#general
Thread
People who deliver Tone of Voice projects: how long do you 'budget' for concepting? I fear that I'm woefully under-costing, which ends up taking longer over the job, so costing me money.
I'm self-taught, so I've only just learned this word.
long in terms of hours to complete the project?
Yes
personally, I think TOV takes time that companies don't consider because you are familiarizing yourself with aspects of a brand that already exists in some shape, as well as any hidden aspects that are not talked about or just not seen clearly from the perspective of an executive or an employee. there are ways to tease those out through interview with stakeholders at the company, and asking the right questions. I would budget out for 3-4 hours of interviews, one half hour at a time. maybe 20-30 hours of initial concept work which includes looking at competitors for differentiation, overviewing external and internal materials like sales enablement, product marketing, even employee handbook can have some nuggets. i would ask who will need to clear the TOV guidelines, and estimate revisions based on how many conversations you will need to have. Also, scope can vary with this kind of project- are they asking for channel specific style guidelines? or just general TOV across any and all messaging? will you need to differentiate TOV across different lines of business, product / service offerings? should you create a few different options on TOV (initial thesis on the brand and how that manifests) or one version that can be discussed in a meeting of key decisionmakers to ensure consensus?
i know for me I didn't come up with brand guidelines until I had 6 months at a company- it gave me enough time to internalize the feedback i was getting from different folks. understandably, your assignment sounds more like a slot-in execution where you need to scope specifics. should you want to chat a bit more i am happy to connect in DMs.
TOV usually takes time because you'll have to define some other aspects of the brand before coming up with a tone.
However, if, like me, you offer TOV services as one of the features of your brand strategy session and not as a stand-alone service, the time taken to complete the project will depend on what you've already done in previous sessions. If not, I'll say at least 5-6 hours.