Write a brand voice and tone guide

Most voice guides list adjectives every brand claims ("friendly, innovative, human") and give writers nothing to act on. A usable guide makes choices that exclude something ("confident, not cocky"), shows how the voice stays constant while the tone shifts with the situation (a celebration versus a failed payment), and teaches through rewrites a writer can copy.

Write a voice and tone guide for this brand.

Only if [SAMPLES] is given:

1. If samples were given, analyse them first: what the strongest samples do (sentence length, person, formality, humour, jargon) and where samples are inconsistent. Base the guide on the samples marked good, and cite them.
2. Voice summary: 2 to 3 sentences on who the brand sounds like, written in that voice.
3. Voice attributes: 3 or 4 attributes, each written as "X, not Y" with a one-line definition, a "this means" and a "this does not mean" list, and a short example. Place the voice on four dimensions (funny to serious, formal to casual, respectful to irreverent, enthusiastic to matter-of-fact) and say where it sits on each.
4. Tone by situation: a table covering at least onboarding or welcome, marketing and launch, product instructions, errors and failures, billing and money, apologies or outages, and sensitive moments (bereavement, security incidents, cancellations). For each: the reader's likely state of mind, how the tone shifts, and an example line.
5. Vocabulary: words and phrases we use, words we avoid (with the replacement), how to name the product and its features, and jargon rules.
6. Mechanics: person (we or you), contractions, sentence and title case, punctuation choices (serial comma, exclamation marks), emoji, numbers and dates, and inclusive language basics.
7. Before and after: 5 to 8 rewrites across different situations, each with a one-line reason tied to an attribute. Use real samples where given.
8. Checklist: 6 to 8 yes-or-no questions a writer can run before publishing.

• Every attribute must rule something out. Drop any attribute that could describe any brand.
• Do not make up brand facts, products or claims. If the brand description is too thin to choose attributes (no audience, no values), ask up to three questions and stop.
• Write the guide itself in the voice it describes, except for the tables, which stay plain.
• Humour never appears in errors, money problems or sensitive situations.

Markdown with the contract's sections as ## headings, in order. Tables for tone by situation and vocabulary. Before-and-after pairs as "Before:" and "After:" lines with the reason below.