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Tag: grammar

  • The Power Of Words . . .

    The Power Of Words . . .

    Marketers use words for many different purposes, to persuade, to cajole, to express urgency, to instill fear, to provide an identity, to convey calm or safety or trustworthiness. We’re like superheroes, in that we can use those powers connected to words for good or for evil, to help customers find the perfect item or service, or to drive them to register for a worthless but exciting-sounding product that they may regret later if indeed they ever receive it. Despite a documented decrease in the average person’s vocabulary inventory, the power of words has never been stronger. How far can that trend be extended?

    Our fervent hope is that it be reversed, that the general populace realize the power of words, the need for a full-scale, broad-spectrum education, which can open doors far beyond computers and technology. As little as 50 years ago, the average American high school graduate had a strong grasp of their own language, could read and write at a reasonably consistent level, and was equipped with the tools to take them as far in life as they could achieve using public, published information sources. The library was a place of knowledge, of reverence, and for those equipped to use it to its fullest potential, a place of wonder and excitement.

    Today, that same American graduate has a smaller functional vocabulary, lower level spelling skills, is slower to comprehend what they read, and can often not fully absorb the daily newspaper, which is typically written on an 8th grade reading level. They can also carry a small library in their hand, on a digital reader with a collection of public domain books, and with an internet-connected tablet, can learn things about the world around them every minute of every day. However, the words may be there and be readable by nearly all, but the wisdom and the editorial judgement and curation that vets those words are no longer present, so the onus is on the reader to choose their sources wisely, to choose who to believe very carefully. Inaccurate words have the same power as the accurate ones, and travel just as quickly.

    Marketers of questionable ethics and flexible morals have been known to take advantage of the power that words possess, to portray a situation or product in a certain light that might take advantage of those whose comprehension of words and their discernment of nuance of phrases might be diminished. Good marketers know they needn’t stoop to that level to be fantastically successful at what they do, to engage and persuade and enlighten audiences and provide a gentle nudge toward purchase. But the internet has become a playground for the more nefarious among us, causing the average person to act with additional caution when reading anything online, regardless of its source.

    Marketers need to remind themselves that this tactic of deceit and misdirection is a game of diminishing returns, that the more tricks, click bait, misleading tags and headlines that appear, the fewer people who will investigate anything in that channel overall, reducing response rates and cutting profits to the point where the credibility of digital outreach will reach a low ebb, and a new approach will have to be put in place. Those who are agile and can adapt to the new paradigm with flourish, those who are more Tyrannosaur-like will perish in the aftermath of the volcano. Be mindful of the power of words that you hold in your hands – misuse of that power affects us all . . .

  • Google This: What It Means When A Brand Becomes A Verb

    Google This: What It Means When A Brand Becomes A Verb

    I thought readers would appreciate this – I’m as guilty as anyone of using these verbisms, especially being close to the inside at Xerox and a couple of the other larger brands in a couple of industries. Its interesting to see the differences in which one gets picked for this “honor” – we text and call people, and we phone people, we don’t iPhone them, no matter that they are the market leader. But when the telephone was not the only device that performed this function in the early days of communication technology, the telephone won the market and, became the generic term. Kleenex also experienced this as the dominant player in the disposable tissue market, but we still blow our noses or wipe up, we don’t “kleenex” our noses. No verbism, but still the market leader becomes the default term for the category.

    Good article, enjoy the read . . .

    By Mike Hoban

    TiVo. FedEx. Taser. Velcro. Superglue. Sometimes consumers latch onto a brand and make it a verb–the question is whether it helps or hurts a brand.

    We FaceTime and Skype but we generally don’t Facebook or YouTube. We Google but we don’t Bing (at least not yet). We Rollerblade but we don’t Slinky. In past years, we would Xerox but would never Polaroid. Why are some popular brands or products used as verbs in our everyday conversation and others not?

    It’s an interesting question and there are opposing sides in the business world about whether “verbifying” (which is a verbified word in itself) a brand or product is a good thing or not. On the one hand, the marketers tend to believe it’s the ultimate compliment and demonstrates a personal connection between consumer and brand. The intellectual property attorneys, on the other hand, usually contend that using a product or brand name this way risks what is termed “genericide,” (as Dave Barry used to say, “I’m not making this up…”) meaning losing the legal power of a trademark. Xerox, for example, for several years apparently ran a campaign with publishers asking them to not use the name “Xerox” as a verb when the generic term “photo copy” was the intended meaning. A much referenced 2009 New York Times article describes the opposing views.

