# Brand Voice: How to Define Your Company's Tone of Voice, a Guide Template and Examples

> Brand voice is the consistent set of rules a company follows when it talks to its audience: how formal it sounds, how serious, which words it uses and with what emotion. To define it, describe your audience and values, pick a position on four tone scales, list the words you use and avoid, and put it all into a short guide with examples.

Source: https://labrica.pro/en/articles/brand-voice
Published: 2026-10-24, Updated: 2026-10-24
Author: LABRICA (https://labrica.pro/en/)
Section: Strategy

Brand voice is how a company sounds. It covers the way the company says things more than what it says: which words it picks, how long its sentences are, whether it jokes, how formal it gets. Cover the logo, and readers should still recognize the brand from the text.

A defined voice has a practical job. When the tone is written down, texts from different authors (a social media manager, a salesperson, an AI tool) sound like one company. A consistent voice also builds trust: people get used to the manner and start to perceive it as the personality of someone they know.

## Brand voice vs tone vs writing style

These terms often get mixed up, so here's how they differ.

- **Voice** is the brand's constant personality. For example, "a caring expert who speaks plainly." It doesn't change from post to post.
- **Tone** is how the voice adapts to the situation. The same caring expert sounds different in a holiday post and in a reply to a complaint.
- **Writing style** is the technical rules: paragraph length, emojis, list formatting, how prices and dates are written.

A good guide covers all three levels. Then the writer understands the personality, how it behaves in different situations, and how to format the text.

## Types of brand voice: five personalities with examples

There are as many voices as brands, but most fall into a few recognizable personalities. They make a useful starting point that you then tune to your brand.

| Personality | How it sounds | Who it suits | Example line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caring expert | Calm, simple, no pressure | Clinics, therapists, education | "Let's look at why this happens and what to do about it" |
| Friendly neighbor | Warm, casual, everyday details | Coffee shops, bakeries, local services | "Croissants just came out of the oven. Grab one while they're warm" |
| Strict professional | Short, precise, with numbers | B2B, law firms, manufacturing | "Delivery in 10 business days. 24-month warranty" |
| Bold and ironic | Jokes, short lines, self-irony | Youth brands, entertainment | "Monday. We're not thrilled either, but the coffee's ready" |
| Inspiring coach | Energetic, about growth and results | Fitness, online courses, coaching | "A month from now, you'll be surprised how much you've done" |

Choose the voice type based on the audience and on how the company actually talks to customers in real life, not on the owner's taste. If the front desk at a salon speaks to guests politely and gently, an ironic feed will feel foreign.

## How to tell your brand voice is drifting

Before defining the voice, check where you stand. Open your last 20 posts and your replies to comments. Warning signs:

- one post talks to "you", another to "our valued customers", a third says "clients can";
- a serious expert post sits next to a meme that doesn't fit anything else;
- your social posts sound different from your website and newsletter;
- every employee replies to comments in their own way;
- the texts are full of corporate filler: "leverage", "in order to", "we provide solutions".

If you spot three or more of these, a brand voice guide will pay for itself in the first month.

## How to define your brand voice in 7 steps

### Step 1. Describe your audience in plain words

Skip "women 25–45, middle income" and write a real portrait: "a mom of two who works from home, picks after-school classes based on reviews in parent group chats and hates being pushed into anything." With a person like that in mind, it's clear how to talk.

### Step 2. Write down 3 brand values

Skip abstract ones like "quality and reliability" and pick values you can check: "we're honest about deadlines", "we explain without jargon", "we don't push discounts". Values set the boundaries of the voice.

### Step 3. Place your brand on four tone scales

A widely used model describes tone along four axes. Mark where your brand sits on each, on a scale from 1 to 5.

| Scale | 1 | 5 | Example position for a dental clinic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serious vs funny | Strict, no jokes | Lots of humor | 2: gentle irony is fine |
| Formal vs casual | Official language | Like talking to a friend | 3: polite but lively |
| Respectful vs irreverent | Careful, respectful | Provocation, edgy topics | 1: no edginess at all |
| Matter-of-fact vs enthusiastic | Facts, no emotion | Exclamations, emotion | 2: calm and warm |

The scale positions instantly rule out half of the wrong ways to write a text.

