When developing a conversational voice for a brand, build it around a character… not just a persona or avatar.

A visual representation of avatars or personas for a company or organization

If your brand or business is going to be conversational, it needs a voice.

But what kind of voice? What should it sound like? What kind of vocabulary should you use?

Companies find their voices in all kinds of different ways.

Sometimes it’s the voice of the founder.

For a long time, the voice of Apple was the voice of Steve Jobs. And the voice of the Virgin group of companies is Richard Branson, more or less.

Other times companies can borrow the voices of brand ambassadors or through celebrity endorsements. Those borrowed voices are intended to match the character of the company or brand.

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Write better copy by applying the 4 maxims of the Cooperative Principle.

people in conversation outside bar

The concept of the Cooperative Principle was introduced by philosopher H. Paul Grice way back in 1975.

Grice had noticed that when two people are holding a conversation, they tend to cooperate in some important ways.

He framed the Cooperative Principle with four conversational ‘maxims’ people should follow to move a conversation forward.

Here’s a simplified version of what he drafted…

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