The 7 deadly clichés — strike these words from your thinking. (Part 2)

In our last exciting episode, we covered 3 relatively new, but tiresome words that are drummed into our heads every business day: “millennial,” “innovation,” and “content.” Now we’re going to take on four more candidates — words that make you … GAG!

And the nominees are …

4. Disruption

It all started in the 1940s with Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction.” The idea was simple; technologies that shake the system improve societies and create dynamic economies with new markets. So far, so good. But business today is bedazzled with the romance of disruption and this belies some important truths.

We all know that the internet didn’t create as many jobs as it took away. Retail is fighting for its life. The magazine business is dead. People buy cars online. Who wants to negotiate with a dealer anyway? Creative disruption, you gotta’ love it. Can’t wait to see what AI will do. Sign me up for my UBI now!

All this turmoil makes the word “disruption” sound like a platitude, especially when used to describe the latest celebrity lipstick. No doubt, as Schumpeter wrote, “profit is the payment you get when you take advantage of change.” But what happens when change takes advantage of you? Welcome to the world of disruption.


5. Best Practices

How many times have you been asked to provide a list of these when you’re assigned a new project? And it’s understandable. Like algorithms, best practices can deliver powerful results. The problem is that they are derived from the history of your marketing, so if you follow them religiously you’ll be stuck in the past and miss potential breakthroughs. Add to this the fact that the digital economy changes a lot more quickly than the old analog one. So, what was a best practice yesterday may be obsolete today.

Take email, for example. The old “best practice” was to avoid depending on visuals for impact, as email platforms would edit these out. The recipient would be greeted with a communication that had big, square holes in it. Then one day, marketers noticed that, contrary to the prevailing “common sense,” illustrated emails were getting the biggest lifts. Their audience was either clicking “allow visuals,” viewing them in their browsers, or their platforms were simply accepting them. Now you’re more likely to receive emails that are dominated by visual elements rather than just copy.

Business is a graveyard of best practices. Remember when Power Point was the preferred presentation platform? Then came Prezzi and Keynote, sure to replace ppt, but we still have 60—100-page Power Point decks. Remember the flash banner? Best practice until mobile devices and Chrome phased it out. And what about the idea that blog posts should be no more than 500 words? Best practice until longform came back into vogue. Imagine — readers actually wanted substance for a change!

So, here’s a “best practice” — maintain a healthy skepticism toward all your best practices.

6. Stakeholders

We used to call them partners, vendors, clients, customers, consumers, our audience, competitors. In other words, they used to be human beings — people you communicate with, do business with, sell products to, entice, seduce, entertain, especially take money from. Stakeholder sounds like stock investor, or someone dressed in a spread sheet. The term is used for everything. Conceptually, it carries the same danger we mentioned in connection with the word “Content”: it’s too impersonal. Especially when coming from a brand that wants to engender loyalty.

That’s why, as storytellers, we never ask “who are the stakeholders?” Rather, we want to know who are the people we are trying to reach? What rocks their world? How does this product or service make a difference — not to a stakeholder, but to a human being?


7. Listicle

Allow us to be self-referential and postmodern for a moment and condemn listicles … by writing yet another listicle. That’s the thing about business clichés; you can’t help parroting them even though they earn your disdain. If you’re still with us, you’ve read the 7 business clichés you need to avoid. But, the fact that you’re reading this post points to the worst cliché of all — that you should use clichés because they work.

Sometimes they do. But increasingly they don’t pass the laugh test. Even if they’re “scannable” and “snackable” like a list is meant to be. Anything that the culture overuses eventually dies. Anyone who frequents social media knows that the list is the most overused trick in the book. To the blogger who invents the next “can’t miss” format goes the spoils.

Good luck!

Join us in our battle against business-speak. Come visit Jerome & Brooke Storytellers here.

The 7 deadly clichés — strike these words from your thinking. (Part 1)

How often does this occur to you when sitting in a business meeting?

“If I hear that word one more time, I’m going to strangle somebody.”

 Why is it that we speak in normal parlance in everyday conversation, but in our work lives turn into robots — spitting out clichés that we can all live without? It’s weird when you think about it. Today’s business culture prizes individuality and creativity, yet at the same time, there’s more groupthink and talk than ever before.

