Does your brand have a voice? The short answer is yes, all brands do. The more important question is, does your firm manage that brand voice strategically? Does the firm’s voice help audiences to tune in or tune out?

Join us as Scott Milano from Tanj - a language and branding firm that works with leading companies like Nintendo, Wyndham and Ally Bank - demonstrates the nuance in brand voice strategy by examining top brands found both inside and outside of legal. We also share how brand voice is developed, defined and codified, setting the foundation for all forms of brand communication. The conversation will be supported by Jaron Rubenstein, President of RubensteinTech and moderated by George Sanchez, Director of Business Development at RubensteinTech.

FEATURING:

Scott Milano
President and Founder
Tanj Branding

Jaron Rubenstein
President and Founder
Rubenstein Technology Group

MODERATED BY:

George Sanchez
Director of Business Development
Rubenstein Technology Group

Video Transcription

George: Hello everyone and good afternoon. My name is George Sanchez, your moderator for today, and I'm very excited to bring you the ninth installment of the RubyLaw Thought Leadership Series, Find Your Voice: Harness the Power of a Brand Voice Strategy. For those not familiar with RubyLaw, RubyLaw is an enterprise-level, web content management platform, designed to meet the web, mobile marketing, and proposal generating needs of leading law firms. It currently powers the digital presence of leading firms like Winston & Strawn, Akin Gump, Perkins Coie, and Morrison & Foerster, to name a few. I encourage anyone interested to schedule a demo and get a closer look at how we empower user experiences through the content management and proposal generating capabilities of RubyLaw. The RubyLaw Thought Leadership Series is RubensteinTech's effort to support the big opportunity firms have to create a competitive advantage given the changing expectations of how law firm stakeholders expect to consume content. All past eight installments are up on the RubensteinTech website for viewing. One of the ways legal marketers can create a competitive advantage is to provide a foundation for and strategically manage their unique brand voice. Today, Scott Milano of Tanj and Jaron Rubenstein of RubensteinTech will provide insight on how brands both inside and outside of legal leverage brand voice to differentiate online. As part of the discussion, we want to make sure that the webinar is interactive as well, so please send questions and comments via Twitter using the handle @RubensteinTech or #RubyLaw or feel free to send them directly to Jaron Rubenstein via WebEx chat. Right now I'd like to introduce our friend and guest panelist, Scott Milano. Scott owns and manages Tanj, a boutique language and branding firm that specializes in naming, strategy, and copy writing. For more than 12 years, he has focused on verbal identity, harnessing the power of language to deliver lasting, tangible impact on his clients' brand. His experience spans dozens of clients across most industries in both North America and Asia. Scott, it's great to have you here today. How are you doing?

Scott: I am doing very well, George. Thanks for having me.

George: This is a great topic. Here at RubensteinTech we really believe in managing a brand identity and how that can provide real value, whether that's a corporation in the S&P 500 or an American 100 law firm, and obviously, a verbal identity is a big component of that. It's also a nice sort of follow up to some of the webinars we've been having around consensus building, content management, LinkedIn strategies, all of which can be sort of tied back to how a firm might talk about itself. So with that, I'd love you to take us through your great presentation. I've got a sneak peek at it and its great content, and sort of hand the floor over to you.

Scott: Great! Well, thank you George and Jaron, and RubensteinTech for inviting me along. And thanks to everyone for tuning in. We're really excited about today. As George mentioned, we'll talk a little bit about finding your firm's unique voice. How do you do that? You do that by developing a brand voice strategy. So essentially what we're gonna do today is just quickly give an overview of what is brand voice. What's it all about and then we'll bring it into your world, the legal space. Why legal marketers should actually care about this. And then lastly we'll sort of finish up with the best practices and how you can actually manage it and implement it within your firm. So, on voice. Words, words have power. So in politics you think about it, in business, in friendships and even in your family. In pretty much every situation we encounter, the things you say and how you say them, define that situation and they actually define your world. As I'm sure this audience knows, the words that we use help us achieve certain outcomes when we need them to be achieved. You sort of take that into this world of politics and then to society and then move it into the world of brands and you see that words really do have actual power, and knowing how to harness that power is the key to brand success. We think about, no longer is it just the case that a logo, or what your logo looks like, or what your brand colors are, or how your website works, and that sort of interaction. Everything matters and to our point here, especially the language. So what we're using during every interaction, the stories that we share on behalf of the brand, they all have a tremendous effect on how the brand is perceived. So sort of thinking about all the different components within a brand and here we've just got sort of a handful. Obviously, you've got your marketing, your services, your thought leadership, your employee engagement. All these different aspects are sort of elements of the brand and the brand gets carried through them But in particular, messaging and voice. We feel they're certainly very powerful aspects. So today what we'll do is talk a little bit about messaging, but primarily focus on voice. In terms of messaging, let's give a little bit of definition and context here.