    TiVo. FedEx. Taser. Velcro. Superglue. Sometimes we consumers just latch onto a dominant brand and verbify it with no mind or care about whether the company wants us to or not. But it’s not clear why this happens to some products but not to others, even if they have similar product characteristics. Why do many people use the verb “Photoshop” (a product by Adobe) to mean any type of digital image manipulation but we don’t use “Word” (a product by Microsoft) as a verb to mean any type of word processing?

    Technically, the etymologists refer to the practice of verbing as “anthimeria,” which means a functional shift or conversion of word use, and it’s not a new phenomenon. Shakespeare was a serial verber, for instance. It can be creative and clever but in the business world it is abused and can become buzzword-speak. We ballpark, we partner, we value-add, eyeball, fast track, leverage, and we green-light. And in meetings we flip chart. But the line must be drawn somewhere. People using “dialogue” as a verb, for instance, should be formally reprimanded and the use of “architect” as a verb should be grounds for termination.

    Oh, sorry about the little rant. We were talking about brands being verbified and perhaps the first brand to do that consciously as part of its marketing strategy is Simoniz, the car wax. Back in the 1920s or ’30s the company’s tagline was “Motorist wise, Simoniz” and posters and ads from that period would exhort car owners to “Simoniz Now!” Similarly, having grown up in Michigan in the 1960s and 1970s, we would routinely use the brand Ziebart as both a noun and a verb (“Did you Ziebart your new car yet?”) to refer to any car rustproofing process (there’s that genericide bugaboo again).

    Sometimes companies’ efforts to “verb up” their brands fail or fizzle. Back in the 1970s I recall a campaign by the grocery chain Kroger which featured a jingle that sang out “Let’s go Krogering, Krogering, Krogering…” Let’s just say that ad was soon retired. And Yahoo several years ago asked people “Do you Yahoo?” Yahoo no longer asks that question and seems to be content to remain a noun.

    Brand verbification. What do you think will be the next one to enter our everyday lexicon–and does it help or hurt a brand?

    –Mike Hoban is a management consultant in his day job and can be contacted at business-at-large@sbcglobal.net.

    For more insights like these, be sure to pick up your copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”

    [Image: Flickr user Isolino Ferreira]
  • Are Accuracy and Grammar Important in The Era of Social Media?

    Are Accuracy and Grammar Important in The Era of Social Media?

    OK, I’ve about had it with poor language skills being forgiven under the pretext that “as long as you can read it, a few mistakes are OK” on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

    If Social Media platforms are ever to achieve true legitimacy as a business communications and marketing tool, we have to learn to respect our audience, respect the medium, and respect the message, just as we would any other channel. Would you leave typos and bad grammar in your direct mail, or in a print ad? Production designers, copy writers, proofreaders spend hours poring over copy to ensure accuracy and eliminate errors, and just because it’s presented electronically, it’s OK to have mistakes published for the public to view? I don’t get it, can someone explain to me why this is so?

    If these errors, omissions and poor usages are a reflection of the use of language in this country, maybe we should cast a critical eye on the elementary education system. If our kids are being taught that this is the way to speak and write English, then some body’s asleep at the switch and should be replaced. If we as a society condone such poor talent, then we are to blame as well – silence is tacit approval, and as such, saying nothing out of some misplaced sense of decorum is doing us all a disservice.

    There are those especially in the previous generation to mine, who value their language, and prize it’s correct usage and accurate representation. When you read a book or magazine or newspaper and come across a mistake or a typo, doesn’t it downgrade your opinion of the whole publication, reducing it’s credibility, and altering your perception of the accuracy of the information being presented? If they missed the basics, how accurate can their statements or research be?

    I wasn’t an English major in college, not even liberal arts (whatever that means), but I’ve had my homework and essays and reports and papers corrected by a professional publication editor according to Chicago style manual since I was eight, and after swimming in red ink for years, finally realized the importance of accuracy and correctness in the use of our common language. After a while, the ink started to recede and become more rare, and now with that training firmly embedded, I could focus on the message and how to craft it effectively, and not on the mechanics of producing the work.

    If everyone had this level of training (and if our teachers were willing and able focus on it, rather than being glorified babysitters and disciplinarians trying to escape each day with their skins intact, we might manage it), then such things as poor word choice (their vs there), bad grammar (where are you at), lousy spelling and other grammatical gaffs wouldn’t be present or tolerated, no matter who the poster is – it’s up to society to set the acceptable standard for word usage and language skills.

    It’s time to raise the stakes, lower the tolerance levels of bad language use, and revive the love of language that is the hallmark of great civilizations throughout history. The US is already working on becoming a second world nation, economically, educationally, in the areas of business and scientific innovation – let’s not add language skills to that list as well.

    If you agree with this rant (or think I’m full of it) comment below or subscribe to this blog for more commentary like this. And, don’t forget to pick up your copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”