Metaphors part 2: Metaphors and Marketing

Shakespeare was the master of metaphors, but today’s modern metaphor masters work in marketing and advertising.

Marketing, advertising, and the Arts

One of the questions that most Arts graduates are familiar with is, “A Bachelor’s of Arts, what are you going to do with that?” Yet Arts graduates are keenly familiar with the art of persuasion, rhetoric:

1. Arts students write persuasive assignments such as personal essays, research papers, and text analyses.
2. Arts professors critique students’ assignments based their persuasive ability.
3. Ideally, Arts students improve their persuasive abilities.

So Arts students learn rhetoric, and great Arts students become great rhetoricians. Let’s return to the original question, the question an English major, like me, is used to hearing from his computer programmer friends, “what are you going to do with that?”

What are you going to do with the ability to persuade others?

The art of persuasion

Every business needs to convince consumers (the public or other businesses) to buy their products. Marketing agencies create advertising that sells products, and effective rhetoric is the backbone of great marketing.

Think about those catchy ads that stick with you over the course of days or weeks, or the humorous ones that have you and your colleagues doubled over at the water cooler. Those ads stimulate your emotions, which persuades you to purchase a product or pay for a service. That’s advertising.

But every ad must relate back to the product or service it’s selling. That relationship between the product and the advertisement is inherently metaphorical—the ad carries the meaning of the ad beyond its referent.

 

 

Metaphors in advertising

Some of my favorite commercials are for the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO). The GEICO commercials are examples of really great advertising, especially in how they’ve created two excellent company mascots: the Caveman and the Gecko. And, to illustrate the purpose of this post, the GEICO Caveman is a metaphor for an ancient being, incapable of modern human understanding. Yet the caveman uses GEICO because they want to relay the message that they’re services are “so easy even a caveman can do it.”

So the caveman metaphorically stands in for two things: something pre-modern and GEICO’s simplicity.

Advertising does this ALL THE TIME.

Nike’s “Just Do It” advertising fuses their athletic products with speed, fame, and success; Tony the Tiger does the same thing with Frosted Flakes; the new RBC claymations fuse banking with something fun, animated, and unique; and the list goes on and on.

Good Marketers take one central idea that metaphorically represents the perceived benefits of using a product or paying  for a service. They then fuse that idea with the content of their communications, and create themes or storylines amongst—a process called branding.

This process of allowing symbols and words to carry different meanings is just another way metaphors pervade our everyday lives.

 

Job advice for Arts graduates entering the workforce

I’ve just completed an eight month work placement component for my English MA. Before I was finally hired at a local marketing company, I was turned down by six companies in a row. I realize now I wasn’t hired at those first six jobs because academic hubris got the better of me. I thought that my graduate student status would automatically qualify me for jobs ahead of undergraduate co-applicants. Bad move.

It took me two months to find a co-op job. Coursework was mounting and I needed to find work. It was very frustrating. So I booked an appointment with an advisor, attended a practice interview session, and had my resume edited. Along the way, I asked a lot of questions and received a lot of helpful advice. I was hired by the next job I interviewed for.

This post is a synthesis of my advisor’s advice and the advice of several prominent local technology managers–gleaned from a Non-Acadmic Careers Workshop. I hope these tips help you find the job of your dreams.

What makes Arts graduates worth hiring?

Analytical thinking

Arts students are taught to analyze poems and dense literary or philosophical texts by breaking texts down to their fundamentals and researching problems that have plagued academics and scholars for hundreds of years. In the workforce, Arts graduates can do the same thing for business problems. Analytical thinking is thinking on your feet. It’s the ability to make a point, back it up, and persuade your audience.

Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking is quickly recognizing connections between dissimilar concepts. This is how Arts graduates use their creativity and experience to connect with the needs of their employers. I had no experience in communications, marketing or professional writing when I graduated with my English degree; in fact, all I had on my resume were jobs waiting tables. Lateral thinking allowed me to pull transferable skills out of my past experiences. On my resume and cover letters, I argued that a waiter has to be an expert at customer service, multitasking, defusing tense situations, working in a fast paced environment, in a process of constant decision making.