### Step 4. Decide how you address people

This is a choice about distance, not about the audience's age. A barbershop can use slang, first names and short jokes. A law firm usually stays formal. Decide whether you use contractions ("we're" or "we are"), whether you speak as "we" or in the third person, and how you greet people in comments and DMs.

### Step 5. Build a vocabulary

This is the most practical part of the guide.

- **Signature words** are what you call your product, customers and processes. A fitness club might say "workout" instead of "class" and "members" instead of "clients".
- **Banned words** include corporate filler, competitors' terms and promises you can't make ("guaranteed results", "best in town").
- **Required elements** are things like putting the address in every sales post or signing tips with the specialist's name.

### Step 6. Write "do / don't" examples

Abstract descriptions get read in different ways. A few examples settle the arguments.

| Don't | Do |
|---|---|
| "Dear customers! We are pleased to inform you of a discount" | "Discount week: haircuts 15% off through Sunday" |
| "We are a market leader" | "We repair all makes, give a warranty on every job and run diagnostics the same day" |
| "Your request has been received and is being processed" | "We see your question and will reply within an hour" |

### Step 7. Describe tone for different situations

One voice, many situations: a product launch, a tip, a reply to a complaint, an apology for an outage, a holiday, a tragic event in your city. For each, write 1–2 sentences on how the tone shifts and what's off-limits.

## Brand voice guidelines template

Copy the structure and fill it in for your business. A 2–3 page guide works better than a 40-slide deck nobody opens.

1. **Who we are in one line.** "The neighborhood bakery where they know your name."
2. **Who we write for.** A reader portrait in 3–4 sentences.
3. **Our personality.** Three adjectives with notes: "warm, but not sugary", "knowledgeable, but not condescending", "honest, we talk about the downsides too".
4. **Tone scales.** A table with positions from 1 to 5.
5. **How we address people.** Formality level, contractions, rules for comments and DMs.
6. **Vocabulary.** Our words, banned words, required elements.
7. **Formatting.** Paragraph length, emojis (yes, no, which ones), how we write prices, dates and times.
8. **Tone by situation.** Launch, tip, sale, complaint, apology, holiday.
9. **Examples.** 3–5 model posts and 5 "do / don't" pairs.
10. **Who owns the voice.** The person to go to with questions.

> Tip: keep the guide where people write, not in a separate folder. If writers have to search for the document, they won't use it.

## One announcement in three voices: tone of voice examples

The best way to feel the difference is to take one piece of news and write it in three tones. The news: a coffee shop is opening a second location near the train station and giving every guest a free dessert with their coffee during the first week.

### Voice 1. Warm and homey

"There are more of us now. Starting Monday, we're open by the train station: same team, same coffee and the same carrot cake. All week, we're treating you to a dessert with any drink. Just come in and say hi. We'll have the coffee on."

Short sentences, "we" and "you", a touch of emotion, no formality.

### Voice 2. Businesslike and expert

"We're opening our second coffee shop at the north exit of Central Station, a 7-minute walk from the office district. We open at 7:30, so you can grab coffee before work. Same roast, same menu, pre-order in the app. October 14–20: a free dessert with any drink."

Facts, convenience, precision, zero exclamation marks.

### Voice 3. Bold and ironic

"One coffee shop wasn't enough. You were standing in line, we saw. So here's a second one, by the train station. All first week we're giving away desserts with coffee, just because. Yes, free. No, there's no catch. Unless you count admitting our carrot cake beats your mom's."

Short, provocative lines, talking as equals, self-irony.

All three texts are good, for different brands. The mistake is when one coffee shop writes in the first voice on Monday, the third on Wednesday and the second on Friday.

## How to keep the voice when different people and AI write

Defining a brand voice is easier than sticking to it. The voice blurs when new writers, contractors or AI generation join the team.

1. **Check every text against a short checklist** before publishing (it's below).
2. **Review 5 posts once a month:** what sounds like you, what doesn't, and why.
3. **Give the AI the whole guide**, not "write it in a friendly way". A model without context slides into generic ad copy.
4. **Get sensitive texts approved**, especially replies to negative comments and posts on sensitive topics. An approval step in your content workflow makes this routine.

