CASE STUDY

Creating a unique tone of voice for a professional membership organisation
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Challenge

A century-old international professional membership body, active in more than 140 countries, was beginning to feel pressure from rapidly growing national competitors.

At the same time, the profession it represented was changing dramatically. Instead of an arm’s length technical function, the profession had become a strategic partner at the heart of every type of organisation – helping to steer ambitions as far-reaching as sustainability, digital transformation and long-term value creation.

To stay ahead, the membership organisation needed to reposition its offer – and fundamentally redefine its relationship with members and other stakeholders.

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Solution

The membership organisation had already refreshed its visual brand and developed a new brand purpose and strapline. However, this top-level strategy had not been operationalised into the business.

We suggested creating a tone of voice that would simultaneously:

  • Redefine the relationship between the organisation and members
  • And change mindsets internally – underscoring what the membership organisation meant for its stakeholders

Through extensive stakeholder engagement and competitor audit, we created an approach that made implementing top-level strategy a part of every colleague’s everyday work.

The approach involved creating a clear tone of voice framework, tone of voice guidelines – and creating and delivering tone of voice training and awareness sessions throughout the organisation. This was delivered as a two-year programme of work.

Results

The results included:

  • Externally: A completely refreshed brand presence – with all communications rewritten in the new tone of voice
  • Internally: A change in mindset about the purpose of the organisation and the way it empowered its members (measured through internal surveys)
  • Operationally: Increased share of the multiple marketplaces the organisation operates within – and increased numbers of younger people entering the profession via its training
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“Wordtree transformed our language into a powerful asset for alignment, both in terms of communications and culture. They set a framework and then train the whole organisation so that everyone knows what the new brand is, why it has evolved, and how they can make it central to their everyday delivery.”

Head of Brand
Membership organisation