What are you selling?
Photo by Steven Thompson on Unsplash
As any marketing advice will tell you: consistency is key. If you are selling something, all your communication should consistently reinforce what it is and who you are. But it’s worth keeping in mind that there are times when your brand identity isn’t what your audience wants to know.
Many years ago, I had my first experience of travelling with a low-cost airline. The welcome on board announcement started with a bright ‘Hey, ladies and gents, boys and girls!’
The young, enthusiastic cabin crew wore fun, brightly coloured outfits with baseball caps. They were joking around and jolly; one of them put his hands on the seats either side of the aisle and vaulted his legs through like a gymnast. I could not imagine any of these things happening on planes I’d been on before.
I had only known cabin crew dressed with military sophistication. I had never heard them acknowledge boys and girls, and I had certainly never seen them jump. This new airline very effectively communicated to me that this brand was fun, young, affordable and unafraid to break the rules through a very consistent approach to their look, behaviour and language.
As any marketing or communications advice will tell you: consistency is key. As editors, half our job is making sure that terms and formatting are used consistently.
If you call a place in your business an ‘outdoor seating area’ in one paragraph, ‘alfresco’ in the next and ‘beer garden’ after that, readers may think you have 3 different places to sit outside. If you mix up your formatting, style and tone, your readers might doubt your credibility.
Yet as a young passenger enjoying my first low-cost flight, I sat there hoping that this loveable rogue attitude didn’t extend to the cockpit. When it came to actually flying the plane, I didn’t want fun, young, affordable or rule-breaking. I wanted the exact opposite. I wanted the pilots’ communication with me and each other to be clear, conservative, specific and reliable.
Consistency in your approach to communications will absolutely help you establish your identity and build your brand. It tells your audience who you are. But sometimes, this isn’t the most important thing to communicate, and often, it’s not what your audience wants to know.
Using consistent marketing language doesn’t mean it belongs in all your communication. In safety information, training, user instructions, customer assistance or directions, your audience – whether customers or staff – usually just wants a clear message. Clarity of communication means thinking about what your audience needs from you, rather than what you want to express.
Please go ahead and sell yourself as a loveable rogue – but know that the boys and girls who buy that ticket still need to know exactly where the safety exits are, and trust that if required, you will guide them straight there. Without jumping.