Critical Thinking

Do you think literary theory or philosophy doesn’t matter in the “real world”? Your experience with critical theories gives you a critical viewpoint. This when you use your powers of analytical thinking to explore a concept/object, but then detect flaws, logical lapses, or potential binaries that could be impeding some type of progression/connection.

Whether your perspective is postcolonial, postmodern, linguistic, or philosophical, Arts graduates think critically about problems, solutions, and processes from multiple perspectives. You’re finding problems before anyone else realizes there are any.

Scholarship

Aside from the ability to learn, write, and think, your Arts degree represent respect for timelines, schedules and deliverables. You’ve worked hard under pressure to ensure timely completion of your work. Graduate students should mention the difficult application process for graduate studies, and the strategies they use to manage an intense workload.

How will your resume and cover letter lead to job interviews?

Cover Letters

For every job your apply for, take the posted job requirements and demonstrate your awareness and abilities with an individually tailored cover letter. Carefully read the job descriptions and try to single out buzzwords to smoothly incorporate into your resume and cover letter. Pay attention to striking verbs that are likely common within your potential employer’s corporate culture. This demonstrates you’ve done your research and, thus, you’re a quick learner.

Buzzwords

Potential buzzwords to consider: experience, rhetoric, human factors, interactivity, information architecture, technical communication, user experience, product management, versatility. In any communications field, remember to talk about an audience.

Skills

Computer hacking skills, Bow Staff skills . . . Seriously though, don’t forget to highlight your extra-academic skills. Employers are interested in your experience with music, drama, dance, sports, and any other type of collaborative enterprise that demonstrates teamwork, creativity, or coordination.Also highlight any volunteer experience you have.

You might want to tweak this section of your resume depending on the job you’re applying for. For example, demonstrate an interest in technology if you’re applying for a job with a technology company.

Also discuss your awareness of or experience with relevant technology for the workplace (this information is in the job posting; for example, a posting may indicate experience with Microsoft Visio is recommended). Remember, you may not have experience with Microsoft Visio, but you do have experience with research. So go look up Visio, check out its Reviewers Guide, and familarize yourself with the program. Then you can add “familiarity with Microsoft Visio” to your resume as the job posting indicates you should.

References

Ensure your references are up to date and let them know that phone calls will be coming. Don’t be afraid to remind your reference of the skills that made you a good colleague while you were in a professional setting.

Professional Associations

Though likely out of your purview right now, consider membership with a professional association, such as the Society for Technical Communication, the Usability Professional Association, or the Editors’ Associate of Canada. These certifications are a great way to demonstrate that you’ve purposely gone out and became certified as a specialist in a given field. All of these professional associations have student rates. Professional certification is a nice balance with an academic career—it shows practicality and that you know what you want out of your career . . . even if you don’t.

How do I nail my interview?

Commitment

Discuss an interest in educational opportunities, professional development, or a future with the company —after all, you’re a graduate and employers look at degrees as evidence of commitment to an ideal. Ask abut pay raises, objective setting, and employee reviews—again expressing an interest in self-improvement and training that will contribute to your employer.

Questions

Ask lots of questions about the organization that will cause interviewers to “sell” the company to you. If they’re selling the organization to you, then you don’t have to talk as much during the interview and the interviewer feels great about their job at the end of it—it’s a win/win and it makes you look good. Remember, effective questions for the interviewer will be based on your research.

Answers

Interviewers want to know what kind of person you are. The business world is about deadlines, multitasking, and teamwork. These are the kinds of activities at the job–not the job itself—so demonstrate you’re aware of HOW to work effectively. Anybody hiring you is thinking of systems, relationships, and how to streamline company processes. You need to show how you will fit in. Interviewers want you to highlight the fact that you know how to learn.

