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Tone of voice

Hot off the press: our thoughts on what's happening in the world of brand language and business writing. Warning: may contain the occasional rant.

Tone of voice

Accessibility. Inclusivity. Global readability. Cisco’s behind it all.

We talk to the Managing Editor of Cisco’s Global Employee Communications, about accessibility, inclusivity, and global readability—from a language perspective.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Final moment of truth: will your pack copy seal the deal or break your brand?

Hear how language is key for brands to get their products into customer baskets.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

How tone of voice can improve your customer experience

There’s often a disconnect with tone of voice & customer service, which harms customer experience. Our 5 tips will help you stay on brand, even on the spot

Training, Customer experience

Tone of voice

Ten and-a-half things brands should know about tone of voice

We help brands with their tone of voice every day. We’ve even commissioned UK tone of voice research. Here are 10.5 things we’ve learnt as the go-to experts.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

An authorly common buzzword

We’ve been thinking about ‘storytelling’. It’s an idea you hear about a lot, but if we’re all going to use the S word, it makes sense to be clear on what it means. Here are three distinct types of storytelling, for a start.

Consulting, Learning & development

Tone of voice

How to write like The Economist

The Economist’s language columnist Robert Lane Greene takes down ugly unsplit infinitives, Nerdview and Delta Airlines. And 8 Mile comes to the podcast… kinda.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

The god of tone of voice: Dan Germain

Innocent’s group head of brand talks about inventing wackaging, and being funny in Finnish. And what’s gone awry with English teaching in British schools?

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

It’s the little things

At The Writer we obsess about getting our clients’ tones of voice into every nook and cranny of their brand. When clients say ‘but no-one reads the terms and conditions’, or the back of a visitor’s badge, we say: ‘well, someone will’.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Bad language and the BBC

Our Sophie has some kind words for 38 degrees and their efforts to clear up linguistic confusion.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Tone of voice vs brand language

Our George reckons it's time we looked beyond the 'tone of voice' and 'brand language' labels, and focused on the big picture.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Our continuing love affair with Manhattan Mini Storage

We're still big fans of the New York storage firm's tone of voice.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Raising a glass to clever brands

Beverage brands have been busy this Christmas. We've taken a look at a few who manage to combine the serious stuff with their tone of voice.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Darwin wants you to write like you speak

Writing's only been around for five minutes, in evolutionary terms. We've been speaking for a lot longer. So which one is better for getting an idea into someone's head?

Writing, Learning & development

Tone of voice

Don't be scared of your human side

Should companies keep the personality out of their writing? Dave Gorman thinks so. We're not so sure.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Banks: write better, cut online fraud

Hey, banks – if you want a killer reason why your brand needs a tone of voice, and why you should use it every time you write to your customers, it’s this: it’ll help stop your customers falling foul of phishing emails.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Don't use that tone with me

It wasn’t until I started working here that I realised, when it comes to language, I’m a nodder and smiler.

Writing, Customer experience

Tone of voice

Are Chiltern going off the rails?

So, Chiltern trains have used a comedy writer to help inject some personality into their announcements.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

A refreshing ‘values’ page

I’ve seen a lot of ‘values’ documents over the years. A lot. And I can tell you two things about them.

Consulting, HR & internal comms

Tone of voice

How to win a D&AD award (or not)

Last week I judged the year’s best Writing for Design at the D&AD Awards.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Tone of voice

Does Starkey need a new tone of voice?

If you watched TV historian David Starkey on Question Time last night (or if you’ve ever seen him on TV, heard him on the radio or met him in person) you’ll probably have noticed his slightly *coughs* abrasive tone.

Consulting, Brand & marketing