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!
Yep, entirely spot on about the apathy towards that school of communication!
ReplyDeleteYou might want to read this - Status Anxiety to describe that elusive feeling! Great book, highly recco'd.