Importantly, before answering a tough interview question, take the time to pause and think about your answer. Don’t just start rambling and then lose your thought process. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “good question, let me think about that for a second.”

What kinds of questions are they going to ask?

One technical communications manager I spoke with mentioned three standard interview questions her company uses, why they ask them, and the answers they want. Here they are:

#1: Think about a time you had to sell a problem, influence a decision, or recommend a change nobody wanted. How did you forward your agenda?

The goal of questions like this is for you to tell the interviewer how you communicated effectively in ’situation X’. Remember, your answer doesn’t have to be something professional, it can be personal. So you could talk about an experience with a group project in school or an experience from your jazz band—it’s up to you.

#2: in the past, have you had to deal with a difficult developer? How did you get the information you required from that developer?

Some company interviewers will deliberately use terminology that you’re not familiar with in order to put you out of your element. The goal of this questions is for you to demonstrate lateral thinking by connecting the fact that, although you probably haven’t worked with a “developer,” you have worked with a difficult person—again, a great time to talk about how you communicated effectively in ’situation X’. So talk about how you were working with a difficult person in a collaborative setting and the strategies you used to forward your agenda.

#3: How would you start documenting a software feature?

Again, the interviewer knows you likely don’t know about “software features,” but they want you to make a connection; they want you to think laterally. So talk about how you would document anything: you would do research and use analytical, critical, and lateral thinking to establish your audience’s need. From there you would write a concise, effective document about that “software feature” for that audience.

Any other advice?

I can’t emphasize this enough: RESEARCH! Demonstrate that you’re aware of what the company you’re applying for does and what your potential role there entails. This is great fodder for questions you will ask during your interview, and interviewers love being asked questions!

Technorati Tags: Job interviews,resume writing,cover letters,job advice,jobs for recent Arts graduates,getting hired,job interview questions

 

What is a Copywriter?

A lot of people ask me what exactly I do. Here’s an answer:

As a copywriter for an Integrated Communications company my main roles are writing, editing, and proofreading text, or copy, for print and multimedia (I’ve previously posted about editing and editing your own writing.) A copywriter’s job is to write clear, persuasive, original messaging, often with a limited word count. In marketing, copywriters are part of the Creative Department, and so I work closely with graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, other writers and a creative director to ensure a synthesis of visual and textual rhetoric in our materials. The Creative Department works closely with Account Services, the project, account and senior account managers who liaison with clients and vendors to initiate projects, handle client requests, relay information from to the Creative Department, and organize each project’s final production.

I divide my time writing for multiple projects throughout the course of a day, yet must ensure my copy matches each project’s style and tone. A copywriter isn’t simply told what to write by Account Services or clients; copywriting is a process of collaboration. I brainstorm concepts with members of the Creative and Account teams then, later, I’ll match my copy to the graphic designer’s visual layout and Account Service’s project description (a creative brief).

In copywriting, a first draft is never a final draft; it’s a process of revision.  There are both semantic and typographic restrictions that influence this revising process. For example, a client representative will suggest alternative wording or conceptual changes to a first draft; whereas a graphic designer may require copy to be shortened or lengthened depending on the layout. As a project progresses (from conceptual to design to production), its writer, designer, art director, account manager, and project manager sign a cover sheet to indicate a comprehensive review of the document. This is called “signing off”.

The goal of these early, internal revisions is to produce a draft that can be submitted to the client for their review. After this, the client will return the draft with another set of revisions. Client revisions can be challenging—often the subject of complaints that “they just don’t get it”. Good marketers don’t simply bend to their client’s will; we work closely with our clients to achieve a mutual vision. When this is achieved, we gain the marketing Holy Grail: client approval.

