What's the tone of your brand?

I went to a great seminar yesterday at Internet World Expo at Earls Court. Focused on Brand Tonality, it was a thought provoking look at how companies get tonality right - or wrong - and good places to start.

Some of the key messages I took away from the session were:

• It is no good just being generic with your language and expecting that this will translate to a consistent tone of voice for your business. Many companies want to sound "warm", "friendly" or "business like" - how do you make your business stand out from the crowd?

In short, the more specific you are and the more help you give people with understanding your particular story, and the way that "warmth" is conveyed in your company, then it's more likely that this is what you will get, time and time again.

How do you achieve this?

• Crafting guidelines for your brand tone - not just visually what it looks like, but what it sounds like with all the "nuances" so that everyone understands exactly what "warm" means - and what it doesn't!
• Training consistently across all the people who express your brand - these could be copy writers, code writers, customer service reps - in short, more maybe than you were thinking about!

It can also be easier if you start with individuals behind your brand - the presenter talked about brands started by individuals like Boden and Innocent, which have a very clear, and unique tone of voice.

The final thing I took away is that you can be more creative with this, if creative is where you want to go. So it is no longer about being just consistent in your online web copy, it's also about the emails you send out, the customer service responses you make, wording on sign up boxes etc. In other words, done well, all elements can strongly contribute into your brand, rather than detracting from it.