Brand Voice Instructions provide you with an additional level of control over your generated language beyond what is already provided through basic Style Guide controls.
Brand Voice Instructions are available in the Style Guide as part of the Brand Voice feature in the Jacquard platform. Each instruction contains an overall Rule Instruction and up to three examples for each. Each Brand Voice can have a maximum of 10 Brand Voice Instructions. This limit allows Jacquard to maintain acceptable response times during language generation.
General guidance
The Brand Voice Instructions feature solves for special situations requiring language generation guidance beyond the abilities of the basic Style Guide settings.
Before you begin creating Brand Voice Instructions, ensure you've completely programmed all other basic Style Guide settings and that the instructions you set out to create do not conflict with any of these established settings. Failing to adhere to either may result in faulty or unexpected outputs.
Jacquard provides Brand Voice Instructions to language models in the initial prompt preceding content generation. This is different from Jacquard Global Language Rules that are applied as strict rules after the content is generated to remove non-compliant content.
As a result, there can be instances where the language output isn’t completely compliant with the instructions in all cases, particularly when an instruction is addressing a very subtle requirement. 100% compliance is not expected. But the instructions provide a strong steer to the model to improve and tune content.
Key concepts
Rule Instruction
The Rule Instruction is the primary direction for how the generated language should adhere to the instruction. As with any AI-driven capability, the clearer the instruction is expressed, the better the expected results.
Phrase the instruction as a concise directive starting with imperatives, such as use or don’t use, to make the instruction actionable.
Do Say and Don't Say
Each voice instruction can have up to three Do Say and Don’t Say pairs. Do Say should contain examples of what the language output would be if the Brand Voice Instruction is applied correctly. Conversely, Don’t Say should contain the inverse: examples of what the language output should not be if the instruction is applied correctly.
Ensure the differences within each Do Say/Don't Say pair are minimal and directly highlight the core aspect of the instruction. Furthermore, if an instruction is intended for diverse scenarios, your examples should collectively reflect that broader scope.
Examples
The following examples are from real use cases collected during the Brand Voice Instructions' design. We've provided them here to both illustrate the capabilities of Brand Voice Instructions and demonstrate best practices for writing your own.
Example from a brand with specific name stylisation
Rule instruction:
Always return the brand name ‘brandname’ in lowercase as a single word, even at the beginning of content.
Do say: | Don't say: |
brandname | Brand Name |
brandname | Brandname |
brandname | brand name |
Example from a nutritional supplement supplier
Rule instruction:
Do not say or imply that our products provide health benefits or improvements to health, wellness or wellbeing.
Do say: | Don't say: |
Take these vitamins for your hair | Take these vitamins for healthier hair |
Check out this Vitamin C supplement | Stay healthy with this Vitamin C supplement |
These supplements are just a couple of clicks away | A healthier lifestyle is just a couple of clicks away thanks to these supplements |
Example from a risk/insurance provider
Rule instruction:
Do not make definite claims about the product’s suitability for customers’ needs. Use modal verbs (e.g. 'could,' 'might,' or 'may') to express possibility or conditionality.
Do say: | Don't say: |
Find insurance that could be right for you | Find insurance that is right for you |
This temporary coverage might be what you’re looking for | This temporary coverage is what you’re looking for |
We may be able to help cover your car | We can help cover your car |
Example from financial comparison site and marketplace
Rule instruction:
Do not imply that the offers and products are being supplied by the brand.
Do say: | Don't say: |
Explore these offers | Explore our offers |
We help you compare a range of policies | We provide a range of policies |
Insure your car today | Insure your car with us today |
Instruction management
Creating Brand Voice Instructions
You can create new instructions from the Brand voice instructions section, located below the Emojis settings at the bottom of the Brand Voice Style Guide page. Simply click + Instruction.
Use the Add brand voice instruction panel to define the Rule Instruction and provide your Do Say/Don't Say examples.
Click the + Add example button to add additional Do Say/Don't Say examples. Remember, you can only add three pairs per instruction.
Once everything is defined, click Done to save the instruction.
When you've added 10 instructions to the Brand voice instructions section, you won't be able to add any additional instructions unless you delete an existing instruction.
Editing instructions
From the Brand voice instructions section in the Style Guide, hover over the instruction you wish to change and click the edit icon (shaped like a pencil) on the right side of the table.
Deleting instructions
From the Brand voice instructions section in the Style Guide, hover over the instruction you wish to change and click the delete icon (shaped like a trash can) on the right side of the table.
The system will warn you and ask you to confirm the deletion before the instruction is actually removed.
