conveying brand through language and tone of voice
TRANSCRIPT
Editorial Skills for Charities Workshop
26 January 2012
www.charitycomms.org.uk
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Conveying brand through language and tone of voice
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Words, not just pictures
Writing is how you talk to your supporters. It is how you have a conversation. It is how you build the relationship with your brand.
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Words, not just pictures
Design is done by designers, but we all write.
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The written communications landscape is vast and complex
•Annual report
•Social media
•PR
•Newsletter
•Supporter magazine
•DM
•Campaign materials
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Your brand is the thing that brings it all together
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Your brand is the thing that connects people to your story
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What is brand?
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What is brand?
A brand is a set of ideas, images and associations that people carry around in their heads about you.
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What is brand?
“Brand is the space you occupy in someone else’s mind.”Anita Roddick
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Standing out
For some brands, their voice is a more prominent selling point.
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Standing out
And for some it is becoming so.
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What makes a brand?
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Content (language) and personality (tone) should work together
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Why your voice and tone matters
It is part of a system of how you communicate your brand
HOW YOU LOOK + HOW YOU SOUND + HOW YOU BEHAVE = BRAND
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Not just a logo
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End poverty. Together.
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•Short, active sentence structures: "stop" "sponsor" " buy"
•Strident: "we won’t accept this"
•Explain what they do in simple terms anyone can understand: "we want a world where no one goes to bed hungry"
•Use lots of easily understood facts: "70% of the worlds poorest people are women and girls"
•Talk about world issues in simple, uncomplicated language - divide the world simply into "rich" and "poor”
The simple, uncomplicated language makes their work accessible and makes world problems seem solvable. Its classic storytelling - using words that create images in people's minds.
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•Talk in snappy soundbites designed for the busy charity ‘consumer’
•Their tone-of-voice is ‘provocative optimism’ - they balance the problem with the solution
•Prompt outrage, not guilt
•Emotional/emotive, impassioned. They have an opinion and express it.
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Similar story, different personality
About life, not death. Warm, emotive, personal, community driven.
Technical gravitas, professional, authoritative.
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Consistency is everything
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Consistency makes people understand what makes you special
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Consistency builds trust
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Consistency makes you distinct
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Consistency means you are not starting again everytime
Lets talk...
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+44 (0)1273 600 500 [email protected]