With the current demand that all things be grounded in “authenticity,” isn’t it time to ditch the jargon? For starters, let’s all try to eliminate these 7 words:

1. Millennial

There have been so many ridiculous overstatements written about the supposed psychographic profile of young people that when they hear this word, they must roll their eyes. It’s one thing to say that people who grew up using certain devices have more facility with them, but what about all the demeaning pop psychology assumptions applied to this entire group? It is said that Millennials are both narcissistic and socially aware. In other words, they just think about themselves — except when they’re obsessed with helping others.

Millennials are referred to as snowflakes, in need of safe spaces and prizes for simply participating. Yet the new economy, led by tech companies that hire young people almost exclusively, is characterized by a rough and tumble work ethic, where employees are on call 24/7. In other words, this is a lazy generation except when they’re working round the clock.

Finally, there’s the idea that Millennials live in their phones because they are addicted to social media. But, according to Pew research, this age group is more likely to use devices to look at educational content and apply for jobs. In other words, Millennials are out of touch with reality except when they use their phones to explore it in depth.

For those trying to create a marketing “experience” for young people, it makes more sense to refine your demographic. Pay more attention to the data and toss out the contradictory stereotypes.

2. Innovation

This word has been so overused, that today there’s nothing less innovative than innovation. Think about it, what is innovation? Isn’t it about doing something really big? Like iTunes, which figured out how to get people to pay for something they were getting for free (remember Napster?). Or how about Spotify, which many say is putting iTunes out of business? Then there are craft beers. By going local and custom, they shook up legacy brands, forcing the big guys to buy them out.

The point is, innovation forever changes the way things are done. More than just providing a “solution” (there’s another cliché), it creates new ones, especially today when technology is moving faster than we can keep up.

To all who use this word on your website, in your collateral, in your sell sheets and white papers … try something innovative. A new word!

3. Content

Once upon a time, there was copywriting, art, video, radio, broadcast, music, tradeshows, movies, film scripts, lyrics, poems, novels, comic books, tutorials, webinars, podcasts, collateral, direct mail, catalogs, pornography, photography, dialogue, monolog, analog, speech writing, street fighting, corporate training, mansplaining, brainstorming, house warming, non-conforming ….

And then one day, it all ended.

Somebody came along, took all of the above and threw it into a bucket. They mixed it up and poured out the result. For some reason, the mystic, the magic, and the music are all gone. What are we left with?

"CONTENT"

All the sexy, expressive disciplines became generic — like Hamburger Helper for the communications industry. What have we done to ourselves? It may have something to do with the attempt to quantify the qualitative. But we shouldn’t let the bean counters make us forget that communication is a human function, not a robotic one. By framing the way we connect with each other so abstractly, we run the risk of impersonality. And that’s bad for business. It makes everything we say sound phony.

Check in next week for part 2.

In the meantime, come visit Jerome & Brooke Storytellers here.

Writers: 6 ways to manage the client approval process without seeing your content turned to mush

You’ve felt the pain…

• You come in for a client meeting to review copy and find yourself in a conference room with 20 eager junior “team members.” Each wants to make his or her mark — on your content.

• You’ve written the perfect headline that comes back “tweaked” and now is just a flat cliché — the metaphor is gone. So is its attention-grabbing power.

• Your strategic call to action has suddenly acquired a long addendum, ruining its directness and response potential — and you will be judged on the numbers it generates.

Copy by committee is the unfortunate rule rather than the exception. This has been a long-standing problem for agency copywriters, but today it’s even worse. Thanks to social media, everyone is a writer. So how do you defy the odds and maintain the integrity of your product? Here’s a listicle to get you started.

1. Ask the client to be your evangelist — Identify the review team and keep it manageable.
This conversation should happen at the start of any project, but – more importantly - should take place right up front when you negotiate the terms of your relationship. The client needs to understand and respect what you bring to the table. That’s on you. It’s demonstrated in your portfolio of work, your knowledge of their business and your professionalism. So ask how many people comprise the team and what their roles will be. It’s important to convey the idea that a review team be limited to those with a stake in the outcome.

