We form relationships with brands like we do with people – successful brands are those that create similar feelings of trust like peer-to-peer relationships. Consistency helps build trust and consumer connections that ensure they want to continually engage with your brand, products and services. Achieving consistent messaging can be achieved by developing a tone of voice that your brand always communicates with. Let’s look at how you can achieve this and some of the brands that do this brilliantly.
Why a brand tone of voice is important
Your brand tone of voice in essence is how you talk to prospective and existing customers and what underpins it – what are your values and objectives. It’s a simple concept, but it’s actually the blueprint of all your brand communication strategy. Implementing the wrong tone of voice for your audience can massively impact your brand prospects.
For example, perhaps you’re a brand who has defined itself on a humorous tone, but overstep the mark and create offence. Burger King were guilty of doing this on their social feeds on International Women’s Day 2021 where a remark on their official feeds was branded as sexist (not the impression you want to make). Perhaps you’re a news broadcasting brand, with an authoritative and impartial tone of voice that has been bought under fire for editing something that changes the context of a story, creating distrust around your credibility. Maybe an associate heavily linked to your brand is speaking a different language and tone to your brand that’s against your brand values and content. A recent example of this is author JK Rowling being vocal about controversial gender identity opinions that some consider against the inclusive tone of the Harry Potter brand.
How to find your brands tone of voice
To establish your brands tone of voice, you should effectively set a rulebook of guidelines that every person communicating via your brand channels follows. To design these guidelines involves a high level of strategy. You should firstly define your audience, what they’re interested in, what makes them engage with brands generally and how can you differentiate from your competitors.
Continually monitor your audience and adapt your tone within your guidelines to fit the purpose of what you are communicating. For example, if you’re communicating news that’s going to affect your audience negatively, it’s advisable for even a brand with a humorous tone to show some restriction and empathy.
Another thing to strategically consider is if your brand of tone is consistent with your brands actions and if you can effectively deliver the activity that matches your brand voice. Take Findus for example, whose tone of voice is commonly associated as trustworthy, family focussed and wholesome. When it was uncovered in 2023 that their beef lasagne contained horse meat, this caused major distrust amongst their audience and everything the brand stood for crumbled.
Brands that get tone of voice right
Aldi’s humorous tone
Aldi isn’t afraid to break boundaries with their undeniably humorous approach to brand messaging. Its cheeky tone blends beautifully with its often cheeky “rip off” of own brand products. Moreover the conviction in their approach has enabled the business to challenge more premium retailers head on – with amazing success. For example, going against Marks & Spencer’s, with its relatable tone to drive brand championing with the likes of the #FreeCuthbert campaign.
The Free Cuthbert campaign not only put Aldi firmly in the limelight, but the whole situation has become so synonymous in British culture that it’s still something referenced 5 years after the campaign originated. With reports of Colin the Caterpillars being placed strategically in Aldi stores in a Traitors cloak as late as 2025.
Evidently the humurous tone is working. Due to a consistent tone of voice, Aldi recorded their best ever Christmas sales (£1.65bn) in 2025. Although we’re in a cost of living crisis, their premium brand products also grew by 12%.
Apples’ confident tone
Albeit we’re admittedly Apple fans here at Kensa, without a doubt they have a consistent brand tone. They’re concise, promoting confidence through listing only the key benefit to the customer. The simplified messaging paints a very sleek impression that matches the minimalist appearance of its iconic logo. Their direct tone also makes them easy to understand and approachable, supporting their growing customer base.
Take a look at the recent MacBook Neo launch. This is the cheapest MacBook launched by the brand, and Apple knows the exact use case for it. It’s not a powerful machine, there are compromises in comparison to other Macs in the range, but it positions itself elegantly with its tone of voice. ‘Everyday productivity’ on its own doesn’t sound impressive, but when you say ‘master your to-do list’ it all of a sudden repositions the value prospect of the product entirely, giving an entry level MacBook an ambitious and aspirational appeal.
Their consistent tone of voice has driven them to become the most valuable brand on the planet, reporting record revenue levels in 2025 at $416bn.
Lego’s inspiring tone
Lego have been able to subvert the traditional conceptions that toys are just for kids. Their messaging inspires creativity, but also the impression that they’re socially responsible through messaging like “Rebuild the World”. They’re inclusive of everyone, with messaging that champions women, like the “she built it” campaign, whilst also leveraging their heritage to inspire adult builders who have nostalgia for the toys and the licenses. Their inspirational and inclusive brand tone has led them to be ranked as the most valuable toy brand by a considerable margin (worth $7.9bn).
How Kensa can establish your brands tone
At Kensa we’ve relaunched and established many brands which were all supported by our expertise in strategy and brand development. We can help you to identify and develop your own brand tone of voice, guidelines and create your brand values and mission. Once we’ve provided you with your tone of voice blueprint, we can support you through marketing, branding, video and web to ensure consistency throughout all your marketing channels and deliverables.
See what Kensa can do for you – get in touch about our branding services.
