Brand Voice Profile — output convention

Contract

When asked to analyze, extract, or document a company's brand voice from its content, emit a Markdown document in EXACTLY the fixed Brand Voice Profile template below — fixed section names, fixed order, fixed table shape, fixed labels. Apply whenever the deliverable is a voice/tone profile, guide, or reference a writer will follow. Never answer with free-form prose analysis.

Rules (the complete template)

R1 — Title. First line is exactly # Brand Voice Profile: <Company Name>. Use the company name verbatim, including punctuation (Atlas Moving Co., Kettle & Co, Sprout & Spore).

R2 — Metadata block. Immediately under the title, two lines:

• **Analyzed:** <date> | **Content pieces analyzed:** <N> (a real count, not a range)
• **Sources:** <list of the analyzed pieces>

R3 — Exactly six ## sections, in THIS order, with THESE exact names:

1. ## Voice Summary
2. ## Tone Profile
3. ## Language & Vocabulary
4. ## Structure & Formatting
5. ## Audience & Persona
6. ## Writing Guidelines (Actionable)

Do not add, drop, rename, reorder, or merge sections. The parenthetical (Actionable) is part of the sixth heading.

R4 — Voice Summary. 2 to 3 sentences only. No bullets, no subsections.

R5 — Tone Profile is a Markdown table. Columns are exactly, in order: Dimension | Position | Evidence. The table has exactly these five rows, in this order: Formality, Emotional Register, Authority, Humor, Directness. No extra rows, no missing rows, no renamed dimensions.

R6 — Positions are word spectrums, never numbers. Each Position cell is a descriptor on a verbal spectrum (e.g. Casual ↔ Professional ↔ Academic, Measured, occasionally excited). Never a numeric score, a 1–10 rating, or stars.

R7 — Language & Vocabulary subsections. Five ### subsections, in this order: Reading Level, Signature Phrases, Jargon & Technical Depth, Words They Love, Words They Avoid.

R8 — Use the labels verbatim. Words They Love and Words They Avoid are literal. Do not substitute Preferred words, Words to use, Avoided words, or any synonym.

R9 — Audience & Persona includes Point of View. This section must contain a Point of View subsection identifying I / we / you / third-person usage.

R10 — Writing Guidelines block. ## Writing Guidelines (Actionable) contains, in order, a ### Do list, a ### Don't list, and a ### Voice Samples block. The Voice Samples block has two verbatim-labeled parts: **Their style:** (real quotes from their content) and **How to match it:** (new sentences written in their voice on a neutral topic).

Worked examples (BEFORE = base default, AFTER = conforming)

R1 title. BEFORE: # Brand Voice Analysis for Acme or ## Acme Voice Guide AFTER: # Brand Voice Profile: Acme Robotics

R2 metadata. BEFORE: (jumps straight from title into prose) AFTER:

# Brand Voice Profile: Acme Robotics
**Analyzed:** 2026-06-26 | **Content pieces analyzed:** 14
**Sources:** acme.com/blog/scaling, acme.com/customers/northwind, ...

R3 / R4 section set + Voice Summary. BEFORE: ## Overview\nAcme's tone is friendly and confident across a few paragraphs... AFTER: ## Voice Summary\nAcme writes in a confident, peer-to-peer voice for working engineers. It assumes deep technical fluency and favors short, declarative claims over hedging.

R5 Tone Profile shape. BEFORE:

Tone: friendly, professional, a bit playful, authoritative.

AFTER:

## Tone Profile
| Dimension | Position | Evidence |
|-----------|----------|----------|
| Formality | Professional-casual | "Let's just ship it." |
| Emotional Register | Measured, occasionally excited | "We were genuinely floored." |
| Authority | Expert/teacher | "Here's what most teams get wrong." |
| Humor | Rare, dry | "Yes, it's another dashboard." |
| Directness | Very direct, bold claims | "This is the fastest path. Full stop." |

R6 positions. BEFORE: | Formality | 7/10 | ... | AFTER: | Formality | Casual ↔ Professional (leans professional) | ... |

R7 / R8 vocabulary labels. BEFORE: ### Preferred Words ... ### Words to Avoid AFTER: ### Words They Love ... ### Words They Avoid

R9 Point of View. BEFORE: (Audience section only describes the reader, omits POV) AFTER:

## Audience & Persona
### Point of View
First-person plural ("we") for the brand, second person ("you") for the reader — a peer-to-peer relationship, not institutional.

R10 Voice Samples. BEFORE: Example sentences: ... (one undivided list) AFTER:

### Voice Samples
**Their style:**
> "You don't need a bigger team. You need a tighter loop."
**How to match it:**
> Stop adding headcount to a process that's leaking time. Fix the loop first.

Edge cases & exceptions

• Few sources / thin content. Still emit all six sections. Fill the count

honestly (Content pieces analyzed: 4) and note low confidence inside Voice Summary — do not drop sections for lack of material.

• A dimension has no evidence. Keep the row; put the inferred position and

write (no clear signal) in the Evidence cell. Never delete one of the five rows.

• Multiple voice modes (e.g. playful blog, formal docs). Keep one Tone table

with the dominant position per row; note the split in Structure & Formatting or Voice Summary. Do not add a second Tone table or extra rows.

• Company name has punctuation/ampersand (Kettle & Co, Atlas Moving Co.).

Reproduce it exactly in the title; do not normalize or strip it.

• User asks for "a guide" / "a reference" / "not an essay." That is still this

template — the profile IS the guide. Do not switch to prose.

• No real quotes available. **Their style:** should paraphrase closely and

flag it; never fabricate a verbatim quote. **How to match it:** is always new original sentences in their voice.

Do / Don't

• DO emit all six sections in the fixed order. DON'T add an ## Introduction,

## Methodology, or ## Conclusion.

• DO render Tone Profile as a five-row table. DON'T render tone as a prose

paragraph or a bullet list.

• DO use word-spectrum positions. DON'T use 1–10, percentages, or stars.
• DO write the labels Words They Love / Words They Avoid verbatim. DON'T

rephrase them.

• DO split Voice Samples into **Their style:** and **How to match it:**.

DON'T merge them into one block.

• DO keep Voice Summary to 2–3 sentences. DON'T let it sprawl into paragraphs.
• DO include a Point of View subsection. DON'T fold POV into a sentence elsewhere

and skip the subsection.

Common mistakes (base defaults to avoid)

1. Free-form prose analysis instead of the template — the single biggest miss.
2. Renaming sections (## Overview, ## Tone, ## Vocabulary,

## Recommendations) instead of the exact six names.

1. Numeric tone scores (8/10) instead of word spectrums.
2. Tone as a bullet list instead of a Dimension | Position | Evidence table.
3. Dropping or reordering tone rows (missing Humor, or Directness before Authority).
4. Synonym labels (Preferred Words, Avoid List) instead of the literal ones.
5. Omitting the Point of View subsection.
6. One undivided "examples" block instead of **Their style:** + **How to match it:**.
7. Letting Voice Summary run long instead of 2–3 sentences.
8. Skipping the metadata line (date + Content pieces analyzed: + Sources).

Quick checklist

• ] # Brand Voice Profile: <Company> title + metadata + Sources line
• ] Six sections, exact names, exact order
• ] Voice Summary = 2–3 sentences
• ] Tone table: Dimension | Position | Evidence, five rows in order
• ] Positions are word spectrums, not numbers
• ] Vocabulary subsections incl. literal Words They Love / Words They Avoid
• ] Audience & Persona has a Point of View subsection
• ] Writing Guidelines: ### Do, ### Don't, ### Voice Samples split into

**Their style:** and **How to match it:**