2. Do your homework.
Show that you understand your client’s audience: their pain points, the trends impacting their industry, how your client’s product or service delivers an advantage. Bring back the old-school creative brief. This is a great tool for keeping everybody on the same page. When the eager beavers start to put their imprint on the content, you can pull out the brief and say…”just a minute...let’s stay on point.”

3. Do Stakeholder Listening to capture the voice of your audience.
Every client will say, “I’ll only give you 20 minutes on a call,” and they end up talking for an hour. Whether it’s internal sales or management, external customers or vendors, the true picture comes out of these conversations. For one medical device client, a prosthetic user once said, “If I saw the train coming, I’d let hit me again.” He referred to the client as “my team” and went on to describe how they helped him rebuild his life. No white board session could have elicited a more emotional picture. This is where storytelling begins.

4. Avoid shared work platforms like Basecamp for copy review.
Basecamp is a wonderful tool — great for sharing files. But if you write content into the shared platform, there is an automatic assumption that it’s an invitation to edit. The project becomes a free for all. You’ll have as many as 20 people tweaking and editing each other’s edits. There will be nothing left of your finely honed ideas.

5. Keep content reviews to team members only - never send out copy to the whole world.
One office products client would have copy reviews with the agency and invite people from teams all over the globe to sit in via Skype. For many, it was the first time they’d been involved in the project. They needed time-consuming input, which stopped the wheels of progress. The agency would find itself in the position of defending its strategy over and over again. Note: revisit number 1. Make sure you and your client are teammates.

6. Have weekly check-ins to move the project forward and do a post-launch recap. 
The health of your relationship either advances or regresses with each project. And you walk a fine line between maintaining control and losing it. Results never lie…you either have a compelling story that follows a clear logic or your have a mess. At the end of the day, it’s about how well you herd the cats.

Come back for more tips on content management from Jerome and Brooke. Visit us at jeromebrookestorytellers.com.

How do you freshen your brand? Subaru Dog Commercials Tell the Tail.

Here’s a pet peeve many have with television commercials and marketing in general. Often when aiming to be creative, marketers overwork an idea to the point where consumers want to throw a missile at the screen every time the spot airs.

How many times can you watch the Dominos commercial, where the tree falls on the guy’s car and then he slips on the ice, ruining his pizza? Funny the first time, but with media now running commercials back to back, it gets tired fast. Or how about that “1-800 Cars-for-Kids” jingle? A good cause to be sure, but also a maddening earworm. With that song repeating in your head, you end up hating the commercial and even the kids.

How to revive the familiar

Subaru has a reputation for great branding. Why? No matter how many campaigns they’ve launched, they manage to keep it fresh.

Case in point is their famous line, Love; it’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru. This started in 2008 with a daddy and daughter who morphs from a 4 year old to a teenager embarking on her first driving experience. It was a moment we all recognize and remember with fondness. Subaru gave it their own special touch and made it iconic. This was followed by other family moments, a boy growing up alongside his dog and a daughter going off to college.

A classic …

But here’s where the brilliance comes in. Before these vignettes wore out their welcome, Subaru changed it up.  They managed to maintain the family vibe, but in a surprising, witty and endearing new way.

Instead of dad and daughter, the family driving lesson involve a bunch of canines. In one spot, they’re going through the car wash. In another, the golden retriever family communicates with Siri, the driving instructor. And in yet another, a cat steals their parking space at the mall. Facial expressions and doggy vocalizations are priceless. Check it out.

Both campaigns, “Love; it’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru”, followed by “Dog Tested, Dog Approved” have been winners for the brand. As noted in Ad Age, for example, while automotive sales in 2017 declined in the U.S. overall by 2.9%, sales for Subaru increased by 8.7%.

Of course, there is sound thinking behind the brand’s creativity. Subuaru lovers are also dog lovers. In fact, 67% of their customer base have pets.

What did they get right? There isn’t a single moment in any Subaru commercial that rings false. The intimate moments are an exact reflection of things that happen in everyday life. These vignettes touch the heart strings without ever appearing to try too hard.

