Our narrative, attributes and tone of voice

Our brand narrative is how we articulate who we are, what we do, why we do it and how we are different.

It makes explaining who De La Rue is clear and consistent. The narrative brings together our purpose, vision and mission in a compelling and clear way. It reflects our passion for building strong economies and thriving societies and our focus on invention and reinvention.

As we continue to build and strengthen our brand, our narrative sits at the heart of that journey. You can use the brand narrative as a reference point for developing further messaging and brand marketing communications material.

Our narrative

We believe that strong economies and thriving societies are built on a foundation of trust and security. It’s where governments can protect their nations and citizens. It’s where businesses are protected from the impact of counterfeiting and illicit trade. It’s where citizens participate freely and securely. And it’s where we, De La Rue, play a crucial role.

We provide highly secure physical and digital solutions that underpin the integrity of economies and trade. Through currency solutions that enable people to be financially included and that provide the strongest protection against counterfeiting. And through innovative authentication solutions that protect consumers and governments.

Economies and societies never stand still. Nor do we. Constant invention and reinvention is part of our DNA. We look ahead and solve tomorrow’s challenges by bringing an attitude of openness to change and new ideas. We make sure everything we do is defined by creativity, precision, and technological excellence. We inspire trust and confidence with our customers by building long-term relationships, founded on unparalleled industry experience, design and the highest ethical standards.

We’re a leader in our industry when it comes to environmental sustainability and sustainable end-products. We’re creating a place where our employees can thrive and be themselves, feel heard and valued. Every individual at De La Rue is driven by their passion for what we do and continually improving the value we bring to customers, and through radical new solutions.

This is how we secure trust between people, businesses and government and ultimately how we help build strong economies and thriving societies.

Our attributes

The personality of our brand

Warm

Progressive

Expert

Passionate

Our attributes guide how we express ourselves in our communications – visually and verbally. They are key to shaping our tone of voice and our visual identity and are fundamental to how we wish to be perceived as a business. In our brand communications we should always reflect our four brand attributes; warm, progressive, expert and passionate.

Our tone of voice

Our brand attributes have been shaped into tone of voice principles to help us build a consistent and compelling brand voice. It is fundamental to how we engage our audiences and how we build a strong a trusted brand.

Warm

- We bring warmth to our words – we’re people, not robots

- We use appropriate language for the situation we’re in. We’re direct and honest

- We see things from our audience’s perspective, connecting with them as humans and demonstrating empathy and inclusivity

Progressive

- We take opportunities in our communications to face the future, offering fresh insights and analysis that affirm our influence and visionary leadership

- We demonstrate our inventive ideas and solutions, and how we have been creative in our approach and thinking

- We never fall back on tired old clichés or bureaucratic jargon, and we’re not afraid to be playful in our words where it makes sense to our audience

Expert

- As an industry leader, we know what we’re talking about. We highlight accomplishments
without being arrogant and demonstrate our influence without exaggeration

- To have our expertise trusted by all audiences, we need to be clear at all times.

Clarity also helps De La Rue to appear more transparent to a global audience

- We use plain English to ensure we’re accessible to all our audiences. We are straightforward but not patronising or facile. We avoid long-winded explanations or over complicated terminology

Passionate

- We take opportunities to demonstrate our passion and enthusiasm for our industry and for solving our customers’ challenges

- We’re engaging and positive

- We make sure our passion is balanced with clarity by demonstrating actions and outcomes. We showcase our creativity and thinking and how we’ve made a difference to our customers

Whenever we communicate, the overall impression should be a combination of these attributes. The explanations of each attribute are there to provide a deeper understanding and act as a guide when developing communications.