Introduction

Logo? Check. DA? Check. Font? Check. Does this mean your brand identity is complete? Not quite. You still have to figure out what you're going to say to your customers and, above all, how you're going to say it. Well, for example, it's a way of differentiating yourself in a saturated market or increasing the perceived value you offer your customers by strengthening the emotional ties with them.

1. The tone of voice, what is it?

Your tonality is the way you express yourself as a brand or as a person. Like a logo or a color, it's a reflection of your brand, your world, your values... in short, the trace you want to leave your customers. And you're going to ask us why it's important to find your voice, even though it's a detail. Except that there are lots of different tones: vulgar, serious, fun... And it can be a real differentiating factor, a way of standing out from the competition. Look at Burger King and Mcdonald's. One is renowned for its quirky, cheeky tone. The other is the maker of the Big Mac. Which is not bad, we grant you.

2. Find your voice

You won't believe us, but the process of finding a tone of voice for your brand is broadly similar to what we've told you before. Start with a theoretical approach: who is the brand? Try to qualify this personality with adjectives you might use for a human being. Or, if you've already done the exercise, use the words you've already defined.

Théodore Mareschal, from the point zip collective, explains: "When Frichti launched its meal tray offer, the market was dominated by old-school players - to put it mildly! Revolutionizing the market also meant changing the way we address executive assistants and general service managers: simply, sympathetically and modernly. Even a little impertinent. In any case, it wouldn't have made sense to create a tone different from Frichti's, we had to maintain consistency." Yes, in any case, make sure you are consistent with the positioning and the rest of the brand.

3. Key messages

Congratulations on finding your voice! Now that you know how to talk to your customers, it's time to figure out what you're going to tell them. 

First of all, there are your commercial messages, i.e. the speeches where you try to sell. You can talk about your product and describe it, but make sure you don't go overboard and emphasize the benefits for the consumer and the pillars of your offer. For example, if you're the cheapest or the strongest.

For the rest of your communication, especially on social networks, you may want to talk about something else. And here, tone of voice can help you define your brand's territory of expression. Depending on your positioning, who you are and your objectives (building a committed community, generating engagement), you'll identify major themes to explore.

"For Asphalte, we noticed that talking only about the product and style wasn't generating as much interaction. The brand's tone - committed, educational, conniving - put us on the right track, and we had a blast talking about the brand's commitments through the prism of raising awareness of environmental and societal issues!" recalls Marion Réau, of the point zip collective. How logical.

4. Frame it all

Like everything else, it's important to formalize it. Producing an editorial charter allows you to frame your brand's discourse and way of expressing itself. And leaves you with a tool that will enable everyone to reproduce and appropriate the brand's tone, especially communications teams and external service providers such as agencies. So, what's in it?

1. The first step is to formalize your tone of voice. This involves putting into words the main principles that guide the way you express yourself. "Cuvée Noire is a chain of micro-coffee shops where you can get really good coffee at a great price.
   
   It was important to establish a sense of complicity in addition to quality in tone, because the aim is to position ourselves as a local business where people have their own habits," explains Théodore Mareschal, of the point zip collective.
   
   For example, you can be downright cheeky if your aim is to shake up a market (BackMarket), or light and conniving if you want to inspire confidence and simplicity (Alan).
2. Then write down the words to use and those to avoid. Your vocabulary box. "Frichti is an expert in high-quality food, but accessible to all. So we had to draw up a list of formulations and words that were ultra-precise but super-simple to understand," explains Marion Réau, from the point zip collective.
3. Then write down the words to use and those to avoid. Your vocabulary box. "Frichti is an expert in high-quality food, but accessible to all. So we had to draw up a list of formulations and words that were ultra-precise but super-simple to understand," explains Marion Réau, from the point zip collective.

Your brand is more than just a logo. It's a visual and editorial identity. And finding your tone, a unique way for your brand to express itself, is also a differentiating factor, a way to stand out and create a bond with your customer.