Every article about brand voice says the same thing: be consistent, choose adjectives, write it down. None of them show you what it looks like when it is done, which is why most brand voice guides end up as a list of adjectives nobody can apply.
So here are two kinds of example. First, twelve real brands with a voice strong enough that you could recognise a sentence without the logo. Second, the same handful of ordinary business messages written three ways each: on brand, too stiff, and too loose. The second half is the part you can copy into your own guide.
If you have not defined your voice yet, start with what brand voice is and how to define yours, then come back here for the examples. If you want to run the exercise end to end, the brand voice worksheet walks through it with a template you can print.
Twelve brands you could recognise without the logo
1. Duolingo
Playfully persistent, self-aware, slightly chaotic. The owl threatens and flirts with you in the same sentence, and it works because the whole company commits to the joke. Notice how the humour is always in service of one behaviour: coming back to practise.
2. Oatly
Deadpan, verbose, deliberately un-corporate. It explains oat milk with the tone of someone who finds the whole industry a bit silly. The risk of this voice is that it only works when the product is genuinely good, because there is no persuasive language to hide behind.
3. Innocent Drinks
Warm, light, faintly childish. Short sentences, plain words, gentle jokes on the packaging. It reads like a friend explaining something rather than a company announcing it.
4. Patagonia
Plain, calm, unhurried. Almost no adjectives, no exclamation marks, no urgency. The restraint is the voice, which is why it survives across a catalogue, a campaign and a repair manual.
5. Mailchimp
Encouraging and human, with a light touch of wit. It talks to a small business owner who is not a marketer without ever sounding condescending about that.
6. Monzo
Clear, direct, and unusually honest about money. It says "we screwed up" in plain English and explains the fix before the apology. Directness as respect.
7. Nike
Short, imperative, physical. Almost never a full explanation, because the athlete already knows. The voice assumes confidence on the reader's part.
8. Basecamp
Opinionated, plainspoken, allergic to jargon. It writes like a founder arguing a position, which is exactly what it is.
9. The Economist
Dry, precise, world-weary. Long sentences used deliberately, never accidentally. The voice signals that the reader has time and expects rigour.
10. Apple
Minimal, confident, declarative. Very few words on a page, each doing work. The discipline is the brand as much as the product.
11. Liquid Death
Loud, aggressive, intentionally absurd for a product that is water. The mismatch is the joke, and the joke is the positioning.
12. A good regional bank
Not one specific brand, but a useful contrast. Reassuring, plain, unhurried, no jokes. Boring is the correct answer when a customer is worried about their mortgage, and it is a voice, not an absence of one.
A brand voice is not a list of adjectives. It is the set of sentences everyone on your team would independently have written the same way.
The same message, written three ways
This is the exercise worth stealing. Take an ordinary message, then write three versions: on brand, too stiff, too loose. The contrast is what teaches a team where the edges are.
A payment reminder
- On brand. "Quick note that invoice 0042 is a few days past due. If it is already in the queue, ignore me. Otherwise you can settle it here whenever you are ready."
- Too stiff. "This is a formal notification that payment in respect of the above-referenced invoice remains outstanding and is now overdue."
- Too loose. "Hey!! That invoice slipped through the cracks, mind sorting it when you get a sec?"
The first one sounds like a person who wants to be paid and does not want to be annoying. The second sounds like software. The third is trying so hard to be friendly that it undermines the request.
A welcome email
- On brand. "You are in. Here is the one thing to do first, and the person to reply to if anything is unclear."
- Too stiff. "Thank you for registering. Your account has been created successfully. Please proceed to the dashboard."
- Too loose. "Woohoo, welcome aboard! We are SO excited to have you on this journey with us! Let's gooo!"
An apology for a delay
- On brand. "Your order is three days late and that is on us. It ships tomorrow, tracking to follow, and we have refunded the delivery fee."
- Too stiff. "We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the delay to your shipment."
- Too loose. "Ooops, our bad! Things got a bit crazy here, sorry about that!"
Notice what the on-brand version does: states the problem, takes responsibility, gives the next step. Voice is not decoration on top of the message, it is the way the message becomes believable.
A price increase
- On brand. "Our prices go up on 1 March, the first time in three years. Here is exactly what changed and what it costs you."
- Too stiff. "We wish to advise customers of an adjustment to our fee structure effective 1 March."
- Too loose. "Sooo we have to bump prices a little, nothing we can do, times are tough!"
An error message
- On brand. "That did not save. Your internet probably dropped. Try again, your text is still here."
- Too stiff. "Error 500. An unexpected error has occurred. Please contact your administrator."
- Too loose. "Uh oh, something went wrong lol, try again?"
A hiring post
- On brand. "We are hiring a designer. You will own projects end to end, talk to clients directly, and be trusted to make calls without three rounds of approval."
- Too stiff. "We are seeking a dynamic individual to join our fast-paced team in a challenging and rewarding role."
- Too loose. "Come hang with us! We are basically a family and we have great snacks!"
How to use this to write your own
- Pick the six messages your business sends most often. Invoice, welcome, apology, price change, error, hiring is a good set to start.
- Write the on-brand version first, out loud if you have to, in the words a real person on your team would use.
- Then write the deliberate failures. The stiff one is usually your competitor. The loose one is usually you after a bad day.
- Keep the three-way set in your guide. It is more useful than any adjective list, because everyone can see where the lines are.
Do that and you have something better than a personality description: a reference for the moments voice usually dies, which is when money, mistakes and deadlines are involved. For the words themselves, our guide to defining and documenting your brand voice covers the adjective and boundary work, and the 12 brand archetypes is useful if the voice needs a character behind it. If you are not sure voice is the problem at all, the free brand audit will tell you in four minutes.
Common questions, answered
What is a good example of brand voice?
Any brand you can recognise from a sentence with the logo removed has a strong voice. Duolingo is playfully persistent, Oatly is deadpan and self-aware, Innocent is warm and slightly silly, Patagonia is plain and serious about the outdoors, and Mailchimp is friendly and encouraging. The test is recognition without the logo.
How do I find examples of my own brand voice?
Collect everything you have already written where the business sounded best: a sales email that landed, a support reply someone thanked you for, a proposal that won. Read them together and write down the adjectives that keep appearing. That is your real voice, and it is a better starting point than any list of aspirational adjectives.
How do you show brand voice in copy?
Take one ordinary message, write it the way a person on your team would say it out loud, then write two deliberate failures: one too stiff and one too casual. The three-way comparison teaches the team faster than a page of descriptors, because people internalise boundaries by seeing them crossed.
Should all brands have a funny voice?
No. Humour is one of the hardest voices to sustain and the easiest to get wrong, particularly in categories where customers are anxious about money, health or legal risk. Warmth and clarity are safer defaults, and a calm, plain voice is a differentiator in a market where everyone else is shouting.
How many brand voice examples should a guide include?
Three to five adjective pairs, each with one on-brand and one off-brand example, plus a word list of phrases you always or never use. That is enough to apply the voice tomorrow, and short enough that people will actually read it.
Can I copy another brand’s voice?
You can learn from it, but copying fails because voice has to survive your own product, support tickets and pricing conversations. The useful move is to name what a brand you admire does mechanically, such as short sentences or second person, then apply that technique to your own position rather than imitating the personality.
Voice is easier to see than to describe. Read a sentence from your own website, your own invoice and your own support inbox. If they could have come from three different companies, the work to do is not choosing new adjectives, it is deciding which of the three is the real one, and making the other two match it.