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Voice & Tone

Brand voice is what you say. Brand tone is how you say it.

Voice

The Trimble brand voice is captured in our company’s “why”: Life’s Work.

At Trimble, our job is our life’s work. Work that is concentrated on helping you, and enabling our product users to do their life’s work, better. From transporting supplies to planting and harvesting crops, mapping the world around us, managing water and natural resources, building and maintaining infrastructure. Trimble is an industrial technology company, fueling a better way to work by connecting the data you need, to the tools you need to get it done right.

We are proud of being a part of the bigger picture by supporting our product users, and playing a part in the ecosystem that is the world’s livelihood—helping you to bring, build, construct, create, and grow the essentials we need to live everyday and build future communities.

What We Project

As you can hear and read from Life’s Work, our voice is empowering to the user, and resonates with partners, and future customers. We as a company listen first and solve problems next. Our brand voice does that as well. Speak about the user first through insightful language, and Trimble second, as an enabling support.

Our voice projects empathy, confidence and pride.

  Our voice is Our voice is not
Empathy
Trimble is empathetic, and understanding of the work, challenges and wins of our customers.
• Humane and generous
• Forthcoming with knowledge and problem solving
• That of a partner
• Pitying
• Judgemental
• Too technical
Confidence
We are confident we can help our customers solve their problems, alongside them.
• Benefit-driven
• Bold in our purpose and solutions
• Pioneering
• To the point
• Boastful
• Brassy
• Aggressive
• Old or stodgy
Pride
We have pride in our work and therefore pride in our customers and the solutions we provide, because we work purposefully
• Customer-centric
• Focused on results and real-life use
• Product centric
• Focused on technical details

For examples and more information visit https://brandfolder.com/trimble-brandfolder/trimble.

Tone

If voice is our brand’s character and personality, then tone is how our brand speaks.

It might help to think of our voice as the climate and tone as today’s weather—and it can frequently change, usually depending on the context, channel and persona.

Our tone is helpful and supportive always, focused on benefits first, capabilities second— just like we are as a company.

Using Tone Context

Always consider the circumstances surrounding our message.

  • For a first-time sales pitch: Upbeat positivity
  • For a new user onboarding: Welcoming, helpful and ready to demonstrate how we can help solve their challenges
  • For an emergency response: Brief, informative and careful

Product Content

Useful, readable, translatable, creates an emotional connection with the audience and explains how Trimble helps users solve problems.

Persona

Different audiences have different needs and expectations. At Trimble, there are many variations on tone that will depend on the persona.

Make sure the language used in your product resonates with the user and matches their expectations and level of experience.

Microcopy

Microcopy refers to the short sentences and phrases that guide and engage users on websites and digital platforms. It can appear as labels, captions, placeholder prompts, CTAs, alerts, error messages, confirmation messages, etc.

Trimble microscopy uses our brand voice to project empathy, confidence and pride. Its tone is helpful and supportive, while prioritizing benefits over capabilities.

Successful microcopy is

  • Simple. Uses language that is easily understood.
  • Clear. Has an obvious purpose.
  • Useful. Fulfills a need.
  • Concise. Is brief and relevant.
  • Direct: States facts in the present tense.
  • Impartial. Avoids blame for failure to do something.
  • Helpful. Indicates what to do next.

Additional considerations:

  • Clever or witty writing is encouraged, as long it does not distract from or obfuscate the message.
  • When possible, suggest an action with clear benefits and results rather than commanding users to do something.
  • Convey the purpose of the message in the copy. Do not rely on images or visuals to provide context.
  • It is not necessary to be overly polite. It is more important to succinctly guide users onward with confidence.

Examples:

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Last updated July 11, 2023.