So what is brand messaging? Messaging is essentially what you say. So when we communicate, we emphasize certain messages. They give us focus in everything that we write, and they help us substantiate the promise of our brand. Message should not actually be confused with content. If you sort of think about all the language and copy that you're using on your web pages, each piece of collateral, your pitch material, they all have concrete information to convey, but our messages are really the ideas that color our content and support our brand. Shifting gears and thinking about voice. Voice is sort of the flip side of messaging. If messaging is all about what you say, voice is about how you say it. So this whole new personality of how the brand speaks, that's in writing and beyond. So maintaining a consistent voice we feel is critical for all communication in the cross panels and languages. Because it really helps reinforce the personality of the brand. So today we're gonna primarily focus on voice, as we mentioned. Let's sort of go a little bit deeper on brand voice and think about what it actually is, it's foundational. For us we treat it as it's tied directly to the DNA of the brand. So you're defining their voices, and is as important, we think and we feel, as defining your visual identity system. So if you think about, go to your visual identity, your logo, your color palette, and how the brand looks, voice is actually just essentially another component and it's how the brand speaks across communication. And that's not just sort of singular areas just on your website or just on your Twitter Feed, or whatever it may be, it's throughout everything. Again, it's very foundational. It's something that manifests itself everywhere. So what brand voice is not is not a tagline. So it's not as simple as just sort of something that cropped up in two or three words. it's not your content strategy. So while voice can be threaded throughout all the different contents that you're putting out, brand voice doesn't directly take the type of content that you produce, or the channels that you share them on. So it's not your Twitter Feed or whatever it may be. What we're going to do for our first, take a minute to have some simple examples that sort of everybody can relate to across industries. So we're not making any judgments here between Microsoft or Apple or anything like that, but we've kind of looked into this and found that there's just some interesting things with voice going on. So what we'd like to do is play two videos for you or two commercials. We might have an issue with sound, so if you guys want to turn up your volume just a little bit you can clearly hear what's going on within the commercial.

[Voiceover] An extremely simple tool, but also extremely powerful. It could be used to start a poem. Or finish a symphony. It has transformed the way we work, learn, create, share. It's used to illustrate things, solve things, and think of new things. It's used by scientists, and artists, scholars, and students. It's been to classrooms, boardrooms, expeditions, even to space. And we can't wait to see where you'll take it next. Introducing the thinner, lighter, more powerful iPad Air.

Scott: Just within this story here, we'll kind of get deeper as we talk about Microsoft as well, but just in the story of selling the iPad, they were taking a very insightful kind of aspirational tone. And the language itself, it's very warm and human. All qualities that you can see threaded throughout various Apple communications. So our next is Microsoft. And this is actually kind of a competing, it's the Surface, that's the competing product. And we wanted to sort of take a look at how they use voice to sell it.

[Voiceover] Wait, are you running full Adobe Photoshop on a tablet?

[Voiceover] Yep. But it's not just a tablet, it's really a laptop. It's the Surface Pro 3 with a touchscreen.

[Voiceover] Well, it can't be as fast as my Mac.

[Voiceover] Sure it can and it is.

[Voiceover] But you probably can't plug anything into it.

[Voiceover] I have a USB, mini display port, plug away. And this is my favorite, it's the kickstand.

[Voiceover] So you're saying this has more than my Mac?

[Voiceover] Well, technically, you said it.

