# Brand Voice Example Phrases for Shopify AI Descriptions
> Add example phrases to Importier's Brand Voice so every AI-generated product description captures your team's sentence style, not generic AI output.
- Published: 2026-08-31
- Author: Importier Team
- Category: Agentic Commerce / AI Product Descriptions
- Canonical: https://www.importier.app/blog/shopify-brand-voice-example-phrases
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A premium outdoor equipment retailer had spent three years crafting a brand voice: direct, mildly irreverent, technically accurate. Their top-performing product descriptions read like trail notes written by someone who actually uses the gear. When they added Importier's Brand Voice settings, things improved immediately. The vocabulary tightened. The generic phrases disappeared.
But the descriptions still read like AI wrote them.
The keyword list told the AI which vocabulary to prefer. The avoid words list told the AI which phrases to skip. Neither told the AI what a sentence from this brand actually looks like: its preferred length, its structural rhythm, the specific idiom that makes a customer feel like the brand understands them.
That is what brand voice example phrases are for.
## What Keyword Lists Cannot Teach the AI
A keyword list for an outdoor gear brand might include: durable, technical, lightweight, tested, weatherproof, grip, stability, breathable. An avoid words list might exclude terms like "premium," "world-class," "superior," and other generic superlatives that apply equally to any product in any category.
These two lists shape vocabulary. They answer the question of which words should appear. They cannot answer how sentences should be constructed.
Two descriptions can use identical vocabularies and read as entirely different brands:
"This lightweight technical jacket features durable weatherproof fabric and a breathable construction that provides tested grip performance in demanding conditions."
"The fabric blocks water. The construction breathes. The grip holds where other jackets give up."
Same vocabulary. Entirely different brands. The first is what keyword lists alone produce. The second is what an example phrase set teaches.
Keyword lists and avoid words control which vocabulary appears in a description. They cannot control sentence length, structural rhythm, clause arrangement, or idiom register. Example phrases are the only Brand Voice input that teaches the AI what your brand's sentences actually sound like.
## What Example Phrases Teach the AI
Example phrases are 3 to 5 complete sentences drawn from your strongest existing product descriptions. They are the actual sentences your brand writes, not guidelines about what your brand should sound like.
When Importier processes example phrases, it does not simply match vocabulary. It extracts sentence construction patterns: preferred sentence length, structural rhythm, clause arrangement, and the degree of specificity your brand applies to technical claims.
A single phrase communicates more style information than a keyword list with 30 entries. "Built to outlast the pack, not just keep up with it" tells the AI preferred sentence length, a challenge framing structure, comparative tension, and a specific idiom register: all from eleven words.
This is why example phrases should come from your actual published descriptions, not from a brand guidelines document. Brand guidelines describe what a voice should be. Example phrases show the AI what it is. The AI learns from demonstrations, not from descriptions of aspirations.
The [Nielsen Norman Group's research on brand voice consistency](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/voice-brand/) shows that readers detect voice inconsistency within a few sentences. When AI-generated descriptions do not match a brand's established voice, the mismatch is perceptible to customers who have read previous product pages. Example phrases reduce that gap by anchoring the AI's sentence patterns to your existing writing, not to a generalised interpretation of your guidelines.
## How to Write Effective Example Phrases
The most common mistake when setting up example phrases is selecting sentences that represent how you want to sound rather than how you actually sound.
Pull sentences from your five highest-performing product descriptions, specifically opening sentences and sentences that customers have quoted in reviews or social posts. These represent the voice customers have responded to.
Sentences between 8 and 20 words tend to produce the clearest style signal. Very short sentences (under 5 words) do not provide enough structural information. Very long sentences (over 30 words) teach the AI to write complex descriptions, which often produces text that customers skim past rather than read.
Include at least one phrase that shows how your brand handles a technical specification. If your brand turns "3-layer construction" into "Three layers between you and the weather, each doing a different job," that phrase teaches the AI how to translate specifications into benefit language, not just list features.
