Brand Design
The Brand Voice Doc That Actually Keeps Tone Consistent
Why adjective-based voice docs fail
'Friendly, professional, approachable' applies to 80% of brands. No writer reads it and knows what to do. Adjectives describe, they don't instruct.
The example-based format
Two columns: 'We write this way' and 'We don't write this way', with 20+ concrete sentence pairs. Any new writer can calibrate in 15 minutes.
Living voice doc
After every review, add the new corrections to the doc. The doc gets sharper over time. It's the most important doc in the marketing org after the brief.
Distribution
Link to the voice doc from every brief. Embed examples into the brief template. Never assume writers have it memorized — they don't.