Scott: So we see here very different... They're selling similar products. But they take a very different approach. And again, we're not here, we're not gonna judge one over the other, but as we mentioned with Apple it's very insightful, more human, highly aspirational. And with Microsoft, it's just a marked, sort of pointed set of messages. They're a little bit more functional, which you know can work in their favor in many ways. And it's also, they're using a little bit of humor. So, how the voice is coming alive. And we think that each of them is sort of targeting and ultimately resonating with slightly different audiences. So it's just sort of interesting to pair the two together on very similar products. Moving forward, different examples, totally different category, the world of pants. So we have pants. So we have Under Armour. Obviously everybody's pretty familiar with that. Its big, great sports program. And then The J. Peterman Company, which is probably most well known through sort of Seinfeld fame in the 90s, but it's actually a real brand, and it's gone through a variety of different changes. One of things that it leverages is the power of story to market its view. So here for Under Armour, this is just a pair of compression pants. And we looked at the language that they're using to just talk about and sort of ultimately sell the pants. It's a great little story here. We know you can work up a sweat on your way way to 26.2, so we armed these leggings with a muscle-boosting compression fit and strategic mesh leg panels that dump excess heat as you get fired up. So it's really sort of no BS here. Pretty gritty kind of tone. They use their leveraging, sports language. And then they also sound, like you can kind of hear it sounds like a coach or a trainer talking you into it and pushing you along. So again, pants. And then sort of shifting here, here we have something entirely different. So these are hanging out pants, hanging out wear from J. Peterman. Cups and cups of fresh small-batch Panama coffee. Walk in woods before breakfast, at daybreak. Fresh huckleberries, Irish soda bread, and trout you caught yourself. They take you through this sort of like crazy, wondrous journey and sort of filled with images, it's filled with stories within stories. And it's all ultimately meant to sort of at the end here, you can see hanging out pants, comfy elastic waistband with internal drawstring. So it all leads to not just about the product, but the way that they do it. Compared to the Under Armour, it's dramatically different. But again, each has its own voice. Each has its own unique voice. Under Armour is really gritty, it's no BS, it's in the now. And J. Peterman, it's very poetic, it's very story-driven. And whereas Under Armour is like literally right about right now, J. Peterman sort of takes this timeless line, which is, it's cool. And then each again targets and resonates with a different audience. So as we sort of wrap up a definition of voice, voice is how you say it. Again, its message meaning is what you say, voice is how you say it.

So why should we care as legal marketers? We're walking through B2C examples of like computers and apparel and all sorts of stuff. Why is it relevant in your space? We do a lot of work in a variety of different industries and in preparing for this event today we wanted to take a look into the legal space and really see what was going on in terms of voice. And we think that there's opportunity here and it's something that should actually matter to marketers in the legal space for several different reasons. I think first of all, it's just sort of a meta point around law, it's about people and words. There are many other aspects to it, but at the end of the day people and language are at the heart of everything lawyers typically do. So what you say and how you say it actually matters. We think that certainly how you speak says a lot about who you are and what you offer. Again 'cause it's sort of linked to the point of it being about people, but it's critical that sort of you're able to communicate with an effective voice in a certain way, to represent yourself in a certain way. Third point, communicating your uniqueness is key to winning business. What we've seen and we'll sort of walk through some interesting examples from the legal spaces, there's a lot of boilerplate language in legal around sort of where X amount of lawyers in X number of cities across X number of countries, and here are our specialties and here's our client list. That's great and those are all substantial pieces of information, but there's an opportunity to leverage a unique tone to ultimately differentiate yourself in winning business. And then lastly, we're already seeing, our clients are already seeing a brand's leveraging voice in professional services outside of law, it's not just sort of a B2C kind of thing. So what we wanted to do is just take a quick walk outside of law and look in terms of professional services. And here we have obviously a financial example with Goldman. Right up front, when you go to their website, it's a kind of content and it's actually done very, very well, it's very copy-driven within the language that they're using. They're offering like an incredibly unique perspective. The writing itself is very crisp. There's a professional, yet warm tone, that's sort of striking this balance between being super professional and buttoned up and tight, but also personal andout and being human. We see a number of engaging headlines across all the different content. And then lastly a clear call to action. All of these little elements wind up creating a voice that is quite compelling. So as we dive kind of deeper and just highlight a couple of specific ads as to what we found with our little mini Goldman audit. Here off to the left, you see this headline, Progress Is: Restoring Rivers And Revitalizing Communities. And so this idea of just saying, progress is, it's taking a very definitive stance and point of view. And that's what they believe and that's what they're gonna put their thought, their time, and their energy behind. And what's cool actually about that kind of thing, is you can have that run through various communications and it doesn't have to just be like--

George: There's a certain simplicity there about progress, yeah.