Giving a brand a fresh take

Whether it’s going from humans to dogs, or running multiple campaigns simultaneously (think Geico), there are creative ways to stay true to your positioning while keeping it fresh. And this translates across all channels.

Want to update your story? Get to know Jerome & Brooke Storytellers. 

Neuromarketing: it's not what you think

Neuroscience has brand marketers lining up to out-psycho-babble each other in an effort to sound savvy on the many ways to manipulate this science. 

And who can blame them. The revolutionary advances in the study of the brain are thrilling. Neuroscience books are flooding the market. The discoveries they reveal range from how the senses can activate memory and where the belief center is located in the brain, to why you act more from impulse than reason. All of this just scratches the surface.

Business writers, consumer researchers and consultants, hoping to capitalize on this excitement, promise new ways get inside the mind of that mysterious character — the consumer.

But such reasoning often contains a fatal flaw.  The fact is: in today’s marketing it’s not just the code of the human mind you need to crack — but the artificial one — a mind whose unconscious looms over all, the Google algorithm.

Take Gmail, for example. Before your email offer ever reaches its intended target, the google brain sorts it. This “mind” renders a judgement, deciding whether your message is routed into “primary,” “social” or “promotions” buckets. So, no matter how targeted your subject line, or how astutely your message hits the neural triggers of the consumer, it may never get read.

In digital parlance your email is called spam.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s forget about algorithms. Say your offer does reach its audience. Despite its brilliance, it still may be ignored. Why? The fact is your brain has its own sorting mechanisms, some of which are not commonly studied by neuroscience.

A few examples...

In the old days of snail mail, 4-color envelopes would almost always lose. Why? Before a reader even considered what the message, graphic or offer conveyed, the brain read it as junk mail. Out it went. Instead, a more bland, business-like approach would win nearly every time.

The same principle carries over to digital advertising. There, the credibility of the message sender outweighs the look and persuasiveness of the creative, no matter how many psychic hot buttons it supposedly pushes. It’s not what it says, so much as who says it.

And what about how consumers rank their purchases? Product packaging is a science today. Brands spend time and money on package design that invokes all the senses. They use metallic and tactile finishes, even embedded codes to make the product jump into the cart.

But let’s look at toothpaste brands. For some consumers all the glitter in the world is not going to count if price is your criteria when it comes to this product. You’re never going to sway a consumer who thinks it’s healthier for your teeth and gums to invest in floss, and is happy to go generic when it comes to paste.

The late Jerry Fodor, one of the originators of the modular theory of the brain, argued that the mind takes in the world through a process. Before your brain ever considers the meaning of something, whether consciously or unconsciously, there is a more basic level of perception that deals with simple recognition.

Perhaps where the connection between neuroscience and marketing goes wrong is by aiming straight at the mind’s higher cognitive functions — and never studying what happens in the simpler parts; i.e., those aspects of perception that quickly decide yes or no.

Does neuroscience have a place in predicting consumer behavior? Of course it does, as does big data. But know this: the science behind these technologies generates a lot of hype. Just think of the 2016 election. Many people believed what the polls predicted. They awoke the next morning with this question…

What happened?

Talk to the pros who marry science and art— Jerome & Brooke Storytellers. Visit us here.

What are the 3 "musts" for convincing thought leadership? (Hint: pain comes first.)

Your audience is hurting. It doesn’t matter if you’re addressing lawyers, tech innovators or marketers. If your thought leadership piece has any chance of gaining traction, it needs to demonstrate, right from the jump, that you feel their pain. Next you need a solution, followed by a real-world example. It’s a three-step process. Here’s how it works:

1. Identify the pain points

Tech innovators struggle with cyber security issues. CPGs are faced with increased demand for sustainable packaging. Iconic products are losing share to challenger craft brands. Medical device companies are faced with regulatory woes. How well are you tuned into the specific pain points of your target audience? Here’s how we did it for custom packaging giant Boutwell Owens …

“The holidays are a fraught time, especially for manufacturers. Brands create an excessive inventory of products and much of it gets shipped back. Then it has to be repackaged in its original format and shipped once again to the retailer. Somewhere within this process, brand owners lose half of their margins. It’s a nightmare that, in industry terms, is called ‘stock lift.’ Happy holidays!”

