Editorial voice for premium brands: what to borrow from magazines
Cover the masthead of a good magazine and you can still tell whose it is. That is an editorial voice: a way of seeing, choosing words and building a sentence that stays the same on every page. Premium brands can build one too, and it comes down to decisions more than talent.
1. Start with a point of view, not an adjective
“Elegant, warm, bold” fits half the brands on the market. A point of view takes a side: what your brand believes about beauty, craft or time, and what it refuses to do. Write it in two sentences, one that starts with “We believe” and one that starts with “We never”.
2. Build a small vocabulary
List ten words you use often and ten you avoid, and note the rhythm of your sentences: short and dry, or long and sensory. The avoid list does more work, because it removes the generic phrases that make premium brands sound identical.
3. Keep one voice across every format
A headline, an Instagram caption, a product description and a newsletter subject line should sound like the same person on different days. At Los Trapitos al Sol I wrote across captions, newsletters, lookbooks and brochures, and keeping one voice through all of them was the real job.
4. Edit like a magazine
One person has the final say, cuts adjectives and swaps general claims for something specific: a fibre, a place, a gesture. “High-quality fabric” says little. The name of the mill says more, as long as it is true.
5. Write a one-page voice guide
Include the point of view, the two word lists, three before-and-after examples and how you talk about price, sustainability and competitors. One page, because nobody opens a forty-page brand book. Share it with freelancers and agencies on day one.
6. Run the cover test
Remove the logo from five posts and ask a colleague or a customer whose they are. If they can tell, the voice is working. If they cannot, go back to step one.
The takeaway
Voice is how you say it. Pain points are what you say. Start from the reader’s problem, as in the article on pain points and brand messaging, then say it in a voice nobody else has. For social specifics, see luxury brand voice on social media.
Want a voice people recognise without the logo?
I build brand messaging and editorial voice for premium, luxury and consumer brands in fashion, beauty and lifestyle: point of view, guidelines and content. In English and Italian, with brands wherever they’re based. Remote-first, occasionally on site in Milan when a project needs it.
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