Scott: Exactly, exactly, and they sort of stand behind that keyword of progress. And I think it's probably threaded throughout various aspects of the brand. And then off to the right, a very simple sort of introduction to the people. Here they start out with, meet Joel. That's a great way to sort of open it up and make it more conversational. It's definitely not quite as conversational as sort of the Under Armour example that we shared, but it's very approachable and warm, that they're writing like you would normally speak. Shifting gears, still on professional services, but taking a glimpse at McKinsey. It's a little bit more clear and sort of matter of fact compared to the Goldman voice. And perhaps that speaks to the culture. But it's also, it's like you can kind of feel, like you read through it, it's smart and accessible. It's not like elitist and over your head. One of the things that they do that we thought was interesting was they use bold adjectives and verbs to really drive sentences. And they show that it's sort of in the tone and it's also a bit in the essence, they're unafraid to think big. So here we have some more specific examples. At the top to the left you see these subheads, defined by our people, powered by our knowledge. So again, using crisp, powerful verbs to drive subheads and break up copy. Not just a wall of text, they break it. They make it very approachable and readable. And then off to the right we see this idea of unafraid to think big or to share that you're thinking big. We help make change happen. We help our clients achieve their biggest goals. So you see this kind of language and that kind of bold statement threaded throughout various aspects of their copy. So we thought that there was one more reason. We didn't put it right up front, but it was kind of interesting as we walked through the legal space and looked at some of the top law firms, we saw that folks are actually already doing this. The law firms are already leveraging voice to some extent. So we wanted to take you through some of the interesting examples that we found and kind of diagnose them. So for our first one was Nixon Peabody. I think kind of visually just as you jump on the site it's a really interesting design and sort of unexpected in the space. The language also mirrored that. It's unexpected and bold. It's very easy to read. As you can see even just some of the screen shot, there's clear and concise sentences. There's not much legalese or fluff. And there's a very simple, like kind of tangible example on their navigation, it looks more like a design firm navigation than what you would typically see in the legal space and it works really well. Because it promotes the fact that they're a trustworthy partner and contemporary, clean, reliable. And it doesn't just say, which we saw a lot of other firms kind of just say it and they keep messaging it, but they don't actually show it through how they're communicating. And lastly we probably won't get into too much detail on this, but they do use some interesting and very quick storytelling techniques in the legal space. So it sounded kind of refreshing and pretty cool. So some examples here. So off to the left there's this idea, we push each other to ever-greater pro bono services. This is a simple idea of like we push each other. It actually tells like an interesting story about the culture of the firm, like how does it work together and drive forward together in a competitive environment. I thought it was just a really nice way to open up a block of copy with a pretty interesting intro statement. And then throughout we see they're explaining sort of slightly complex issues, but they're doing it without any legalese. Again, it's not at the same time kind of dumbed-down, so the voice is very accessible particularly for this professional audience. Off to the right we're seeing this idea of like them talking about being a trustworthy partner. Their kind of conversational layout exactly what it is that they, we can do for you, the client. We liked how that was working, and we thought it was made very unique in the space of just plain and very simple writing techniques. And then lastly down at the bottom, we're also seeing these bold claims, similar to what we saw with McKinsey, it's like inspirational or aspirational language, they paint a picture for readers. Work that matters, shaping what's ahead, the power of collective thinking. So shifting gears and going to a different firm.