With client approval, a project can go into production (either print or digital), but first a final draft (a pre-flight) must be circulated internally to spot any errors. A pre-flight is then sent to the printer where a printer’s proof is made and returned for our approval—this is essentially a printer’s pre-flight. The copywriter’s task in this process is to proofread the pre-flight and, not long after, the printer’s proof. There’s a big difference between copyediting and proofreading: copyediting is revising the grammar, punctuation, word choice, tone, and coherence of the copy; proofreading is checking for visual or typographical anomalies, or easy to miss details like a copyright symbol or a “printed in Canada” footnote. The reason for this difference is that changes during the production stage of a project are time consuming and it’s expensive to change a printer’s proof.

Proofreading is an extremely important final step, and I’d like to share a relevant anecdote. At one point, I was the only writer at Punch. One of the Project Managers came to me to “sign off” on a calendar we were producing for our largest client—these calendars would go to over 30,000 of our client’s employees. As the copywriter, it was my responsibility to proofread and sign off on this final stage of the process—I had already written and revised the copy earlier that month.

“Did you have a chance to proofread the calendar?” She asked.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Did you have a chance to look at the printer’s proofs?” She asked.

“No. I looked at the pre-flights from yesterday and they were fine so I haven’t looked over the proofs.”

“Could you also take a look at the proofs please? This is a $17,000 print job and if there are any problems it would cost us a lot of money.”

It was then that I realized my signature was required before printing a $17,000 project. Not only that, but if there was a typo, grammatical error, or missing copyright symbol, my oversight would cost the company $17,000. The conversation ended with me heading over to comprehensively proofread this job as if my life depended on it. I’ve proofread every document that has crossed my desk just as thoroughly since, having realized the importance of copywriters in the marketing industry.

So there’s a little slice of my life for you. Any questions? Please leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: Copywriting,Stylistics,Marketing,Integrated Communications,What is a Copywriter?,Editing,Proofreading

 

Letter #2

As promised, here is my second persuasive letter:

Dear [W],

I’ve just completed an 8-month co-op placement with Punch Integrated Communications and in that time, under the tutelage of [X] and [Y], I’ve become a copywriter and editor. I’ve produced effective copy in a timely manner for all of our major clients, I’m a member of our Public Relations committee, and I happily volunteered to help this year’s CreateAthon become a huge success. Moreover, writing for Punch has given me the opportunity to expand on my pre-existing knowledge of our industry from my time as a Loss Prevention Officer for HBC.

I believe that I fit in well with the young, innovative team here at Punch. For example, after [Z] was hired, we built an immediate rapport. I worked closely with [Z] to teach her our documentation standards and make her feel welcome. After [X] left, I demonstrated the ability to complete projects independently as a copywriter, direct the work of a freelance writer, copyedit, and proofread—I feel my performance thus far indicates my commitment to Punch’s growth and success.

I’ve also enthusiastically leveraged my research expertise to create a clipping service for up-to-date news coverage on Punch and to access the Hoover Business Directory free of charge. Next year, I will be also working on a research project with Tom to produce a series of articles about Punch for various publications within our industry.

As a co-op student in your employ I’m currently earning $16 per hour. According to the National Labour Market Information Service, the average salary for editors in this region is $23.17 per hour and the average salary for writers in this region is $25.60 per hour. Both of these rates of pay are higher than what is to be expected for my experience level, however, I’m requesting a pay increase to $20 per hour as I believe that the experience I’ve gained and my potential to be an asset to the company is suggestive of an increase.

This rate of pay is appropriate for my experience level and the average salary for my position in this region. Furthermore, this pay increase will help offset medical and dental costs incurred as I will not have any health benefits during this time.

Thank you so much for the opportunities you’ve offered me thus far and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that I truly desire to grow with this company. I think that we’re entering a new and exciting E-learning market sector and I’m very interested in a long term position with Punch Integrated Communications after Lindsay returns. I think that my interest in loss prevention and my skills as a researcher, writer, and editor will prove valuable to your company’s future. Thank you for considering my request and I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Allan McDougall

Which one is better, yesterday’s or today’s? Ricardo commented that yesterday’s was too long–this one is longer. LOL, sorry Ricardo. Please share your thoughts. I’ll comment back ASAP.