<!-- last-reviewed: 2026-06-01 · owner: Creative — Brand & Marketing (Brand Strategist) -->

SOP-100 — Brand-guideline authoring + voice/tone definition

SOP · owner: Creative — Brand & Marketing (Brand Strategist). Layer: SOP/Runbook (docs/canon.md). How the Brand Strategist produces the venture’s verbal identity — positioning, voice/tone, messaging, and the verbal sections of the brand guidelines — grounded in the source identity (docs/concept.md, linked not restated) and reviewed by the Creative Director before it is finalized.

Interface Contract

• Inputs: scoped brand brief ← from <Creative Director> · trigger: creative brief issued
• Inputs: user/audience research findings ← from <Design Research Director> · trigger: research findings issued
• Inputs: competitive landscape brief ← from <Competitive Intelligence Analyst> · trigger: intel brief delivered
• Outputs: delivered brand artifact (positioning / voice-tone / messaging / audit) → to <Creative Director> · trigger: brand artifact delivered
• Outputs: stable verbal guidelines added/changed → to Documentarian · trigger: document changed
• Outputs: approved brand artifact → to Archivist · trigger: artifact approved
• Handoff trigger (in): the Creative Director commissions a positioning / voice-tone / messaging / audit brief
• Handoff trigger (out): the artifact is delivered to the Creative Director for review (brand artifact delivered); on approval, stable guidelines go to the Documentarian
• Definition of Done before handoff:
  • [ ] Strategic foundation built — audience · differentiators · 3–5 personality attributes (each with positive + negative example)
  • [ ] Specificity test passed — no positioning claim, attribute, or tagline a direct competitor could say verbatim
  • [ ] Consistent with the existing brand record (no contradiction with prior voice attributes / proof points)
  • [ ] A recommendation accompanies any options (no hedge documents)
  • [ ] Delivered to the Creative Director (brand artifact delivered); on approval, stable docs to the Documentarian (document changed), artifact to the Archivist (artifact approved)
  • [ ] Learnings captured to docs/knowledge/ if any

creative brief issued, brand artifact delivered are proposed to Operations, pending registration (Phase 0 reports). document changed, artifact approved, research findings issued, intel brief delivered are registered. The Brand Strategist’s output is not finalized without Creative Director review (sub-hire rule, JD) — the brand artifact delivered out-edge is the review handoff, named back by the Creative Director’s SOP-098 input.

Purpose

Produce a sharp, specificity-tested verbal identity — positioning, voice/tone, messaging hierarchy — so every audience-facing artifact has a durable source of truth to be written against, and the brand sounds like itself and no one else.

When to use

When the Creative Director commissions positioning, a voice/tone guide, a messaging hierarchy, or a brand audit (creative brief issued). On a greenfield brand record, promote from docs/concept.md — do not invent a voice that already exists there.

Flow

flowchart LR
  A["creative brief issued"] --> B["Strategic foundation<br/>audience · diff · personality"]
  B --> C{"Specificity test:<br/>competitor-proof?"}
  C -->|no| B
  C -->|yes| D["Draft artifact"]
  D --> E["brand artifact delivered<br/>→ Creative Director"]
  classDef s fill:#1d4ed8,color:#fff,stroke:#1e3a8a
  classDef d fill:#0f766e,color:#fff,stroke:#134e4a
  class A,B,D,E s
  class C d

Text fallback: a brief arrives (creative brief issued) → build the strategic foundation (audience, differentiators, personality with examples) → run the specificity test (could a competitor say this verbatim? if yes, sharpen) → draft the artifact → deliver to the Creative Director for review (brand artifact delivered).

Steps

1. Read the existing brand record (docs/brand/) and docs/concept.md. Operate within what exists or explicitly propose changes; on greenfield, note you’re codifying the source identity, not inventing.
2. Build the strategic foundation — audience definition (one sentence per segment), competitive differentiators (specific, cashable), 3–5 personality attributes (each with a behavioral description, a positive example, a negative example).
3. Write the positioning statement — For [audience], KLMS is the [category] that [benefit] because [reason]. Test it against the differentiators.
4. Run the specificity test on every claim, attribute, and tagline — could a direct competitor say it verbatim? If yes, sharpen or cut.
5. Draft the artifact to its home (docs/brand/brand-positioning.md, voice-and-tone.md, messaging-hierarchy.md, or reports/brand-audit-…).
6. Check consistency against the existing record; resolve any contradiction explicitly.
7. Deliver with a recommendation to the Creative Director (brand artifact delivered) — never a hedge list of equal options.

Roles / approvers

Run by the Brand Strategist (author). Approved by the Creative Director (review authority; the unit’s output is finalized only with sign-off). Stable, approved guidelines hand to the Documentarian for canonical encoding.

Guardrails

• No visual execution — no hex codes, no layouts, no type choices (Visual Designer’s lane). You own the words.
• No distribution (Growth) and no research (Design Research / CIA — consume, don’t run).
• No foundational-doc edits — provide content for the Documentarian to encode; never edit docs/concept.md directly.
• No brand by taste alone — every claim traces to an audience insight, a differentiator, or a brand principle.
• No hedge documents — have a view, make a recommendation.
• Personal information is PA-only.

Job aid: JA-100 — On-brand check (the pre-ship voice/terminology cheat-sheet). See also: docs/units/creative/manuals/brand-strategist.md · docs/units/creative/charter.md · SOP-098 (the Director’s review gate) · docs/concept.md · docs/handoff-triggers.md.