A very different voice, but what we thought was incredibly unique is the Gibson Dunn from the Gibson Dunn website. Just this sort of open message. Any lawyer can shape a strategy, we prefer to shape the future. Very unique and unexpected in this space. As you sort of dig deeper into the content and how they're actually delivering it, they go far beyond the sort of standard, hey, we're a global law firm with vast experience in X amount of countries, et cetera. The tone is incredibly confident, and we'll get into some examples. And as you kind of go deeper into some of the content, it becomes very elaborate and literally just deep, it's very interesting. And with that, they sort of deliver unexpected detail. We were reviewing this and thinking about it, you get this picture of an incredibly shrewd, well seasoned, typically older sort of lawyer who's really gonna kick some butt on your behalf. So we thought it was very unique in this space. So some examples. Again, it's kind of slightly over the top storytelling, but it works, it seems to work for a certain type of audience. You are never cornered. You are never trapped. You are simply in a position where it is absolutely essential to think in new ways. So we kind of thought that was interesting. And how they display this confidence, off to the right and at the top. If the answer can't be seen, we ask the question in a different way. Our standards are uncompromising, just as they've been since the 1890s, et cetera. So it's a very confident, a confident tone gives it that pretty distinctive impression. And then lastly at the bottom, the sort of storytelling that they have with some of the content on the site. They go into some unexpected detail. It really, again, gives you this impression that you're sitting down across the table from somebody who's very well seasoned and has some rich history and experience. So again, it creates this kind of very unique image. The voice creates a very unique image within the space. Lastly is a smaller firm in D.C. called Tandem. Probably not as well known as the previous two, but we felt they came up as an interesting example of how a law firm is leveraging voice. The language itself is very clear and simple. As we get into it you'll see it's very positive and idealistic. It makes it engaging we felt for a certain type of audience. And part of their business is catered a little bit more towards start-ups, so it has inherently a start-up more casual feel. So if we kind of diagram and look at some quick examples, as you can see at the top, it's clear and simple. They're talking about growing businesses need more than cookie cutter legal documents. How do we solve those problems and those challenges. Down towards the bottom and the left, we see it's a little bit more of an idealistic tone coming through. We believe people have the right to be happy. That's sort of a very simple statement, but it's actually like a pretty bold thing to say within the space. So we liked how that was working. And then lastly off to the right, you can see it's pretty much routine. The language itself was reallythrough. We exist, we succeed, we help. So their headlines are succinct, they're positive, and they're idealistic and they draw you in. So we're shifting gears and thinking about some best practices. We listed up a couple that we thought would be relevant to law marketers. First, it really starts at a very fundamental level. It's this idea of creating a solid brand foundation. So it's not just sort of saying, hey, let's clean up the copy on our website and make the voice consistent throughout. You really need to have a strategic foundation on which to base yourwork on. So what we do typically at Tanj is we go through sort of a strategy exercise. Just really go in and define at a very fundamental level what the brand is all about. So here's an out of category example of what we call a brand platform. But at the top a very high level, aspirational, big ideas. The brand idea it dictates what the brand stands for. Then we move down into more sort of targeted and pointed value proposition language. Then we have the brand pillars, which typically is what we leverage for messaging, which is sort of a different topic here, that they really drive what the promise and unique propositions is of the brand. And then lastly the brand personality. So here we define it as how the brand speaks, looks, and behaves. And this for us is sort of like the base foundation for brand voices. We take this, how the brand speaks, looks, and behaves, just a couple key attributes, and then we really sort of leverage those and then find definitive packets similar to what we saw on some of these examples on how to write in a unique voice and in a voice that is on brand.

George: I guess part of the point is it's very intentional in terms of the examples that you showed, both inside and outside of legal, in terms of not just the visual, but matching that identity to that visual, it's super important.

