The concept of "marketing voice" in advertising was introduced by Tony Attwood in 2007, as an explanation as to what is going wrong when marketing campaigns are based around sound decisions and techniques, and yet still fails.

The theory of "marketing voice" suggests that there are different ways of addressing your audience.  "Voice" includes not only words but also illustrations, design and presentation - in short the entire way in which you "talk" to your audience.

To determine the best voice to use in selling your particular product or service we need to start with the issue of the people to whom you are selling.  

It should be fairly obvious that the way you address teenage students at a university is going to be different from the voice you might want to use when talking to teachers.

This approach to voice should influence all your advertising - but it can also be used in another way - as a method of supplying information to the people that you wish to reach - a supply of information that goes beyond what you are selling.   

The section on information considers mechanisms for using your chosen "voice" in order to establish yourself as the source of information on your chosen area of work.   The other sections consider the voice that might be adopted with each different group that you wish to reach.

The final section on Text and Design relates to the way in which over riding factors from the psychology of perception influence the way in which people see advertising.