Organizations spend fortunes on logos, visual identities, and advertising. They do so with the aim of creating or refining their brand in an attempt to woo and retain customers. Yet the very same organizations pay little attention to the voice of the brand. Even though it is the voice of the brand that the audience has to deal with¾often when the audience is busy at work, or weary at the end of the day, and would rather be doing something else.

An organization needs to treat the voice of its brand as seriously as it treats its visual identity, its customer service, and the flowers in reception.

A simple way for the organization to do that is to measure its documents against its brand values, its brand promise, its mission, its vision etc.

Consider this simple letter from a major global organization. The letter was sent to a former colleague of mine in response to a letter she wrote to the organization seeking information to help with her tertiary studies. (I need to mention that the information my friend asked for was not at all secret or valuable.)

Here's the letter:

Dear Ms X

Thank you for requesting information about [name of the company]. We appreciate your interest in our company and our products.

Due to the sheer volume of student requests for information we receive, we are not able to provide detailed answers to specific questions about our company. However, there is a comprehensive packet of marketing information available to students.

Please note, that as we are a [particular type of company], we are not required to produce a [certain publication] and this information is considered proprietary in nature.

Our student information packet is now available for review on our corporate website, [web address] in the section titled "All about [name of company]". All information contained in our student packet is available on this website.

In case you do not have internet access, we have enclosed a copy of our current student packet.

As most of the information published about [name of the company] is available in magazine articles, we strongly recommend that you look through the "Reader's Guide to Periodic Literature", which is an annual index of magazine articles. This should be available to you at a public or university library.

Thanks again for contacting us. Please call us at [number] if we may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,