THE TRUE POWER OF LANGUAGE

The famous Mark Zuckerberg quote regurgitated by every tech founder in Silicon Valley, "Move fast and break things," should have been "Move fast and learn things."

While it's easy to form this opinion in hindsight as an outsider looking in, changing one word would have likely sat far better when considered against some of the negative impacts we’re now all aware of social media having on modern society, or against Zuckenburg’s congressional hearing regarding privacy rights, Cambridge Analytica, personal data and more.  

Could a savvy PR manager suggesting this amendment have altered the public's perception of a tech giant over the course of his lifetime, or even beyond it? It's difficult to say, but I'd wager on it likely having a significant impact.

What we say, and how we say it, counts. As a marketer, it's easy to be drawn in by the shiny object, the high concept creative, or the latest TikTok trend, while overlooking the importance of language.

Language isn’t just communication; it's positioning, persuasion, context, narrative, cultural connection, and so much more.

Consider the greatest quotes in human history. Do people remember the book, broadcast, or article they were featured in, or do they remember the words and their message?

Now, apply this thinking to modern-day media and marketing tactics. Will people remember the reel, TikTok, or carousel post, or will they remember the message it delivered?

I'm not saying this to detract from the importance of all things visual. Advertising executive Fred R. Barnard's famous quote, "One picture is worth a thousand words," still holds true in many cases. However, language and imagery are powerful counterparts when used cleverly.

Let's consider what I believe to be one of the best logos and campaign taglines ever created...

The iconography within the logo has a meaning; it symbolises achievement, getting something done, and perhaps even ambition or commitment. This stands alone as a great logo. However, add the campaign tagline 'Just Do It,' and with three short words, Nike has summarised the audience they want to attract, the cultures they want to connect to, and the desires they aim to fulfil, while also using highly persuasive and memorable language.

Nike's logo was created in 1971 by Portland State University graphic design student Carolyn Davidson and was reported to have cost just $35.00, proving that raw creative talent can sometimes trump experience, accolades, and large branding budgets.

The 'Just Do It' campaign launched in 1988, created by Oregon-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, and featured ads with athletes Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and John McEnroe, who embodied the spirit of determination and perseverance that the 'Just Do It' slogan represents.

Considering Nike still uses the slogan across a variety of its advertising, branding, and marketing assets 35 years later, and has continued to use the iconic tick since its inception, these elements stand as more than just marketing and branding assets - they represent a compass that has guided the brand through its history.

Nike has worked to embody the slogan so that now, the slogan works to embody Nike. The brand's long-term commitment to a great concept has paid off, and these three words are now synonymous with the brand worldwide.

Great use of language in marketing starts with defining and understanding your target audience: their desires, motivators, and pain points; their cultures; and the language that can connect with those cultures.

By doing the groundwork to understand this, we can tailor our use of language to resonate best with audiences.

I recently did a piece of conceptual brand work for a company providing an online marketplace for dark kitchens and kitchen residencies, which I then developed into a case study as a framework for connecting brands and businesses to the cultures of their audiences.

This case study explored the use of language within two main contexts.

The first was connecting to the core motivators of various customer personas, and the second was using language to connect the business to the cultures of its audience.

The case study provided a breakdown of potential audience personas representative of wider audience segments, as well as hypothesizing key motivators for each persona. By doing this, I was able to suggest copy variations for each persona that could resonate with their core motivators across advertising creatives and ad copy.

While admittedly surveys and focus groups would have been a more accurate way to draw these motivator conclusions, testing these variations across paid media channels and analyzing the results would be a relatively straightforward way to gauge which of these hypotheses connected and which needed iteration.

The concept of considering language to connect with core motivators applies Theodore Levitt's quarter-inch hole theory.

If you’re not familiar with the theory, the German-American economist and professor famously said, "People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole." This theory is also brilliantly expanded upon in Seth Godin's 'This is Marketing'.

Godin explores potential core motivators for desiring this quarter-inch hole. For a tradesman, this could be to perfect their craft, please customers, or outperform competitors. For your average DIYer, this could be to gain independence, please a partner, or impress friends.

Multiple conclusions can be drawn, and each would need to be tested. However, by starting to explore these ideas and tailoring language to suit them, we can see how language geared towards these motivators could have a higher positive impact on audiences.

In addition to language, the same rules apply to visual elements such as imagery and video.

A slight iteration of this concept could also be used to resonate with audiences across different stages of the customer journey, but perhaps that’s a topic for another time.

In addition to exploring these targeted copy variations, the case study also explored language used across the culture or cultures of the business's target audience, which in this case included chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs across the UK.

Admittedly, having worked in a kitchen during my younger years, I did have an inside line on this. However, I still conducted some research to support my claims.

Spend enough time around a commercial kitchen, and you’ll likely hear the words "Yes, chef," the kitchen equivalent of "Yes, captain," essentially a sign of respect, described by world-renowned chef Marco Pierre White as “our thing.”

Within the case study, I outlined creative concepts that utilized these words among other suggestions based on my research.

In an attention economy, it pays to understand how to position media in a way that audiences feel they are being communicated to directly. Whether knowingly or not, we want to feel something is communicating with us personally and on a deeper level than marketers simply utilising the words "you" or "your" in a social media post.

Therefore, exploring potential motivations and cultural reference points provides us with insights to establish these deeper, more personal connections.

As we enter an age of AI deployment, more marketers are rushing to AI for creative solutions surrounding language. From tagline suggestions social media post and ad copy to AI-generated blog articles.

And here lies an opportunity.

AI, by its own admission, is fundamentally flawed when it comes to copywriting and the creative use of language. If you don’t believe me, ask ChatGPT about its pitfalls when it comes to copywriting.

AI recognizes and replicates patterns by design. While it may be able to instantaneously produce 50 variations of ad copy or a blog post on how to build an Instagram following in 2024, it quickly becomes dull and predictable, churning out similar results to similar prompts with recycled clichés. Ultimately, it lacks the human experience required to offer any real form of perspective.

Additionally, this lack of human experience leads to contextual dissonance that fails to comprehend cultural references or even simple wordplay, resulting in a sterile use of language that struggles to solicit emotion.

While I consider myself to be very much an advocate of utilizing the power of technology to enhance marketing capabilities and have found some great ways to implement emerging AI technologies, creative and strategic use of language is not yet one of them.

So, where's the opportunity?

This lies in working to master the use of language while others race to dull it down.

Think deeply about how best to use it to your advantage and stand out amongst the 1s and 0s. Connect with what motivates your target audience and the cultures relevant to them, while using language in a way that both positions and personifies your brand.