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Friday, September 29

Words, Meanings And Combination Maths

I was briefing Kapil this afternoon and once again I experienced a sharp reminder that some words have lost their meaning and some meanings need new words!

Sample this! What do you think when you read/ see/ come across words like Trust, Imagine, Building India, Farm Fresh, Taazgi, Wow, New Improved, It's different...?

As a consumer, with every subsequent dollop of use, these words mean less to me if anything at all. And yet as a marketer, agency creative or planner we continue to recycle them in 30 sec TVCs, in briefs, in power-point presentations, as brand positioning thoughts!

It's time to re-look at the inventory of words and re-arrange them or import new words from other categories/ sources, or invent new words to label old stuff. Because if we do not stand apart from the crowd, we will never be able to get noticed in an attention-deficit world!

On the other hand, there are some new meanings that are in seacrh of descriptors/ words.
- I want one 'word' to describe the feeling I have at the increasing sense of technology whizzing past me.
- I need a word to describe the growing role of design in brand selection.
- I am on the look-out for a word to describe the frequent anxiety I feel of not doing anything in an always 'switched on' world.
- Any suggestions to describe the diminshing joy experienced in every subsequent indulgence.
- One word for the new love-hate relationships we have with many brands( TOI, Coke, Microsoft)

As communication people, we must experiment more often with the inventory of words, visuals and symbols. We are dealing with a jaded world mind, an-overadvertised global brain.

In order to interest people, excite them, win their trust, loyalty or 5 seconds of attention, new permutations and combinations of words and meanings are needed!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yep, entirely spot on about the apathy towards that school of communication!

You might want to read this - Status Anxiety to describe that elusive feeling! Great book, highly recco'd.