Hello there 👋

(And a big hello to all the new subscribers!)

Before we get into today's newsletter, can we ask a massive favour? 🙏

If you enjoy these newsletters and have got a spare 2 minutes, could you drop us a review? (Because, despite going on about social proof all the time, we have done a very poor job at practicing what we preach when it comes to this newsletter.)

And before we start, here's a tiny bit of copy we loved this week from a cottage Jack was looking at renting in Snowdonia 👇

What makes this so good? We broke this technique down a few months ago.

And now, on with the main event.

💡 This week's big idea: lots of brands tell us they want to "sound like Oatly". But it's actually the thinking and strategy that make Oatly's voice so damn good. When you think of a brand that's got a great brand voice right now, what's the first one that pops into your head? It's Oatly, right? (Probably because it was in the subject line of this email, but still, play along...) Now, there are so many good articles that dig into the Oatly style: the anti-ad ads, the self-aware copy on the side of the packaging, the stick-it-to-the-man-ness of it all... And all of those things are great. It goes without saying that we 💛 a language-led brand. But if you're trying to figure out your brand voice, those things are not actually that useful to you, because the only thing you can see (and "borrow" from) is the execution. And that's the reason we're seeing so many Oatly-sounding brands popping up. Everybody knows that Oatly's voice is a banger and they know they want their brand to have the same impact and reach, but all they have as a reference point is the execution of the brand voice. And that execution is just the tip of the iceberg. All the strategy, all the brand voice work, all the Big Picture thinking that goes on behind the scenes... that's all invisible. ☝️ And that's the stuff you can really learn from. So we thought we'd break it down. Let's get it 👇

Find yourself saying "this doesn't quite feel like us" when you read your copy? You're not alone.

Almost every time we speak to a brand or a founder about their voice, they'll tell us the same thing: "our copy just feels off", "it's just not quite us" or "it feels like it doesn't do who we are justice".

And nine times out of ten, that gut "this isn't right" feeling isn’t really a writing problem or a copy problem because their copy is already technically pretty good. It's actually a misalignment problem.

In other words, the message that their brand voice and their actual messaging are sending different messages about who the brand is. And that's what's creating that "something's off here" gut instinct.

For example, they might be a brand with a challenger mentality but their voice is Innocent-y and fun.

Or a brand might actually be all about hedonism and having fun, but their brand voice is a bit stilted and science-led.

And, as we know from decades of studies, the way we say something is just as important as what we're saying. Customers can feel that disconnect between your voice and your message.

And this is where Oatly are killing it. Everything they do is joined up.

What makes Oatly's voice so damn good?

Before we get swept up in talking about packaging gags and their post-modern, self-referential copy... to make Oatly's voice make sense, we need to zoom out.

And as we zoom out, we'll start to see just why everything Oatly writes feels so unmistakably Oatly.

☝️ And that's a huge thing. Because from a copy and voice perspective, these four bits of Oatly ad copy could not be more different:

We've got puns, we've got post-modern/anti-ad copy, we've got a silly, rhyme-as-reason branded bit of copy and a thumb-your-nose bit of challenger copy.

And yet they all feel very, very distinctly “Oatly-ish”.

This is by design. In fact, Mike Lee, Oatly's Creative Director, once said:

The reason Oatly’s voice keeps getting copied (and keeps working for them) isn’t because of the style of their copy, it’s the thinking behind it.

And to make sense of why it's so clever, we're big fans of Chris West’s idea of the three levels of brand voice. ​

He describes brand voice like looking down at a city from an plane.

At 10,000 ft, you can't see the individual streets or cars or houses. You can just see the broad shapes of the city and big buildings and layout, but not much else. But from this height, you can get a sense whether the city is industrial or metropolitan or coastal or historic...

Basically, you get a feel for the city's worldview. You get a clear idea of the big picture of the city.

And it's the same with your brand voice. When you're zoomed all the way out, you should get a clear sense of your brand’s worldview, the story you believe about the world and the change you’re here to make.

It's only as you zoom in that you can start to pick out key details. The landmarks that give the city its character. He calls this the 1,000 ft view, where you set your brand's personality into words. (He says "how a human with that worldview would actually sound".)

Then, when you touch down, you're at ground level and you can turn that voice into a language system with repeatable phrases, words and structures that make your voice practical and scalable and all that other good stuff.

☝️ And that's where lots of brands slip up. They start their brand voice process at 1,000 feet.

They start the process with "we know we want to be friendly and funny". (Or, sometimes, "we want to sound like Oatly/Apple/Monzo/Surreal".)

And that's a bit like packing for a trip without checking the weather.

Instead, it's nailing that 10,000 feet view that's the most important, because once that's locked in, everything else just feels right.

How everything Oatly does leads back to their 10,000 ft brand voice

For Oatly, everything starts with their mission.

☝️ That right there is their whole brand messaging strategy in one place: they do the thing, they tell their customers about it and they make it fun so it invites customers to be a part of it. And that ethos shows up everywhere.

☝️ More than their ads and murals, this copy from their About Page is peak Oatly.

