Communication

November 1, 2013

Vulnerable or patronised?

Campaign groups increasingly refer to those they represent (or seek to represent) as ‘vulnerable’. Whether its poverty, race or sexual orientation, groups of people are referred to as vulnerable to changes in government policy or society’s prejudices.

It’s hugely patronising and, in many ways, it’s as bad as the Victorians referring to the ‘deserving poor’. Both terms seek to identify people as weak and in need of patronage.

This is not to deny the fact that many people do need help, or that campaigners do vital work to raise issues that might otherwise be neglected or ignored. However, patronising those who are marginalised by society cannot be the best way to do it.

It’s worth noting that Google’s Ngram Viewer shows that usage of the term ‘vulnerable people’ has rocketed since the mid-90s. For comparison, I’ve charted the term ‘deserving poor’ alongside it.

Did people suddenly become vulnerable in the past two decades?

October 1, 2013

Godwin’s Law

The debate about UKIP has gone on so long that the probability has reached 1. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will be the end of the debate.

September 28, 2013

Back in the day

The UK’s economy might be coming back to life but people are still feeling the pinch. Wages aren’t keeping up with prices, times are tough and people are hankering after ‘the good old days’.

We see it everywhere. In politics, UKIP are making the most of people’s yearning for a bold, ‘call a spade a spade’ Britain. Both Labour and the Conservatives are pushing policies that preach to the faithful. We’re back to the days of left and right. The third way has gone away.

Meanwhile in literature, we’re witnessing the continued rise of historical fiction with authors like Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory winning awards and having their books turned into hit TV dramas.

In terms of brands, we’re seeing some great old names return. The Truman brewery, originator of the IPA, is back in London pubs. Last week, it was announced that Royal Enfield motorcycles are coming back home to the UK, having sat out the past 30 years in India.

Other brands are drawing upon the past in their advertising. Notably, Coca-Cola’s ‘Grandpa’ healthy living advert seeks to push an old fashioned lifestyle as the solution to the very modern issue of obesity. We’ve also seen the return of the Tetley Tea Folk and NatWest piggy banks.

Even brands with little history, like cycling apparel maker, Rapha, and clothing firm, Jack Wills, are basing their growth on heritage values.

Like the tight economy, this trend isn’t likely to go away any time soon. So there’s no harm in digging into the archives and finding the warm, familiar signifiers of better days. People are grasping after comfort blankets, smart marketers will provide them.

August 15, 2013

A little less awareness, a little more call-to-action please

A couple of days ago, I tweeted the title of this blog as a thought for the day. It’s a thought that’s been circling in back of my mind for quite a while.

From the off, let me say that I think awareness is really important. People need to know your product or issue exists and what it’s for. But campaigns should be more than a public service announcement. They should make things happen.

I can see why communicators are drawn to awareness. It’s measured in surveys and clicks, RTs and likes. These are metrics that can be measured in different ways, aggregated, weighted and, dare I say, manipulated?

Increased sales. Legislative change. Altered business practices. These are all outcomes that are reasonably objective. You either achieve them or you don’t. Campaigns that make these things happen aren’t centred on awareness.

From staging post to destination

At some point awareness moved from being a necessary condition for achieving a campaign’s goals, to a goal in itself. It became an end point.

Anecdotally, I think a lot of it is down to the rise of engagement and conversations. There are countless papers and articles about the need to engage with consumers, to have conversations and build deeper relationships. Again, all of this is true. I have no quarrel with it. Yet, somehow the purpose of all this engagement and all these conversations has been lost.

What good are strong relationships and positive experiences if they are fostered and then left to passively convert themselves into sales? Campaigns should build on that positivity and then inspire people to a specific action. Those that do will always be more successful than those that stop at a good conversation.

All of this is blindingly obvious. It’s communications 101. Yet for some reason it needs restating. So let’s build awareness and have the conversations, and then let’s cap it all off by creatively inspiring specific, positive actions.

This article was also published here on Medium.

August 3, 2013

Values are the only constant in a world of permanent beta

I’ve been reading The End of Competitive Advantage, a provocatively titled book by Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School. It’s ideas should inspire anyone involved in marketing and communications.

The central idea is that companies can no longer depend on finding and locking-in a sustainable position of competitive advantage, so they have to move from opportunity to opportunity, constantly developing, always looking to enter and exit markets.

What on earth has that got to do with marketing and communications? Well, the transience of products and services and the need to shift resources and people around makes a company’s values and brand central to its success.

Well performing companies will be those whose values are strong and embedded within both their culture and practices. Reputation and brand, two sides of the same coin, also become more important. A strong reputation and strong brand are needed to help companies shift into new sectors and move out of declining sectors.

In my view, the killer insight is: if a company’s products and services become transient, then the real constants in its history, and its future, are values, brand and reputation.

If you work in a marcomms discipline, think about that for a moment. What you do is the constant. Your role is to maintain the golden thread that runs through the company. You build brand equity, champion values and protect reputation because those are the assets that will outlast the current product range or even the sector you operate in.

This article was originally published here on Medium.