How to define your brand voice

We know the word “brand” can be intimidating, or obnoxious, or sound like only something agencies say, but there’s something deeper behind a brand voice.

Brand voice is the expression of a brand through the spoken and unspoken words, and the way these words are communicated. A brand’s personality is understood mainly through the words you choose and how you use them.

• It connects customers with your brand in a way they understand.
• Defining it helps create consistency and reinforces who you are.

If you’re ready to dive in - here is a guide you can work from with your team.

Create a short survey for founders/team members who will contribute

This is a fun way to involve team members and source great ideas. It also can reveal misalignments so be prepared for how to handle differences in vision for this part of your organization.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Imagine your brand as a person. What 3 words would you use to describe them?
2. What are the top 1-2 problems your brand solves for its users?
3. How do you solve those problems?
4. What role does your organization play in its users’ lives? This could have a dropdown with answers like “Helpful advisor”, “funny uncle”, “wise elder”, “ride or die” - whatever few options feel in the range of possibilities, plus 1-2 that you might not think of initially.
5. What type of product/service is this? Luxury, Affordable, Quality value, etc. You give the options.
6. What brands would yours hangout with? Include a large list of products and services. Get creative. Add a lot more than just competitors or collaborators. You can really stretch here to think of brands that have a clear voice/look. We’d suggest a list of at least 20 and allow team members to multi-select.‍
7. Does your brand use Emojis? Yes/No‍
8. What best describes your brand? Cool, Posh, Trendy, Practical, and other key descriptors.‍
9. What is the best customer experience you’ve ever had? What stood out to you?
10. Where do you see your brand in 1 year? It’s Fall 2026 - what do you do? Where are you sold? Who uses your brand?

Some of these questions may seem repetitive but for this type of survey it can be helpful to come at things from a few different angles.

Analyze results and share with the team

It can be helpful to have an outsider help with this - here’s our callout for Rethink Labs 😉 - because sometimes you don’t see the results you’re hoping for or your bias affects the results. This can be unexpectedly charged for certain team members and an external partner can be a good supporting role here.

We like to organize this into a deck or document that shares feedback from the team, proposes language that fits with the vision for this brand’s voice, and hand over a nice guiding document for acquisition, support, creative, and retention teams to be able to use. This doesn’t need to look particularly fancy - just make it useful.

Brand Voice guideline doc ideas

Core Characteristics

Build a table with your Core Characteristics (try for 3-5 max).

For each Core Characteristic, add a column for a short description, Dos and Don’ts.

For example:

• Core Characteristic: Playful
• Description: We don’t lose sight of the fun of [xyz product] or take ourselves too seriously.
• Dos: Be a tiny bit cheeky. Use appropriate emojis.
• Don’ts: Use LOL. Try to make jokes.

Words and Phrases

Do Use:

• Include phrases that perform well
• Include words you want the team to use to describe the company
• List “on brand”

Do Not Use:

• Include the phrases or words you really want to avoid
• List “off brand” words

Grammar

This is something that helps all teams function! Its worth taking a few minutes to thoughtfully define the grammar rules you do/do not care about. If you’ve read any of our articles, I bet you’ve already caught things we don’t care about.

For example, at Rethink Labs, we keep it simple, playful, and friendly - and we bend the rules a bit.

• Spell correctly - when in doubt, google it.
• Use correct punctuation. Period.
• Use dashes and bullet points to help keep things organized.
• Bold and italicize to ensure important things are read.

Want more help? Reach out and chat with us. We help with everything from day-long strategy sessions to one-off brand voice guideline creation. And we’re fun to talk to.

Happy writing,

‍