SCALE WITH AN ATTRACTIVE BRAND IDENTITY LAYERED OVER A CLARIFIED STORY
                     Twelve & Twenty Eight
SCALE WITH AN ATTRACTIVE BRAND 
IDENTITY LAYERED OVER A CLARIFIED STORY
A million different channels, one tone of voice. That would be ideal, wouldn't it? That every 
time you set out to interact with your audience through your social media channels, 
website, webinars, etc you want it to sound and more importantly feel the exact same! But 
does it? If it does not, you're missing the mark with your inconsistent communication.
You may have come across a ton of different strategies online to clarify your brand tone to 
achieve that much-desired consistency in your communication. Have you found them to be 
too overwhelming? If yes, I couldn't agree with you more. I am all about making things 
super simple for you busy creatives, so let's carry out this fun + easy activity to clarify your 
brand tone! Remember, the results of this activity can always be tweaked and perfected 
through experimentation. This is just a starting point to get things rolling so for now, just 
follow the steps and let your intuition guide you!
STEP 1: 
List out keywords/phrases that are your brand values. I suggest writing down these 
keywords in multiples of 2. Write a minimum of 4 but 6 would be ideal.
Let's take an example of an Organic Handmade Soy Candle brand. Now, let's list out the 
brand values.
Thoughtful, committed, rooted in love, positively aligned, grounded, ethical work
STEP 2: 
Next, let's categorize the keywords/phrases into two groups based on their similarity.
Group 1 - Thoughtful, committed, grounded
Group 2 - Rooted in love, positively aligned, ethical work 
STEP 3: 
This is the fun part! Let's name these groups based on what you think these keywords/phrases 
represent. Play around with the naming until you feel right about it. These names are the key 
elements of your brand tone so, try to be thorough.
In our example - thoughtful, grounded, and committed, I feel are the values of a "conscious" brand. 
So, I will be naming Group 1 as CONSCIOUS.
Our second set of values - rooted in love, positively 
aligned, and ethical work depicts the "intentions" of 
the brand. 
Therefore, the name of Group 2 will be INTENT.
After you are happy with your group names, simply combine them. What we have here is 
- CONSCIOUS INTENT. This combined phrase becomes your most basic guideline for your brand 
tone! 
That's it, it's that simple! This phrase will act as a filter for your brand communication from now on. 
Go on, test it out. When you write your next piece of social media post, website copy, or blog post, 
etc make sure you pass it through your defined brand tone filter.
 In the case of our example, ideally, every piece of communication should give a feeling of 
Conscious Intent to the audience. Make your friends read it and ask them what they feel after. If you 
see a disconnect, feel free to reword and make tweaks till you hit the nail on the head with clarified 
communication that emotionally connects with the audience :)
Another awesome benefit of this activity is that the resulting phrase also acts as a filter for your brand identity design. 
Whether you are branding your creative business for the first time or re-branding it, this guide will help you and your 
designer set a mood for the future brand identity + narrow down on a creative direction for your brand's identity design 
based on an already defined tone.
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