brand-voice-and-messaging

Brand Voice & Messaging

A brand sounds like something or it sounds like nothing. This skill turns the strategy brief into an operational voice platform + messaging hierarchy — the verbal half of the brand book. The test is applicability: someone who is not you must be able to write on-brand copy from it.

Authored from the brand-strategy-brief.md. If no strategy brief exists, stop and route to brand-strategist — voice without strategy is decoration.

Workflow

1. Derive attributes from the archetype + audience (in the strategy brief), not from a vibe.
2. Write tone-shift rules — the same voice flexes by context (error message vs landing headline vs legal).
3. Author do-say/don't-say pairs — concrete, side-by-side, the most teachable artifact.
4. Build the term glossary — canonical spellings, capitalizations, words to use, words banned.
5. Set the messaging hierarchy — tagline → elevator → value pillars → proof points.

The voice platform

Voice attributes (3–5, no more)

Each attribute is a word plus what it means here plus what it is NOT (the guardrail):

Attribute	Means	Is NOT
e.g. Direct	Short sentences, active voice, lead with the answer	Blunt or cold
e.g. Warm	Second person, human, generous	Cutesy or over-familiar
e.g. Expert	Precise nouns, cites the specific	Jargon-flexing or condescending

Three-to-five. A sixth attribute means the voice has no edges.

Tone-shift rules

Voice is constant; tone shifts by context. Map the register per surface:

Context	Register	Example move
Marketing headline	Confident, benefit-first	"Ship the brand, not the debate."
Onboarding / empty state	Encouraging, low-pressure	"Nothing here yet — let's fix that."
Error / failure	Calm, accountable, actionable	"That didn't save. Here's how to retry."
Legal / billing	Plain, precise, no cutesy	State the fact; no jokes on money/legal.

Do-say / don't-say

The most-used artifact in a brand book. Concrete pairs:

• ✅ "Start free" ❌ "Commence your no-cost journey"
• ✅ "We lost your file — here's what we're doing" ❌ "An error has occurred"
• ✅ "3 steps" ❌ "A seamless, frictionless experience"

Term glossary

Canonical spellings/caps + banned words: e.g. "sign in" (verb) vs "sign-in" (noun); product names' exact casing; ban "leverage/synergy/seamless" if the voice is Direct. This is what keeps 10 writers consistent.

Messaging hierarchy

Tagline        — the 2–5 word emotional anchor (from brand-strategist)
  ↓
Elevator       — one sentence: what + for whom + why different
  ↓
Value pillars  — 3 supporting themes (each a benefit, not a feature)
  ↓
Proof points   — the specific evidence under each pillar

Every pillar is a benefit ("get to launch in a week"), never a feature list. Proof points carry the specific ("47 templates", not "lots of templates") — and any performance/number claim that will face a customer is sourced or flagged.

Anti-patterns

• More than 5 voice attributes (no edges) or attributes with no "is NOT" guardrail.
• A voice platform with no do-say/don't-say pairs — the abstract-only guide nobody can apply.
• Value pillars that are feature lists instead of benefits.
• Tone that jokes on legal/billing/failure surfaces.
• Banned/preferred words undocumented, so every writer re-litigates "sign in" vs "login".

See also

• Skill: ../brand-strategy-and-naming/SKILL.md
• Template: ../../templates/brand-strategy-brief.md (voice section)
• Skill: ../brand-book-assembly/SKILL.md (where voice is compiled into the book)