Tone of Voice, Branding & Strategy Blog

The day we went to Selfridges. To speak not to shop.

12 / March / 2012

Here’s Rob talking about stopping brand slop in Selfridges at an event set up by It’s Nice That. We were tickled that the soundbite flying around afterwards on Twitter was: ‘If you feel like a berk saying it you shouldn’t write it down. – Rob Mitchell’. We’re determined to bring the word berk back into […]

Once upon a time we didn't need strategic storytelling

01 / March / 2012

Once upon a time stories weren’t called ‘narratives’ and we didn’t need a process, archetypes or rules to help us tell them. And most authors of books, plays, films and the like (ie real stories) didn’t use them either. So why have so many agencies started banging on about the power of storytelling all of […]

A tea by any other name

09 / January / 2012

Spot the difference between these two boxes of Teapigs tea. They look the same; they taste the same. The only difference is their names. Once upon a time this ‘Everyday Brew’ was called ‘English Breakfast’. After all, this is Teapigs’ signature blend and their tea is fancier and tastier than PG Tips. But some of […]

Jargon isn't the problem and 'Plain English' isn't the answer

09 / December / 2011

About this time every year the Plain English Campaign has its gobbledegook awards. It goes roughly like this: they pick some prize pieces of incomprehensible twaddle, which fill some easy column inches in a few newspapers. We roll our eyes at all the rubbish jargon and business clichés we use at work nowadays and then […]

An open letter to Sir Richard Branson

18 / November / 2011

Hello Richard, A lot of newspapers this morning are talking about how you’ve bought Northern Rock for a bargain price at the expense of us taxpayers. We’ll grumble to the chancellor about that. But seeing as you (and some private equity suits) have bought it, we hope some good will come of it. Richard, this […]

Edit

20 / October / 2011

Sales are down. Research shows you’re squeezed on all sides. It’s getting harder to pigeonhole your customers into a neat ABC1234 PowerPoint. Meanwhile, brighter, smaller, more nimble companies are snapping at your heels and stealing your thunder. So what do you do? Outwit your competitors and start developing newer, shinier products? Or do you edit? […]

How to sum up your brand in a line

25 / August / 2011

How to describe your brand in a few words. How to make it really, properly, actually different. How to sell it in. We can’t really show you a lot of the work we do because so much of it is hush-hush. But we can tell you the sort of things we get up to and […]

Meet our new recruit

24 / May / 2011

DEAR VALENTINE, THIS IS TO TELL YOU ARE MY FRIEND AS WELL AS MY VALENTINE. AND THAT I INTEND TO WRITE YOU YOU LOTS OF LETTERS… (From the Olivetti Valentine user manual.) We just bought a Valentine typewriter. It was made over forty years ago. So why does its user manual feel (and sound) brighter, […]

Just don't do it

24 / February / 2011

We think we’ve uncovered a global conspiracy to make all straplines sound the same. American Express’ strapline used to be ‘Don’t Leave Home Without It’ and now it’s ‘Realise Your Potential’. They had a memorable line and now they could be anyone. If they swapped their line with Microsoft’s ‘Your potential. Our passion’ we bet […]

Two's company: our way of doing things

04 / January / 2011

This time last year we handed in our notice. It was bit scary, but we knew we wanted to run a company our way and do more of the sort of things that made us happy. One year on, we’ve learned a few things along the way, and we’ve got a bit wiser about what […]