Our Brand and Tone of Voice

Hope for Justice’s brand is a powerful tool in our quest to reach more people and to inspire those who want to support us. A strong and recognisable brand gives people a reason to trust in our offer and motivates them to get involved with our cause. Having a strong sense of identity is critical for new audiences to anchor into our brand. Our culture and way of working influence our wider tone of voice and brand personality: positive, professional and together.

Our work brings us into contact with people and organisations from all walks of life, and from all over the world. We cannot have a single way of talking to everyone, and we adopt different forms of address and choices of words when dealing with each other, with supporters, with religious audiences and with secular audiences, with victims, with politicians, with police, with the public and so on. But there are aspects of our ‘personality’ and general tone that are constant:

• We are authoritative, professional, experts in our field.
• We are not the heroes.
• We are supportive and thankful.
• We do not criticise partners nor undermine others’ work, but we are honest on issues of policy.
• Our language is human and friendly, but not inappropriately informal, so we generally avoid emojis, slang and in-jokes in public communications.
• We are never hectoring. We are never judgemental. Neither do we overstate, distort or misrepresent the scale or nature of our mission.
• We don’t just list problems – we offer optimistic solutions and take action. We speak naturally, confidently and clearly.
• Our global language is British English, reflecting the presence of our global headquarters in the UK. But communications aimed principally at citizens of other countries will be adapted, translated or reworked to ensure it connects with people as powerfully as possible.
• We encourage everyone connected with Hope for Justice to use their personal social media accounts to amplify, reiterate and spread the core messages of the organisation and their own personal ‘why’. For staff, this should always be done in line with the Social Media Policy.
• Hope for Justice is a survivor-centred organisation. We use the terms ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ and ‘potential victim of trafficking’ to refer to the different ways individuals may reference their own lived experiences, and in line with legal definitions. We always recommend that care is given over the use of these terms, to respect the preferences of people with lived experience.