In LABRICA, this lives in the company profile: tone, how you address people, banned and required phrases, audience and products. LABRICA writes posts based on these rules, and the built-in quality check flags corporate filler, clichés or a weak first line. You can start with a brand scan: LABRICA studies your website and social accounts and proposes a draft brand profile that you edit to fit.

The voice gets tested hardest in replies to complaints. Write your reply templates in the same voice as your posts, and describe in the guide how the tone shifts when a customer is unhappy.

## How brand voice sounds on different platforms

The voice is one, but the platforms differ, and that affects delivery. Don't confuse adapting to a platform with changing your personality.

- **Telegram.** People read carefully and are used to an author's voice. Longer texts, personal observations and reasoning fit here.
- **Instagram* and Facebook.** The feed is mixed, and the first line and the image decide everything. Keep texts shorter, with more specifics and calls to action. Formulas for that first line are in [social media captions](https://labrica.pro/en/articles/social-media-captions).
- **Short video.** The voice turns into speech: pace, intonation, the host's pet phrases. Check video scripts against the guide too. Templates are in [Reels script ideas](https://labrica.pro/en/articles/reels-script-ideas).
- **DMs and comments.** The most sensitive zone, because here people talk to the brand directly. Write reply templates in the same voice as your posts, or customers will feel a gap between the storefront and the service.

A simple test: put a Telegram post, an Instagram post and a manager's DM reply side by side. If they look like three different companies wrote them, the adaptation went too far.

## How to give AI your brand voice without repeating it in every prompt

A voice guide only works if it's used for every text. With AI, that's easier than with people: you can write the rules down once, in a place the model reads them from.

- **An editorial policy for AI.** A one-page document: how you address people, paragraph length, emojis, banned words and promises, required disclaimers, three examples of strong posts. This is the brand memory the AI gets before every text. Ready-made prompt structures are in [ChatGPT prompts for social media](https://labrica.pro/en/articles/chatgpt-prompts-for-social-media).
- **Examples beat descriptions.** "Write warmly" means something different to every model. Two or three real posts show what you mean.
- **Edits are rules too.** If you've cut "unique" for the third time or keep shortening paragraphs, add it to the banned list.

In LABRICA, these rules are stored in the company profile and applied to every text, and LABI AI turns the team's repeated edits into new rules.

## Checklist: does this text sound like your brand

- The way you address readers matches the guide.
- No banned words or corporate filler.
- Your signature words are used.
- The level of humor and emotion matches the scales.
- The tone fits the situation (launch, tip, complaint).
- The text is recognizable without the logo.
- Formatting follows the rules: paragraphs, emojis, prices, dates.

If you're just building a content system, connect the voice guide to your [content pillars](https://labrica.pro/en/articles/content-pillars): each pillar can have its own shade of tone within one voice.

*Instagram, Facebook and Threads belong to Meta Platforms Inc., which is designated an extremist organization in the Russian Federation.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is brand voice in simple terms?

It's the manner in which a brand talks to people: which words it uses and how formal and emotional it sounds. People can recognize the company by it even without the logo.

### Does a small business need a brand voice?

Yes, even more than a large one. A small company has a small ad budget, so a recognizable way of talking helps it stand out for free. A 2–3 page guide is enough.

### Can you change your brand voice?

The voice changes rarely, usually during a rebrand or a shift in audience. The tone adapts flexibly to the situation: a holiday, a complaint, difficult news.

### How do I set up brand voice in LABRICA?

Fill in the company profile or run a brand scan, which builds a draft profile from your website and social accounts. After that, LABRICA and its built-in assistant LABI AI write texts that follow your tone, form of address and banned phrases. You can [try it free](https://labrica.pro/en/).

### How is a brand voice guide different from a brand book?

A brand book mainly covers the visual side: logo, colors, fonts. A brand voice guide covers the verbal side and is often included in the brand book as a separate chapter.

---
LABRICA, the AI studio for social media: https://labrica.pro/en/