Brand Tone of Voice Has Never Been More Important

Brand tone of voice has always been important, as we’ve been banging on about for years. 

From the understated, self-deprecating tone of classic 1960s Volkswagen (Think small) and the straight-talking, challenger vibes of Avis (We try harder)… to the clever purposefulness of The Economist in the 1980s (Great minds like a think) and the mouthwatering sensualism of the 2000s M&S Food (This is not just…)… the brands with the strongest tone of voice have always thrived. 

And yet, too many businesses don’t invest in their brand tone of voice. Start-up, challenger or established business – there’s a tendency to think tone of voice is for the ‘big boys’. 

Too many businesses think tone of voice is only for large, multinational, consumer-facing brands. 

They don’t think a good, strong tone is important or useful for their business.

They’re wrong. 

They were wrong in 2019, when we first started running our tone of voice workshops to help SMEs – particularly in B2B – stand out during the generic ‘tech’ boom. 

They were wrong when we took our workshops online during the dark days of the pandemic, to help keep those businesses talking consistently when teams were apart.

And they were wrong when we brought teams back together – and back to life – with the post-Covid TOV workshops that got everyone on the same page. 

Needless to say, we know a thing or two about tone of voice. 

We know it’s always been important and useful for businesses – essential for brand building. 

But it’s never been more important than today, when: 

Every business sounds like any business

The singularity is nearer than you think with AI. The singularity of brand tone of voice, where almost every business sounds like almost every business. 

The same bland, generic approach to messaging and communication.

The same corporate, beige, blah.

With more and more businesses turning to AI – rightly so – to enhance their marketing, sales and operations, the singularity is deafening. 

It’s always been the case when businesses default to a standard, generic tone. But it’s never been more obvious than today, when LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini default to that same tone.

Why? Because they’re large language models, designed to output what’s most common, most likely. 

Hence: standard, generic, beige. 

Do you want your business to be standard, generic beige?

Probably not. 

You want to stand out. You want to be remembered. 

You want to beat your competition to be the first – the only – choice, every time. 

To do that – to compete in the age of AI, LLMs and chatbots – you need a strong, powerful, cohesive tone of voice. 

You need a custom way of talking and writing – one that doesn’t sound like every other business in your sector. 

You need to get stuck in, explore your options, and discover the tone that fits your personality, your business, your brand, your customers… which is exactly what our tone of voice workshop helps you do. 

“But I want to use AI to create all our content and marketing collateral”

Exactly. That’s why tone of voice has never been more important. 

AI is changing how we all operate. It’s bringing huge efficiencies and improvements in countless areas, including marketing and content creation.

But without a strong, clear, unique tone of voice, it’ll churn out the same as everyone else. 

AI slop. 

All those hopes and dreams you had of AI transforming your marketing efforts?… Down the drain. 

But, add your unique tone of voice to your AI tools and the difference is night and day. 

With a unique brand tone of voice added to your AI/LLM you’ll: 

• Give Claude/Gemini/ChatGPT a real understanding of how you talk and write
• Set the foundations for the quality and focus you actually expect 
• Align every piece of content to your exact brand tone of voice so there’s no confusion or disconnect across all your comms
• Drop the AI slop. Full stop. 
• Find it’s quicker and easier to roll-out your message-first approach 

You get clarity. 

You get control. 

You get consistency. 

You get confidence. 

And you leverage all the power of AI AND a strong tone of voice to improve your bottom line. 

But first, you need to identify and define your unique brand tone of voice

All it takes is one workshop.

One session with you and your team. (Two or three if you want to bring your whole organisation with you)

We come to you. We get hands-on. 

You pinpoint how you want to sound and we help make sure it’s unique. 

We give you (and your AI) the tone of voice guidelines you need. 

So your tone of voice – plus LLM efficiency – helps your business thrive. 

Told you tone of voice has never been more important. 

Book your tone of voice workshop today.

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