Culture Shift
A new verbal identity for a B2B reporting platform that monitors and prevents bullying and harassment.
Introducing Culture Shift
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A growing brand means a growing team. Inevitably though a growing team brings with it growing pains. So, how do you keep your brand on-brand as your headcount grows and grows?
That was the challenge for Culture Shift, a real-time reporting platform that identifies and prevents harassment and bullying for educational institutions and workplaces.
Recent hires meant their content team was twice as large as it was before. And while the content was good, it wasn’t consistent. What was needed? A verbal identity doc – one that created a unified voice that would bring clarity to their communications.
What we did
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Online brands still require in real life meetings if you hope to stand a chance of really understanding a business. So, Jamie was dispatched up to Manchester where he met the people in the know - the CEO and the heads of department.
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Anyone can cobble together a half decent tone of voice but where we see our skills is how we can elicit the right kind of information to really understand a business. We make sure our sessions are deeply rooted into the real-world challenges, ambitions and business context of our clients. So, several hours - and a few delicious samoas from the deli across the road - later we had a solid understanding of the brand, the business, what Culture Shifts stands for and what they stand against.
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The particular challenge for a brand like Culture Shift is how do you target several major different verticals - each with very different business challenges all at the same timer. So, after heading home Jamie's job was to find the commonalities across all those audiences to reconcile a cohesive verbal identity that worked across the board, while drawing out very targeted key messages with which to target each of those different audiences.
Some weeks later what was in Jamie's mind had percolated onto paper and the final result was a 68 page fully fleshed out verbal identity that we delivered via a call to the senior leadership team.
A verbal identity teaser
Remember your reader. (Forget everyone else.)
You don’t have to appeal to everyone. You do have to appeal to the person who is reading. Attempting to please everyone makes for messaging that lacks focus.
And why do we say ‘reader’ in the singular? Because messaging is almost always stronger when you imagine yourself writing for one person.
People stop reading when they feel the message isn’t relevant to them. To get you in the right frame of mind before writing, remember the three Rs – Reader, Result, Response – borrowed from the book Can I Change Your Mind? by Lindsay Camp.
The reader
• What do we know about the reader?
• What are their ambitions?
• What are they worried about?
• What do they need?
• What is their existing knowledge of Culture Shift?
• Where are they likely to be reading your message – and when?
Profile your reader as best you can. The audience section of this document will help you.
The result
Every piece of communication has a purpose. What is the single, overarching result you want your message to achieve?
The response
How do you want your reader to think and feel after reading your message?
The verbal identity in action
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You vs We
Culture Shift is fighting for inclusivity. Our messaging should reflect that. Make it collaborative. Have a conversation with the reader. Invite people to contribute to a dialogue. We’re here to listen. We don’t speak at people. We contribute to a conversation in a confident, visionary and progressive way. “You” and “we” focused pronouns will help to build the bond.
You may feel a little apprehensive about getting started. That’s okay. We are here to support you. And your dedicated success manager will take you through an onboarding period to get you set up. We’re with you.
"Our tone of voice project with The Way With Words has been truly transformative for our brand. We couldn't be happier with the results."
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— Chelsea Maher, Head of Marketing | Culture Shift
READY TO BUILD YOUR TONE OF VOICE?