## The Difference Example Phrases Make
The comparison below uses the same product: a waterproof hiking boot, same product data, same keyword list and avoid words list. The only variable is whether example phrases are included in the Brand Voice settings.
Both versions use accurate product information. Both avoid the banned vocabulary. The left column reads like a category description anyone could write. The right column reads like a brand.
## How to Know if Your Phrases Are Working
The test is direct: generate a description for a product your team has already written a description for. Read both without looking at which is which. If you cannot tell which one Importier generated, the example phrases are working.
If the Importier description is accurate but still sounds like a different brand, check two things.
First, are the phrases specific enough? A phrase like "Designed for comfort and performance" is too generic. It applies to any outdoor brand, any product type, any price point. The AI extracts no specific style information from it. Replace generic phrases with ones that could only have been written by your brand.
Second, are the phrases drawing from too narrow a product range? A phrase set built entirely from technical jacket descriptions will produce descriptions that sound like technical jackets even when generating descriptions for camping stoves or hydration packs. Widen the source.
Example phrases work by showing the AI what your brand's sentences look like, not by telling it what your brand sounds like. A guideline describes an aspiration. A sentence is a demonstration. The AI learns from the demonstration.
## How Example Phrases Work Alongside the Other Brand Voice Fields
Brand voice in Importier has four components: description, keywords, avoid words, and example phrases. Each one does a different job, and they work together.
The description field sets the general orientation: "We are a technical outdoor gear brand for experienced hikers. Our tone is direct and slightly irreverent." This is the framing the AI reads first.
The keywords field ensures specific vocabulary appears consistently: your signature product terms, your category-specific language, the words your customers use when they review your products.
The avoid words field prevents the AI from defaulting to generic phrasing: no "premium quality," no "exceeds expectations," no interchangeable superlatives that apply to any product in any category.
The example phrases field is where sentence-level style enters. The three text fields describe what to write; example phrases demonstrate how to write it. A Brand Voice set with only the description, keywords, and avoid words will produce descriptions that are accurate and on-brand in vocabulary but not in rhythm.
According to [Google's guidance on helpful content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content), content that demonstrates genuine experience and expertise stands out from content that could have been written by anyone about any product in the category. Example phrases are the mechanism by which Importier-generated descriptions carry a brand's specific expertise signal, rather than generic AI content that describes a product category.
The [cross-link to the keywords phrases article](https://importier.app/blog/shopify-brand-voice-keywords-phrases) covers which keyword terms to prioritise for visibility. The [avoid words setup](https://importier.app/blog/shopify-brand-voice-avoid-words) covers trimming the phrases the AI defaults to without instruction. Together with example phrases, these three Brand Voice inputs give the AI a complete picture of your brand's written voice at every level: the vocabulary it prefers, the vocabulary it avoids, and the sentences it constructs.
## Key Takeaways
- **Keywords and avoid words shape vocabulary; example phrases shape sentences.** A description can use the right words and still sound wrong. Example phrases teach the AI the sentence patterns, rhythm, and idiom register that make your brand recognisable.
- **Draw phrases from your actual highest-performing descriptions, not from your brand guidelines.** Guidelines describe what you aspire to sound like. Example phrases show the AI what you actually sound like. The AI learns from demonstrations.
- **Three to five phrases in the right range.** Fewer than three does not give the AI enough structural variety. More than seven creates conflicting signals about preferred sentence length and rhythm.
- **Vary the product category across your example phrases.** A phrase set from only one product type causes the AI to over-apply that category's vocabulary and sentence structure to unrelated products.
- **Test before running a batch.** Generate one description for a product your team has already written copy for. Compare the two. If you can identify which Importier generated, the phrase set needs adjustment.
Set up brand voice example phrases in [Importier](https://importier.app) to make every generated description sound like your team wrote it.