It’s time for our semi-irregular look at mistakes in writing or marketing that may be embarrassing to those who made them, but that are darned amusing for the rest of us.
The local police report listed several calls for “wreckless drivers.” Isn’t that a good thing – drivers who have managed to avoid accidents? I suppose that a reckless driver might be a wreckless driver, but only if he or she is very fortunate.
I’ve noticed a growing, disturbing tendency in advertising. The creative teams who develop concepts for commercials insert terms and references that make perfect sense to them, but are most likely meaningless among the viewers they are trying to reach.
A recent example is a truck commercial that makes reference to “donut eaters in focus groups.” Anyone who has worked in advertising or marketing understood that right away, particularly if they have ever sat on the other side of the one-way glass and watched focus group participants drone on about advertising while gnawing on free food. The creative team displayed its disgust and frustration, and the clients approved it, because they’ve been there, too. I smiled when I heard it.
There are many words that have been misused so often that their meanings have started to blur – and writers who should know better have used the wrong words in the wrong places.
For example, I recently read an article in a national magazine claiming that a particular musician had earned his notoriety by producing a couple albums. “Notoriety” was the wrong word – unless those albums were downright horrible.
Looking for a way to catch the attention of your audience and focus their full attention on your message? Instead of telling them what you want to hear, ask them a question that matters to them.
You may have heard that asking questions in headlines and opening statements is a bad idea. For example, I once had a boss who became furious anytime I presented an ad or brochure with a question in the headline. His reasoning is that the reader might give the wrong answer and lose interest.
The men and women who sell advertising are among the nicest people you will ever meet. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll also tell you that I’m a salesman’s kid, so I have a soft spot for good salespeople. Many of them have a genuine interest in you and your company’s success, and want to do everything within their power to help you make that happen. But if you’re going to regard salespeople as trusted advisors, please don’t lose sight of who employs them and how they are compensated.
There’s nothing wrong with asking for advice, or even accepting it when it’s handed to you without a request. But before you base your decision on the advice, stop to ask yourself whether the person who provided it has a stake in what you’ll do.
Looking for ways to increase your overall sales? Maybe there’s a way to increase the size of each sale you already make. One effective technique is suggestive selling, which fast-food restaurants do exceedingly well. “You want fries with that?” “Would you like a drink with that?” They don’t do it to annoy you; they do it because it works!
But suggestive selling doesn’t have to be annoying. Handled cleverly, it can even tell customers that you really understand and care about them. I remember reading about a fine dining restaurant that dramatically improved its per-customer sales in a simple, yet effective, way.
Back when computers were the size of your garage, programmers often summarized a particular situation as “garbage in, garbage out.” It normally referred to either bad data or bad instructions that, when fed into a computer, led to worse results. For example, if the programmer’s client didn’t provide a precise description of the program’s objectives, the result might not be what was expected. Or, if the data being fed in was inaccurate, the results could be even worse.
The same comment applies to writing. No matter how much talent a writer may have, the results he or she will be able to produce are entirely dependent on the quality of information that’s available. If a client can’t express the objectives or parameters, there’s a good chance that what the writer does won’t meet expectations.
In a recent post, I talked about organizations that believe their preferred way of doing things represented the industry standards. In a similar vein, I’ve done work for companies that have their own lexicons — even style guides spelling out exactly how things should be worded.
For example, I used to do a lot of work for some divisions of Amoco Oil (since absorbed by BP). Among the no-nos in their style guide was that you couldn’t refer to their primary product as gas. Even though the average consumer may say, “I need to buy gas” and go to the gas station to pump ten gallons of gas into his gas tank, any materials produced by Amoco were required to reference “gasoline.”
Before starting my own business, I worked for five different ad agencies. As part of my job at each, I had occasion to write a variety of scripts — for everything from radio commercials to TV spots to presentations and training videos. Each of those agencies expected scripts to be set up a certain way, and most presented that way as “the industry standard that everyone uses.”
Yep, you guessed it. All five formats were very different.
In a recent entry, I mentioned the value of a good swipe file for newsletter development. Another very handy tool is what are known as “evergreen” articles.
What’s an evergreen article? It’s simply a story that provides general information, will always be appropriate for the audience, and isn’t time-sensitive.