Scott: Yeah, it's super important. And I think in most instances it is intentional, and if you're gonna have multiple people sort of working on the same problem and communicating on behalf of the brand, you have to do it from something. You can't have a bunch of renegades moving in every direction, as I think we all know it usually doesn't work very well. It gets unwieldy very quickly, definitely. So with that we have this core brand foundation. And again, that affects much more than voice, but voice is certainly a part of it. Typically what we recommend doing is developing some voice and with that, alongside that, messaging guidelines. So it serves as a playbook for what you say, where you, and how you communicate and how you write on brand. So this is a nice chart here, but this is just a quick example from one of our recent projects. Off to the left, sort of goes left to right, you have your personality attributes from that core foundation. And that again, is more sort of higher level strategic thinking about how the brand speaks, looks, and behaves. We like to take it even one step further and then based on a particularview, just go ahead and create a general voice principle. So it's more specific direction, how the brand actually speaks. And then from there we offer do's and don'ts. It's really just sort of best practices, or like classical advice on how to write and how to communicate in the brand voice. So step three or best practice three, create processes to scale voice across the business. So we all know that if it's just like sort of something that fits in your drawer, never makes it to the read world, it really doesn't have any impact. So we just thought were sort of two general ways in which we've seen success in scaling brand voice across a business. So the first is kind of high level, spread the word. Obviously you have to share any guidelines. Make them very easy to access. So that means sort of available on an intranet, but it also means making them short and friendly and accessible for people. And then as you're briefing teams, whether it's a creative team, sort of an agency partner, include them in the brief. Make sure that folks actually understand in the brand voice that you've created. The second side of this sort of internally, is training your people. So you have these great guidelines, but if folks don't know how to actually use them or aren't trained, they might not be as successful as they could. So we often suggest developing any courses for writing on brand. It really could be just specific to the guidelines. It could be specific for certain types of applications. You can develop courses for writing, for a variety of different types of writing. But I think at the end of the day they still need to be fun and engaging. No one wants to kind of take time out of their busy schedule and just sit down and learn how to write, so make them cool, make them exciting for people. We just came up with this kind of throwing things around and how to not write like a lawyer. Make it interesting.

George: Before you get to this next point, in terms of scalability, one of the questions that I've had and we deal with a lot is multi-lingual websites. And the fact that a lot of folks that are on the phone have to deal with marketing to a global audience. And that includes having marketing managers in different locations and offices around the world, how do you deal with, and I'm sure it's a very nuanced answer in terms of voice as it crosses borders?

Scott: Right and it's a very difficult challenge. And it's one that needs to be taught, we think needs to be solved by teams. It's never the case where usually it doesn't work out very well with the head office here in the states just pushes it out and demands that folks use it. It's better to bring people in from like overseas in for the process so they understand what it is that you're doing. And then you can take any sort of guidance that you create and adapt it for that market. Will it be exactly the same, like going from English to Chinese to Japanese? Probably not. There are gonna be some differences and some bumps, and you might not get to the intricate detail in one language that you would in another, but when you said it is important to certainly share it and have them be a part of the process.

George: That's great, and thanks Scott.

Scott: So moving forward and just think, again in terms of best practices, we like to say be diligent, certainly be vigilant, but be cool, be flexible about it. Obviously part of the great aspect of having kind of your voice already carved out and defined is that it helps you evaluate creative. You can use it either when you go through sort of an annual review or if you're literally just evaluating new content for your website, it's how does it map back to all that work that we've done. Are there any areas that are not on brand? And if they are not, don't be shy, go ahead and change it. And sometimes what you see is that certain packets and techniques that you might develop early on, either they don't have legs, or they don't manifest themselves in the way that you really wanted them to. So if they're not working, don't be afraid to change it and evolve. And then lastly just in terms of keeping things going, we always recommend that folks regularly share their successes to build momentum. So some key takeaways, just a quick wrap up here. Be unique. So as we think that voice is one area where law firms in particular, but businesses in general can really differentiate themselves. Especially in industries where a lot of folks are saying the same thing and saying it in the same way. A second point here, it's not only for B2C. Voice is something that isn't just for B2C brands. In fact, there's a tremendous opportunity in B2B as you seen throughout a couple of examples here. Stay ahead of trends. Obviously we all want to be leaders in our industries, so within professional services we're seeing folks implement it. And while we're seeing it in law, there's an opportunity to stay ahead of the pack. We talked a little bit about legal being, you know at the heart of it being about people and words, so it's essential, it's a core part of how law firms represent themselves. The foundational aspect as we just touched on. You can't just sort of jump off and create a voice in a vacuum. There really needs to be a strong, strategic brand foundation to work from. And then lastly you'll never finish, as I think we all know working our brands. And within branding there are often, there are better answers but there are no right answers. It's always an evolving process. So we always like to say, enjoy the journey, but work So we wanted to open it up I guess for Q&A. Q&A, any questions or comments? If any attendees have questions, please shoot them over to Jaron via WebEx chat. But in the meantime, Jaron do you have any questions?

