Did you ever wonder whether Coca-Cola sounds the same in every country? Whether IKEA is always warm and fuzzy? Whether innocent has the same funny brand voice everywhere in the world? The answer is no. And there’s a great reason for that – culture.
First things first. In case you don’t know Ruggable, the US company sells machine-washable rugs. Apart from the pretty designs, which are more unique than the ones you get from the furnishing store next door, Ruggable’s international success is related to the simple fact that a rug you can clean in your own washing machine is super practical.
For a few years now, Ruggable has been selling their rugs in Europe, but the company’s marketing strategy wasn’t adapted to the local markets. Published content usually came from the USA and was often only changed slightly. Starting in 2025, however, Ruggable had decided to set a new focus on European markets and adjust that strategy.
The reason for this is simple: different cultures have different values. People of different cultures care about different things, have a different sense of humour, and different topics resonate with them.
While this may feel like a very simple thing, it’s something that’s highly relevant for companies looking to act (and sell) internationally. Because if they don’t find a way to truly reach the local audience in a country, how can they sell their products to them? 🤔
In the best case, a brand without a local brand management (including a localised tone of voice), feels a bit off to the local target audience – in the worst case, a badly localised campaign makes them appear unlikeable, disrespectful or even offends the people they are trying to sell to.
To avoid such negative effects, companies like Ruggable need local and cultural know-how for their target market. This is true for both, the strategic positioning and planning of campaigns, as well as operational tasks like text creation of marketing material and more – a service that big companies often outsource. Ruggable wants to ensure they really reach their customers in each of the European countries they target, which is why they wanted to start tailoring their content to the German market, among others.
To facilitate the creation of said tailored content, Ruggable contacted me at the start of 2025 and asked me to create a new style guide for them – and I was more than happy to oblige. 💪
A style guide for Ruggable Germany
What Ruggable wanted for their new German style guide was a comprehensive document focusing on the ideal, localized tone of voice for Ruggable Germany that included examples for easier use and understanding. As such, the style guide had three main topics:
- The brand: Positioning of the brand, brand identity, target audience
- The tone of voice: Characteristics and attributes of Ruggable’s brand voice, possible topics that work well with the brand identity, tone of voice nuances for various situations and platforms, Ruggable USPs and possible wordings and slogans
- Formalities: Grammar, rules for inclusive language, intro to SEO, glossary
All these topics are discussed in the style guide in more or less details – most importantly though, they are presented in a way that illustrates the new communication style for Ruggable Germany. In addition, the style guide contains plenty of examples for do’s and don’ts, making the document a living example of the Ruggable’s new tone of voice for Germany.
Localizing Ruggable – one brand, many faces
Given the fact that Ruggable was founded in the USA, it’s not surprising that the original English brand voice is very American: warm, fuzzy and quite sweet – not exactly ideal here on our side of the pond.
If you’re European, you may have experienced this from US companies: they often feel a bit awkward here, not really authentic or believable. What’s completely normal or even very nice in the USA often feels a little overkill here in Europe: too much emotion, too much rambling, too much rainbow-puking unicorns. It just doesn’t hit home. 🤷♀️
Most of the time, we Europeans don’t really feel such content as we tend to have a more down-to-earth view of the world. So, let’s look at how Ruggable’s brand voice changes in the UK and Germany to cater to these cultural differences.
In the UK, Ruggable is now leaning into the classic British sense of humor: a little drama never harmed anybody, sarcasm is encouraged, but first and foremost, the content has to resonate with the UK audience. Ruggable wants their content to speak to the people on a personal level, so everyday struggles and wins have a place; it’s about the real life and the ability to laugh at yourself sometimes.
And where does that leave us in Germany? None of these two brand voices really fit, do they?
The local brand identity for Germany sits somewhere between the sweetness of the US tone of voice and the dry humor of the UK: In Germany, Ruggable is approachable, humorous and human – the brand communicates in an honest and light-hearted way. Whimsical elements like word play are allowed, but first and foremost, Ruggable in Germany is a likeable and authentic brand. 🫶
Let’s look at a fictitious example to see how the following message changes with each of these three brand voices: Pasta sauce on your rug is no problem.
But first, a little disclaimer – these examples have been created to make the differences obvious, which means they are a bit exaggerated. In reality, the differences between the three brand voices are usually much more nuanced.
| Germany | USA | UK |
| When it’s one of those days … and then you spill pasta sauce on your new rug … Ruggable is here for you. ❤️ | Spaghetti sauce on the new rug?! 🍝😱 Ruggable’s got you—bring on the pasta nights and just throw your rug in the washer if saucy disaster strikes. | Soft, stylish, surprisingly good with spaghetti sauce. |
As you can see, all these made-up Instagram posts talk about spaghetti sauce on the rug – and choose a completely different approach to the topic. While the German post is supportive above all else, the UK one is very reduced and has a humorous touch, and the US one goes all in!
There’s more to local brand management than just the wording of content though. The topics a brand talks about might change too, even within Europe.
For example: while in the UK, Ruggable focuses on the wonderful designs of their rugs, Germany gives more room to a different USP, namely functionality: The rugs are machine washable. That’s practical. Germans like that. 😉
As you can see, Ruggable has a few different faces – even if the brand at its core stays the same (other companies do that too, by they way – check out this article about IKEA’s brand voice if you want to learn more). And the fact that Ruggable tailors their brand identity and tone of voice to the local target audience really improves their chances for success.
Whether the new positioning in Germany will actually bring the desired results can’t be said yet – the new tone of voice is, after all, only the first step in a multi-year strategy. At this stage (end of 2025) the new tone of voice hasn’t been rolled out yet. But the company is optimistic (me too, by the way 🤩) and was very happy with my work:
Working with [Birgit / Words To Voices] on our German TOV guide was fantastic! She was friendly, fully engaged, and brought the expert perspective we were missing. Birgit helped us turn big ideas for our brand into something clear and practical – an actionable guide we can use to align our team and confidently bring our tone to life. Her input helped us sharpen our voice with the aim to connect more authentically with our German consumers. Supportive, honest, and not afraid to challenge us when needed – she was a true partner every step of the way!
– Claudia Kampmann, Ruggable
A dream project
As you can imagine, I was over the moon that a big and well-known company like Ruggable contacted me about their new tone of voice. Even more so, when the collaboration actually happened. And even more, more so, when the project turned out to be as amazing as it did! 🥳
Apart from the fact that I really like Ruggable in general and there’s something special about working with brands you admire, I also have a few other reasons for this being one of my favourite projects ever:
- Top-notch project management: Claudia Kampmann was absolutely amazing as a project manager. She was my go-to person for any and all questions, knows the company inside out, provided me with valuable background info, was allowed to make decisions AND was as motivated as I was to turn the project “a new tone of voice for Ruggable Germany” into a success.
- Tons of high-quality reference material: As a well-established brand, Ruggable knows not only their own identity very well, but also their target audience. More importantly, they were able to provide me with all of these insights in a compact, useful way. In addition, they provided me with the UK style guide, which was created only shortly before I was hired to create the German one and was a fantastic frame of reference.
- Crystal-clear briefing: A real rarity, which made it even more special! The briefing summarized all the hard facts and vital background info as well as outlining the exact scope of the task including deadlines. No question marks, no uncertainty, no endless back and forth. Just clarity. That’s the dream! (Really. That is THE dream.)
Thank you, Ruggable, for this brilliant project, your trust and the amazing collaboration! 🥰
PS: If that sounds like something you’d like for your own company, drop me a message. 🙂
