Brand Voice & Tone Guide
Define a brand voice every writer can actually use.
What is the Brand Voice & Tone Guide?
The Brand Voice & Tone Guide is a free AI skill that turns a brand's personality into a practical voice guide any writer on your team can actually use. You give it the brand, the audience, the personality you're going for, and a few examples of copy you like or hate; it returns a structured guide — a set of voice principles with what each does and doesn't mean, the do's and don'ts, how the tone flexes by channel and situation, vocabulary to embrace and avoid, and before/after rewrites that show the voice in action. It is built for brand, content, and social teams who are tired of 'on-brand' being a matter of opinion and want a guide that makes consistency teachable. Rather than three vague adjectives, it makes the voice concrete with rules and examples writers can copy. It works from your inputs and your example copy. Pair it with real consumer-language data so the voice meets shoppers in the words they already use.
Who it's for
- Brand teams defining or codifying a voice
- Content and social teams keeping copy consistent
- Marketing leads onboarding writers and agencies
- Founders setting their brand's voice early
What you get
- Voice principles, each with what it does and doesn't mean
- Clear do's and don'ts
- How tone flexes by channel and situation
- Vocabulary to embrace and to avoid
- Before/after rewrites that show the voice
- A short 'voice in one line' summary
How to use it
- 1Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- 2Describe the brand, audience, personality and paste copy you like/dislike.
- 3Answer its clarifying questions to sharpen the voice.
- 4Ask it to rewrite a real piece of your copy in the new voice.
See it in action
Example input
Brand: fictional 'MFirst' morning smoothie kits. Audience: busy parents. Personality we want: warm, encouraging, a little playful, never preachy about health. Copy we hate: clinical 'optimize your nutrition' wellness-speak. Copy we like: friendly and real, like a helpful friend.
Example output
Brand voice & tone guide — MFirst
Voice in one line:
The encouraging friend who makes mornings easier — warm, real, lightly playful, never preachy.
Voice principles:
1. Warm, not clinical.
- Does mean: friendly, human, talks like a person.
- Doesn't mean: gushy or fake-cheerful.
2. Encouraging, not preachy.
- Does mean: "you've got this," small wins.
- Doesn't mean: lecturing about nutrition or shaming "bad" choices.
3. Playful, not silly.
- Does mean: a light wink, everyday humor.
- Doesn't mean: puns for the sake of it or undermining trust.
4. Simple, not dumbed-down.
- Does mean: short, clear, jargon-free.
- Doesn't mean: vague or empty.
Do's & don'ts:
- DO: "Breakfast, sorted. You're welcome."
- DON'T: "Optimize your family's morning nutrition intake."
- DO: talk about real mornings (the rush, the spills).
- DON'T: use wellness-speak ("clean fuel," "optimize," "biohack").
Tone by channel:
- Packaging: warm + concise, a little wink.
- Social: most playful; lean into real-parent moments.
- Customer service: warmest, most reassuring; drop the jokes if someone's frustrated.
- Email: a helpful friend checking in.
Vocabulary:
- Embrace: mornings, real, easy, you've got this, sorted, blend.
- Avoid: optimize, fuel, wellness journey, superfood, guilt-free.
Before / after:
- Before: "MFirst delivers optimized nutrition to fuel your family's day."
- After: "Mornings are chaos. Breakfast doesn't have to be — just blend and go."
- Before: "Our scientifically formulated blends support wellness."
- After: "Real fruit, real veg, blended in seconds. The good stuff, minus the lecture."
Want me to rewrite a real piece of your copy — a homepage hero or a product description — in this voice?The prompt
Here's the start of the prompt. Download the free bundle for the full, ready-to-paste version — plus the installable Claude Skill and Custom-GPT instructions.
# Role You are a food & beverage brand voice strategist. You turn a brand personality into a concrete, teachable voice guide — rules and examples writers can copy — not three vague adjectives. # Context I'll provide - Brand: [BRAND] - Audience: [AUDIENCE] - Personality I'm going for: [PERSONALITY] - Copy I like (paste): [LIKED COPY] - Copy I dislike (paste): [DISLIKED COPY] - Channels I write for (optional): [CHANNELS] # Your task
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between brand voice and tone?
- Voice is your brand's consistent personality — it doesn't change. Tone is how that voice flexes by situation: warmer in customer service, more playful on social, more reassuring during a complaint. This skill defines both — a stable voice plus tone guidance by channel and situation — so writers stay on-brand without sounding robotic.
- How is this different from a positioning statement?
- Positioning is the strategic choice of what you stand for; voice is HOW you sound when you say it. They're complementary — positioning decides the message, voice decides the words and personality. This skill focuses on making the voice concrete and teachable, with rules and examples, while the positioning skill handles the strategy underneath.
- Why does it use before/after examples?
- Because 'be warm and authentic' means something different to every writer, but a before/after rewrite shows exactly what on-brand looks like versus off-brand. Concrete examples are the fastest way to make a voice teachable, so a new writer or agency can apply it the same day instead of guessing.
- Can it rewrite my existing copy?
- Yes. After building the guide, ask it to rewrite a real piece — a homepage hero, a product description, a social caption — in the new voice, so you can see the principles applied to your actual content. Grounding the vocabulary in real consumer-language data helps the rewrites land in the words your shoppers already use.
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