2. Offer a solution

Now that you’ve got the reader hooked, the best way to engage is with a smart solution. In the Boutwell Owens story, the audience was brand owners and packaging designers who contend with waste and the added costs of holiday retailing. Here’s the solution our article provided …

“Bottled products that are traditionally boxed can be converted for holiday promotions with the addition of a printed/die cut sleeve. These can be customized and bring a seasonal flavor, without changing the main packaging line. At the end of the season, sleeves can be lifted, leaving the product in place on the shelf, avoiding the lift and repack costs.”

3. Provide a real world example

To give the Boutwell Owens story credibility, we used a case history. Note, if clients don’t want their names used, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the success story that gives thought leadership its power. Here’s the payoff for this story:

“We did a sleeve for a mature product where the brand owner was launching a new line. We packaged it with a sleeve and a book cover that describes the new product. On the technical side, the sleeve was UV printed in multiple colors — very upscale looking. Once the product matures, you simply remove the sleeve and it transitions without new packaging graphics and without even a bill of material change. The cost savings are significant.”

Want thought leadership that builds your credibility?

Talk to the pros— Jerome & Brooke, Storytellers.  Visit us here.

 

What do activists, market disrupters and cultural icons all have in common? A manifesto.

Why you need one, too.

The Talking Heads drew a wry picture of life without a manifesto in their classic song, “Once in a lifetime”:

You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, well how did I get here?

This angst comes from a sense of being lost; of not knowing what you stand for. Do you feel that way about your job … your business? It’s time for a manifesto.

What is a manifesto?

It’s a rallying cry. It’s your line in the sand. It’s who you are, what you stand for and what you will achieve.

It’s Nelson Mandela saying, “I learned that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.” It’s Élan Musk, “When something is important enough, you just do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

Manifestos are fiery… inspiring. They have been used to ignite art, cultural and political movements. They’ve even launched countries. Here are a few lines from one called the United States of America:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness …

Does your brand have a manifesto?

Iconic brands would be nowhere without their manifestos. Apple established its voice with “Here’s to the crazy ones … who think different.” Along with its compelling photography of muscled athletes, Nike became the everyone brand by encouraging us to “Just do it!”

Mission statements? Old school. Manifestos? Energizing. Engaging. Experiential.

Manifestos aren’t afraid to be contrary — even contentious. Here’s a favorite from Chrome, makers of quality, no-nonsense bags, boots and outdoor apparel:

Chrome Manifesto:

Chrome is about utility and mobility.

We’re anti-nonsense. Everything we make is functional. Every piece of our bags, shoes, and clothes is there for a reason. If it doesn’t have a purpose, it’s gone.

We build bombproof gear. We construct all our products using rugged, industrial materials and hardware that last. That’s why our bags are guaranteed for life and our footwear and apparel have an industry leading warranty.

Our bags, footwear and apparel are simple and honest. They are built for the city and work on a bike or in the bar. That won’t ever change.

A Manifesto Positions Your Brand

No matter the category your brand lives in, it’s probably over-crowded.  That’s not a bad thing; it’s the perfect opportunity for a creative manifesto. Here’s one Storytellers did for a new, therapeutic bedding company, Parks Health Products. They entered the adjustable bedding market with the Kalmia line and sought to find its niche among well-established players like Tempurpedic®, Beautyrest™-Serta® … the list goes on and on.

Guess what? The competitors all promised the same thing: a better night’s sleep. Yet, they all had complicated technology, something we discovered from research to be a problem for this audience. Our opportunity was around the idea that sleep should be easy. So, our manifesto positioned Parks Health products around a differentiator — their technology was easier to use. Here’s the manifesto:

Sleep should be easy. Your bed should adjust to your body and your temperature. If you're too warm or cold, you'll wake up. Like to read, watch TV our use your laptop? And what about getting up at night without stumbling? That should be easy too. Arise without pain. And pre-set your positions with the easiest ever remote control.

It's an intelligent bed, a climate-control mattress ... it's Kalmia from Parks Health.  Easy to rest, easy to rise.

Does your brand need a manifesto?

Talk to the manifesto people — Jerome and Brooke Storytellers. Visit us here.