Boden: brand voice & tone of voice development
A regular client since 2019, Boden is a British fashion brand focused on quality, integrity and happiness you can wear — with branding and a tone of voice that's fun, colourful and a little tongue-in-cheek.
In December 2023, Boden's group sales were down 13% to £304.5 million. The company attributed this to strategic mistakes, including ditching print catalogues and a product strategy that alienated some existing customers. It was all hands on deck to revive Boden's branding and bring its voice back to its charmingly British roots.
Having freelanced for Boden on and off for 6+ years, I was brought in as Creative Copy Lead to work alongside the Head of Copy and mentor a team of two writers — implementing a witty, self-aware tone of voice across print catalogues, brand campaigns, paid media and more. From campaign copywriting to brand voice guidelines, the goal was consistency at every customer touchpoint.
Boden's sales have since recovered, moving from a £12.3 million loss in 2023 to a £34.6 million profit by the end of 2024, with 300,000 new customers in the first half of 2025. The brand's revived voice played its part in that turnaround.
A fun collaboration with Laura Jackson on Boden's 2023 Christmas campaign. We created interviews, social media posts, and style edits.
Boden's May 2023 catalogue showcased the brand's new, fun workwear collection. My tagline was "Smart doesn't have to be boring."
The Richmond trousers are one of Boden's most popular pieces of clothing, so the announcement about their return had to be lively and bold.
As part of a summer occasionwear campaign, this paid advertisement was featured in a series of scenarios centred around holiday dressing.
Ginnie is a guest editor at Boden and a sustainability advocate, so we interviewed her about her passion for the brand's clothing, particularly children's wear.
Considering the brand's typical customer age, a reference to 90s clip art seemed like a fun nod for Christmas partywear.
The summer campaign is always live in late spring, so the language needed to match everyone's thoughts on booking (and packing for) a summer holiday.
The brand partnered with Shreeji Newsagent to promote its new 'Dressing for Joy' campaign. As a team, we created disruptive sandwich board copy. The press and customers loved it.
Winter sale promo across print postcards, emails, paid media, and the web. My thinking was that we needed to target how customers were feeling during that period between Christmas and New Year, which is how we came up with these headlines.
Kate in Paris.
The brand wanted to promote its beautiful, hand-drawn Paris print. The new series of Emily in Paris had just been released, so I had the idea to play on that, but from Boden’s British customer (who they call Kate) perspective. It went down a treat.
Chandler Bing.
The brand wanted to promote its new collection of knitted vests, which were trending globally in the fashion world at the time. My idea was to nod to Chandler Bing, whose sweater vests were made famous in Friends.