I run a brand voice exercise with every single client I work with and it's consistently the moment where everything clicks into place for them. It takes 20 minutes and the output is three words that act as a filter for every piece of communication your brand produces.
Here's the exercise:
Step 1: Write down 10 adjectives that describe how you want your brand to feel. Not what you want it to say — how you want people to feel when they interact with it. Examples: warm, confident, irreverent, authoritative, playful, precise, bold, calm, witty, honest.
Step 2: Cross out the ones that apply to literally every brand in your industry. Every cafe is "warm." Every law firm is "trustworthy." Every wellness brand is "empowering." Cross those out — they're table stakes, not differentiation.
Step 3: From what's left, choose 3 that feel most true AND most distinctive. These are your three words.
Now here's how to use them: every piece of content, copy, or communication you produce, run it through these three words. Does this email sound like us? Does this caption match our voice? Is this proposal written in our tone? If yes — publish. If no — rewrite until it is.
This is how you build a brand voice that's recognisable even without your logo attached. The goal is that someone who knows your brand could read your caption with your name removed and still know it was you.
At MiM: direct, warm, sharp. Every word I write goes through that filter. You're reading it right now.