Jaron: Why don't you start now?

George: Yeah, okay. Scott, I had a question on, I mean a very simple question but, how can a voice sort of evolve or change by channel? So you're writing a certain way in your voice on the web, on a website, how does that translate to something like social?

Scott: Right, those are the things that you can account for and you can sort of plan for at this like strategic level or you could just kind of test things and try things, and social is a great space for that. I'd say in general you want the voice to be somewhat consistent and representative of the brand regardless of the channel. But as we see with a lot of brands, they dial it up a bit and say things that are a little bit more provocative in the social setting. It's interesting, it's good--

George: To have a--

Scott: Yeah, we think it's okay. You got to say something interesting and in an interesting way to cut through the clutter. 

Jaron: This is one. In some of the past webinars you've done in a series about branding, you know the concept of authenticity comes up a lot. You know that branding can be authentic for us if you, especially in today's marketplace, for it to be received well. Is that also apply to voice?

Scott: Yeah, I think it's 100% what voice is about. If you think about what we talked about in terms of ensuring that, like you have a foundation, it's really all about finding out who you are as a business. Why you exist, why you're relevant, and why you matter. And why folks should be engaging with you. And voice is a key aspect of that. I think if your voice isn't authentic and you're sort of struggling at a different level, or at a different tone from what you're comfortable with and what you're really all about, probably the public picks up on that.

George: So be consistent and authentic. A lot of firms that we work with in the legal space speak to multiple audiences. I mean every, I think every company speaks to multiple audiences and So like here's this specific example is firms are often looking at recruits, right, either a lot of hires, or a law school guy do it. And recruiting is a very specific function of a lot of their websites and particular marketing effort. And that is sort of, I don't want to say it's at odds, but it's in parallel towards marketing towards other firms and in-house counsel and potential clients and that sort of thing. So how does voice handle that aspect where maybe one audience, it's maybe a little more collegial than the other or you know--

Jaron: Or one could be a bit more casual, maybe. On the recruiting side, especially if you're going after law students.

George: Yeah, there's a tone and it's, now like how does that fit into this matrix?

Jaron: If you think about--

George: They can hire staff.

Scott: But if you think about, like in those simple examples that we showed, they're different, there are different attributes. Like all of us as humans, we all, we're not one thing. And the way that we create it, and the way that brands leverage it, is just sort of by dialing up certain aspects of who they are in different settings. So on a very basic level, as you just said, like if you're talking to potential hires versus clients or partners in some, you're naturally going to say it in a different way. And the messages that you say will ultimately be very different as well, but they'll still be you when you have like a defined brand voice. When you have a core view and an aspect of that is voice, I think it usually gets delivered with consistency throughout. It doesn't mean it's exactly the same, and it doesn't mean it should be, they just ultimately tend and should flex.

Jaron: Very good.

George: Any more questions?

Jaron: Any more questions? If you want to add to chat or to Q&A in WebEx, please do that. Okay, here's one. Isn't it also about addressing them as to who they aspire to be? I think the question is like about going off the rails on a recruiting site. Like making it completely maybe different than the name site. I don't know if that's a clear question the way I recited it.

George: I think it's, can it be aspirational in terms of like who they want to be? They're gonna recruit. And you don't want to sort of go off the rails on a recruiting site by being maybe overly promising or whatever it might be.

Jaron: But I think that comes back to authenticity.

Scott: Yeah, I think no matter, again, just sort of put it in the world of who we are as people and how we speak to our families versus our friends on a Friday night out somewhere. It's different but it's still us. And I think brands interact and can interact in the same way. If you go too far, you know, you'll lose that authenticity. It may not sound like you, as the brand. But it doesn't mean that you can't change it, flex it, and try new things as well. As we kind of talked about this idea of it's always evolving. And we always encourage our clients, and even when we're writing, we like to try new things. And just create new ways of saying things. And if you go too far you can always reel it back in.

George: Right, right.

Jaron: All right, excellent.

George: Anybody else? All right, guys, we're good. Okay, I want to thank Scott Milano for providing his all his expertise, as it comes to finding your voice. Hopefully the community found that helpful. So thanks again and go have a great afternoon.