I get this a lot. Someone asks me to look at their corporate tone of voice: "We want to be distinctive," they say, "and quirky. But not too quirky. We're professional and our customers might freak out if we sound like we have a personality."
"Fair enough," I say. "Distinctively quirky-ish like everyone else. No problem. Are there any websites you really like?"
Short pause. "Innocent Drinks."
Happens almost every time. In the last couple of years the organisations I know of who have wanted to sound like the UK's leading producer of liquidised bananas include a wireless networks provider, a respite care charity, an auctioneer, an exhibition organiser and an MOT garage in Northampton.
The question is why. Personally I'm not a great fan of the knowing cuteness that typifies Innocent's style, but it's expertly done and it works, so fine. But the reason it works isn't just that they have a brilliant copywriter; it's that they are properly committed to it.
Innocent says that its 'core principle' is to "create a business we can be proud of". Lots of companies would claim the same, but few as convincingly as Innocent. For example, hidden in a quiet corner of the Innocent site is a section called 'Lest we forget'. It is a list of everyone who used to work for them. There are hundreds of profiles, each one including a photo and 100+ words about the person's preferred breakfast, taste in men/women, fashion sense and so on. The tone is consistently cheerful and personal and you feel that, even if you were a student on a vacation stint in credit control, your colleagues would take the time to get to know you at least enough to write a convincing summary of your foibles. It's the kind of thing that seems like a great idea for the first couple of weeks and then gets forgotten. Innocent has done it uninterrupted for eleven years.
My point is, if you want to sound like Innocent, that's the kind of thing you have to do. Not necessarily list every ex-employee on your website, but decide what your principles are and stick to them. If you can't stick to them, get new principles. So feel free to talk about how it's your people who make you better than your competitors. But make sure you can back it up, like Innocent does.
