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.

 

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

 

Generation Y Connects Part II

As promised, albeit over a month ago, this is a follow-up to my previous post about Gen Y in the workplace. In Generation Y Connects (Part I), I succinctly established who Gen Y are and how they’re perceived in the workforce; in this post I’m going to explain the strategies that my company uses to communicate with them. 

My employer specializes in creating integrated communication campaigns that relay Loss Prevention and Safety (LPS) messages to associate-level employees of large American retailers–we do more traditional marketing communications as well, but our specialty is helping our clients protect their bottom line. Just to provide some context, we begin any of our LPS campaigns by researching a given company’s employees’ perspectives on Loss Prevention. We prove that associate-level employees are typically unaware of how to spot potential shoplifters, the consequences of internal theft, and spotting hazards directly affects their personal safety.

While collecting information about employees’ perceptions about LPS in the workplace, we also collect their demographic information (specifically gender and age). So, for example, a typical employee of Winners is a female 17-22 years old, a typical employee of Office Max is a male 20-26 years old. Associate-level employees come from a younger demographic—these positions typically don’t pay very well and don’t include benefits (I’m not suggesting the aforementioned retailers don’t pay well; entry-level positions in any industry don’t pay very well—unless you’re working on an oil rig, but that’s an entirely different story.) As time goes on, and more and more members from Gen Y enter the workforce, our company has come up with four strategies to effectively communicate training messages to them:

1. Voice and Delivery
2. Expectations
3. What’s in it for me?
4. Personalization

Voice and Delivery

As mentioned, Generation Y has grown up in a culture of receiving and assimilating large amounts of information on demand. Employers have to avoid inundating their employees with extraneous information to which Generation Y’ers won’t relate to—quite frankly, Gen Y becomes bored easily and is quick to move on to the next thing. My company use communication and graphic design aesthetics to synthesize information into drillable packets that Gen Y’ers can quickly access and compartmentalize. We use straightforward language and avoid “corporate” jargon–avoiding a dictatorial or overly authoritative communication style voice with that of being team player.

Expectations

Gen Y’ers demand the benefit of the doubt and respect–and this can come across as a sense of entitlement or privilege. We highlight happy, fun or, low stress aspects of their jobs to demonstrate the flexibility in their job tasks. Our communications speak to Gen Y’ers as colleagues, not as subordinates–again, Gen Y has been trained to be confident in their talents and are more willing to cooperate with a friendly boss. Any training material for Gen Y’ers should always be focused on “work” from a realistic and appreciative point of view, but it should also be friendly and have a sense of humour. Regular recognition of good work can also go a long way–tangible rewards of a perceived value are important for engaging those who go above and beyond.

What’s in it for me?

In communicating to a Gen Y audience, it’s important to illustrate the benefits for everyone involved, the consistent expectations for their performance, the potential flexibility available for their unique style, and specificity in how they should operate. It must be made clear what the individual benefit is for doing something, especially if it’s perceived as going above and beyond their job–so, for example, my company has become the industry leader in explaining to employees the benefits of not stealing, reporting internal theft, and working safely. Gen Y’ers have a strong work ethic, however, it is best engaged when they are provided with challenging opportunities that really matter to them, have an altruistic motive, or offer them increased responsibility as a reward for their accomplishments. Furthermore, Gen Y’ers gravitate toward jobs that offer regular constructive feedback for development, ongoing training and learning opportunities.

Personalization

Finally, any opportunity to personalize communications with Gen Y’ers is a good idea. they’re attuned to recognizing hype, spin, or “fluff” and when messages have a sincere, personal touch they tend to be more frequently given the benefit of the doubt and accepted. One way I like to think of this is imagining Gen Y as the Simpsons generation–they’ve been raised around media with a profound sense of ironic and parodic humour, and this carries forward in their ability to detect doublespeak. Communication modes that encourage spending time getting to know employees, recognizing their capabilities, and engage them in mentoring dynamics also tend to be accepted as genuine.

Fortunately, my employer embraces all of these strategies in dealing with their employees as well. I guess that’s why I love blogging about my job.

 

CreatAthon: the fallout

Check it out: I got some press from press release I sent to the University of Waterloo! I guess the general press release that I wrote wasn’t too bad after all—it generated articles in the Exchange Morning Post and the Waterloo Record. I really learned a lot about PR and event organizing last week.

Fortunately, the CreateAthon went off without a hitch. We provided our 11 clients with new materials that they’re really going to enjoy. I had some great help from our freelancer, Greg, our Sales Manager’s husband, Steve, and our other copywriter, Lindsay, returned from maternity leave to stop by and help. Greg came to help for one hour but stayed for four—he wrote the new website for the KW Seniors Day Program. Steve wrote two brochures for us, Lindsay wrote one brochure, and I wrote five posters (two for the Waterloo Region Block Parent Program and three for the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Working Against Youth Violence Everywhere (WAYVE) program), two brochures (one for the Eating Disorder Awareness Coalition of Waterloo Region and one for the Special Olympics of Kitchener Waterloo), two funding request letters (both for the Block Parent Program), a radio script (for the Christian Family Counselling Centre), and I edited everything else. Good times! (Seriously!) 

Anyway, it was a very worthy event but I was simply shattered afterwards. I think the entire creative team really hit the wall around 6am, but I was impressed with our Art Directors and our Creative Directors ability to discuss the materials with clients at the 7:30am official unveiling. Personally, I was too tired to speak with clients at that point . . . plus, the way I figured it, who would want to talk to the writer anyway?

Some important professional lessons I learned while being responsible for the writing of 11 projects in 24 hours.

1. Make sure everyone is on the same page. When the deadline is a tight one like this, it’s imperative that everyone constantly communicates the status of their work to Project Managers.

2. Don’t take criticism personally. If the clock is ticking on a tight deadline like this, people are bound to get stressed out and say things that they might not normally say. Keep the context of the situation (i.e., high stress) at the top of your mind and show some empathy for the other person’s position.

3. Save yourself for the official unveiling. My biggest regret from the CreateAthon was not speaking with the clients more about the materials I helped generate for them. I was tired, grumpy, and I felt gross. Hindsight is 20/20 but if I ever have the opportunity to do something like this again, I am going to ensure that I speak with the clients about the work I’ve done for them.

4. Drink lots of coffee and eat. Thanks to Tim Horton’s for generously sponsoring our event—the coffee was really the glue that brought the whole project together . . . Okay that might be overdramatic but it really did help. Actually, we had some awesome team members who donated the entire evening to baking lasagna for dinner and lots of cookies and snacks, so those were just as important as the coffee.

5. Thank the people you worked with. I made a point of personally thanking my colleagues who motivated me, worked with me, fed me, and put up with me for those 24 hours. There is nothing more validating than some genuine thanks.

Well that’s enough for now *yawn*. I need some more sleep.