Building a strong brand personality with words

This article argues that tone of voice is an important, yet often overlooked, consideration in the development of a brand's personality.

Building a strong brand personality with words

Barnaby BensonBarnaby Benson

Every word a brand produces, and the consumer reads, offers the potential to differentiate. Yet brands rarely take ownership of a distinctive tone of voice or 'verbal identity'.

The result is that most, regardless of sector, sound pretty much the same. Why is this? Why is it so hard to use language as a means of differentiation? And what can you do to overcome the obstacles and harness this powerful differentiating tool?

I think the problem is that written language is harder to own than its visual equivalent. Language...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands