and then used the phrase “No ego” for the third. So, there was no overarching structure.
Where do we go from here?
For a copywriter, creating a tone of voice guide is a defining challenge. It’s your chance to show you have the vision to imagine the voice of a brand from scratch.
This is a creative opportunity without limits. If a company is willing, you can make them sound like anything they want—like Barack Obama or Ted Lasso, like Oprah Winfrey or Amy Schumer.
Or even like me?
Umm… maybe not…
So anyway, don’t forget. The titling and organising of the tonal values is in itself an opportunity for inventiveness. We don’t always need to group the attributes around adjectives. There’s a vast, untapped landscape of creative expression beyond that.
Jaz Allen-Sutton is a London-born copywriter. He collaborates with agencies such as Publicis and brands like Sanofi, Comcast, and BNP Paribas.
Switching to the first person, I spent most of my twenties writing poetry and fiction. And it’s this creativity that hides behind all my advertising work.
You can find me on LinkedIn here. Or email jazallensutton@gmail.com.
Oatly has a great voice, but how do they do it? What goes into creating a strong verbal identity?
Building an engaging and consistent narrative requires more than just hiring wicked writers. There’s the tone of voice guide. There’s the training and performance assessment. And there’s the strategy that sits beneath all of that.
Yeah, OK, we know this already. And what?
So, today we’re going to focus on the tone of voice guide, specifically how to create a cohesive framework for the brand’s personality, or tonal values.
What are tonal values?
Tonal values break down your brand’s personality into key attributes. They’re basically a few characteristics of the voice with a title and a short explanation.
It’s tempting to rely solely on adjectives for the titles of these tonal values, and that can work well.
The adjective heavy
An example of a well-executed adjective heavy approach is the Reed Words F1 tone of voice guide where they used “commanding”, “charismatic”, “audacious”, and “intense” as characteristics.
This article, though, is about methods of grouping our tonal values beyond simply adjectives.
I’m bored already. When does it start getting interesting?
Sure. Well, inspired by writers like Aristotle and Hunter S. Thompson, we’re going to travel between different framing devices, discovering new ways to bring together our tonal values and help firms speak with a focused and differentiated voice.
The Greek
As with many things in life, when faced with a problem, ask what the ancient Greeks would have done.
So, it’s not just weddings where the Greeks ace it?
No. It’s not just weddings. As Chris West said in his (amazing) book Strong Language, Aristotle defined three rhetorical appeals as they related to the art of persuasion. And we can base a tonal value on each of these elements:
- Ethos (what are our brand credentials?)
- Logos (how do we discuss facts?)
- Pathos (how do we handle emotion?)
This is a good approach for grouping characteristics because the three elements are well differentiated. And this will make your tonal values richer.
The famous phrase
Another way to give your attributes coherence is to adapt a famous phrase and make it your own.
Like, “thank you for not smoking”?
Umm, not really but…
…For example, I recently wrote a spec guide for the ad agency Mischief in which I took the famous rallying cry of the French Revolution “liberté, egalité, fraternité” and twisted it so it read “liberté”, “egalité”, “fun for an eternity”.
This was a relatively simple way of making the attributes entertaining.
I’m also in the process of writing a tone of voice guide about Donald Trump with the voice attributes “Fear”, “Loathing”, and “Las Vegas”. This was, of course, inspired by the Hunter S. Thompson book.
The structural
Another way of creating coherence across our attribute titles is to build a structure such as adjective + noun or verb + noun.
That sounds way too complicated.
No, it’s not nearly as difficult as it seems. This approach is great because it gives you lots of flexibility for interesting word combinations. Monzo for instance, split their attributes into the adjective + noun structure. From this groundwork, they created the attributes “Straightforward kindness”, “Everyday magic”, and “Warm wit”.
The Yin and Yang
We’ll often divide attributes into three.
Just like that song, “Three is a magic number”.
Yes, exactly. At last, we’re on the same page! In fact, neuroscientists say that our brains like patterns. And, apparently, three is the smallest number that will create a pattern.
That said, you could use just two attributes with each offering a contrasting quality that makes up a whole, like Yin and Yang.
Starbucks for example broke down their guide into “functional” and “expressive”. We see this sort of practical/creative division quite a lot in guides. It distils the information that copywriters need simply.
The rule-breaker
The best thing about rules is the chance to break them. So please take everything above as a starting point and not absolute law.
Don’t worry if your tonal values aren’t perfectly aligned. They can be a bit rough around the edges and still work well.
If it feels right, title your tonal values individually without stressing about a cohesive framework. I did this when I was writing a spec guide for Oatly. I used adjectives for the first two tonal values (“Chatty” and “Clever”) and then used the phrase “No ego” for the third. So, there was no overarching structure.
Where do we go from here?
For a copywriter, creating a tone of voice guide is a defining challenge. It’s your chance to show you have the vision to imagine the voice of a brand from scratch.
This is a creative opportunity without limits. If a company is willing, you can make them sound like anything they want—like Barack Obama or Ted Lasso, like Oprah Winfrey or Amy Schumer.
Or even like me?
Umm… maybe not…
So anyway, don’t forget. The titling and organising of the tonal values is in itself an opportunity for inventiveness. We don’t always need to group the attributes around adjectives. There’s a vast, untapped landscape of creative expression beyond that.
Jaz Allen-Sutton is a London-born copywriter. He collaborates with agencies such as Publicis and brands like Sanofi, Comcast, and BNP Paribas.
Switching to the first person, I spent most of my twenties writing poetry and fiction. And it’s this creativity that hides behind all my advertising work.
You can find me on LinkedIn here. Or email jazallensutton@gmail.com.
Further Reading