It's very chatty and community-minded. It has a challenger streak that pokes the status quo (namely, the dairy industry). It's determined to make the world a better place. It's evidence-led rather than hand-wavy on its claims. And there's a palpable belief that climate talk doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.

(Which, as we discussed last week, is super smart.)

And those are the things that makes Oatly's voice so Oatly.

Once you've pinned down your ownable worldview, then you translate it into voice and copy.

The great thing is, once you've figured out your brand's worldview, then everything gets easier.

Let's take Oatly's worldview.

To translate that idea into a voice, all you need to do is ask yourself: if a person wanted to normalize people swapping to a plant-based milk alternative and make it so people want to get involved, how would they speak?

They wouldn't write like a committee. They'd write like a real person. They'd be real, they'd be enthusiastic. And that’s why Oatly’s default personality is human, curious, self-aware.

And if that same person were also boldly standing up to big industries, what would that person sound like? Inoffensive and safe? Or big, bold, sometimes a bit brash?

And so on and so on... as you work through those questions, you start to get a really clear sense of what a buttoned-up, cohesive brand voice would sound like.

Then, once you've got that, it's turned into a brand language.

Brand personality only becomes practical the second you turn it into repeatable ways of using language. Oatly’s voice, on a practical level, looks something like this:

• Talk like a human. Use contractions, be self-aware, be silly, have fun.
• Create a sense of identity. Create phrases people can choose to wear like “Post-Milk Generation” or that they can repeat like "It's like milk but for humans".
• Always show your working. Back up your climate claims, show your homework, include footnotes, be thorough and honest.
• Invite people in, don’t lecture. Shared humour, jokes, shared values help bring people in far better than lectures and guilt-framing around the climate. (As we talked about last week.)
• Always grab attention. Be bold, be brave, be confident and make the message heard.

None of these elements exist in a vacuum.

They're all the direct result of the brand's worldview of making the world a better place by encouraging people to switch to oat milk. Every single element of their copywriting is a direct extension of that singular idea and ethos.

☝️ And that's what most brands miss.

If you copy the execution (jokey ads, self-aware asides, cheeky headlines), you’ll can definitely sound Oatly-ish.

But there's more and more evidence that customers are able to spot brands that are riffing on other brands' voices. (Especially brands that are as big as Oatly.)

But if you copy the strategy, you won’t need to sound like anyone.

Your own copy will start to feel like something only you can say because they flow from something that only you can own: your worldview.

Turn your voice into a voice that can compete with Oatly

About 7 or 8 years ago (when we were unofficially teaming up on projects, before Do Words Good was a thing...) we had a realisation: the more time we spent nailing down a brand's worldview, the better the copy at the end of the process.

In other words, the more time we spent sharpening a client’s “10,000-ft view”, the easier everything was to write and the stronger the end result.

And once that's nailed down, the H1s write themselves. The About Pages (usually the hardest pages to nail) go from taking weeks to days. And all those internal debates around "does this sound like us?" almost entirely disappear because everyone is pointing at the same north star.

In our opinion, it's genuinely the highest-ROI thing you can do for your copy.

And here's a really good place to get started👇

Take 5/10 minutes and fill in the blanks in this sentence.

This one sentence forces you to really pin down:

👉 Who you're talking to

👉 The headline benefit of what you're offering

👉 Your brand's nemesis (AKA what your brand will never be)

👉 The transformation you're promising your customers

👋 Pinch our process Once we've nailed down a rough sense of a worldview, we like to write a brand manifesto. This 300-400 words should feel like a rallying cry for your brand. It lays out what you believe, why you believe it, what you’re here to change, and how you behave while you do it. And as you're fleshing it out and making sure that the way you write it lines up with the things you're saying... the voice starts to take shape in front of your eyes. From there, it's a matter of honing, refining and documenting. (It's one of our favourite parts of the process.)

Once you've written up your worldview (or a manifesto, if you're a teacher's pet like us), if you end up with copy that doesn't feel like you could drop it directly onto your about page, Instagram bio, investor deck, product page, welcome email... then you've not zoomed out far enough.

If that happens, think bigger. Be braver.

What parts of your brand would you never change, even if sales were plummeting? What beliefs are so foundational to who you are that you couldn't pivot away from them even if you wanted to? How can you make those things a foundational part of your brand's worldview?

Then, once you have a really clear idea, ask yourself: if a person believed this, how would they speak?

☝️ And boom, there's the key to unlocking your voice.

And that's the trick to a voice that's more than just an imitation of another brand or a collection of stylistic elements.

It's the way that you create a real, lived-in voice that attracts the right customers and screams authenticity.

(Not to mention, makes everything easier to write.)

All that's left to do is flesh it out, document it and make sure your team use it consistently.

(And, as if by magic, we've got an article on doing just that right here.)

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As always, if your brand is taking that step from early stages to scaling up and you want a hand with your copy, messaging or figuring out your 10,000ft voice, we'd love to help. You can book a 15-min chat with us here to see if we're a good fit!

See you next week for more ways to do words gooder!

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Peace and love ✌️ Jack and Joe co-founders, co-brothers and co-pywriters at Do Words Good​