Words worth

Words mean nothing but matter much. More so in marketing.

To mean one thing and to say it with the right word or phrase is a challenge in itself. Finding the right set of words to express your brand’s offering proves elusive at best and counter-productive at worst.

Getting it right or just a wee bit off target could spell the difference between success and failure. Take the case of Horlicks. It once stood for ‘nutrition’; and targeted families. The brand was sicker than the users who were using it!

And then Horlicks decided to target kids and made one small change in the way it described its offering. It replaced the word ‘nutrition’ with ‘nourishment’. It’s been ipaang gupaang japaang for Horlicks, ever since!

Yamaha has been talking about ‘speed’. But sadly, the bike is fast and sales are not. If only they used a better word - ‘Thrill’. The word ‘Thrill’ encompasses speed, builds an emotional layer to it and thus adds more oomph to the brand’s offering.

See, how one word makes a difference!

It’s not just about English words in advertising; the same applies to our 14-major-languages-and-million-dialects nation as well. The problem and challenges of using the right word or phrase is even more pronounced.

Take the word ‘Love’. Think of an equivalent word in your mother tongue. You probably can come out with five words. But note that each of those words should be used only in specific contexts. The equivalent word for love that describes brotherly love is different from the word that describes love between friends. The word to describe motherly love isn’t the same as the one that describes the love between a boy and a girl.

A wrong word in a wrong context could alter the meaning completely. Yet, in English all those different words gets translated into one catchall word – Love!

Put simply, the use of words matters. The use of the right word matters more. ‘Father’ and ‘Dad’ mean the same. Or do they?

Read this: ‘Anyone can be a father; but it takes someone special to be dad’. Now, the two words don’t mean the same!

Here is another interesting marketing story that highlights the importance of using the right words to make the perfect difference.

A school in Virginia had trouble filling a course called ‘Home Economics for Boys’. Considering the title, this isn’t too surprising. First, the word economics puts off most students who consider it boring and bereft of bliss. Secondly, the use of the word ‘boys’ is demeaning. Once into their teens, no self-respecting boy considers himself a boy. He sees himself as a man in the making. So, it was to nobody’s surprise that the course ‘Home Economics for Boys’ found no takers.

The school tried everything possible to popularize the course but in vain.

Then they did what most marketers don’t. They put themselves in the consumer’s shoes and thought through the problem using the consumer’s viewpoint. The answer became obvious.

The problem was not the course. It was the title of the course – the words they had used. The school renamed the class ‘Bachelor Living’.

120 boys immediately signed up!

Words cost nothing. But matter much. Weigh your words watchfully. And watch it’s worth work wonders!