Is your brand built on combative military language?
Nurturing a purpose-driven approach to your brand is an ongoing effort. It's one thing to claim that you are purpose-driven. But it is quite another to embody it.
Your language is one of the most accessible areas that can help you demonstrate your purpose. By being more intentional and adopting a consistent approach to the words you use, you can go a long way to demonstrating that you are serious about pursuing your purpose.
Demilitarizing your brand
One of the simple ways to improve your language is to demilitarize it.
We have become so used to talking about the elements of marketing in military terms that we don't even give it a second thought. For example, did you know that the word strategy is derived from the Greek word for general?
Here are some other examples of how military terms are woven into our marketing language:
We run campaigns (a term borrowed from military efforts being called campaigns)
We talk about our prospects as targets - stop and think about how aggressive that is
When planning media, we talk about overarching tactics that provide 'air cover'
We refer to grassroots efforts as guerilla marketing
Plus direct reports are referred to as lieutenants, we have chain of command, and we rally the troops.
I know that this isn't prospect-facing language. These are the terms we use when planning how we address the market. But in some regard, that makes them even more important, because they are helping to set the tone.
This simple change can reorient your language
A Harvard Business Review article illustrates the problem, "Strategy gurus constantly use analogies with battle plans for “competitive advantage” versus the enemy. But the metaphor is not suitable because business, unlike a war or battle, is not primarily about defeating an enemy."
Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of business is to create a customer." He didn't say the purpose was to target a bogey or capture marketshare. Or conquer a segment.
This kind of language eats away at our empathy. A 'target' is not something that you care for. Using these military terms dehumanizes those that we are hoping to engage. And having an empathy deficit is a terrible way to start building your brand language.
So rather than targeting anybody, let's serve somebody. In other words, rather than referring to prospects as our:
Target audience
Let's refer to them as:
Those we hope to serve
With this simple change of planning language, we infuse empathy into our effort. Now when we start to think about brand language, we think about how that language helps serve the needs and desires of our prospects. This reorientation is how you set the stage for compelling brand ideas.
This is just one example of a change that I continue to champion. I encourage you to look at all the military terms that we just kind of mindlessly accept as part of our marketing lexicon. How can we replace them with something that feels more purpose-driven?
It's hard shifting habits. After all, marketers have grown accustomed to all the military lingo over the decades. But I have found that being intentional about the words you use from the very start can result in exceptional brand ideas.
It's time to retire the combative language. And allow our words to express the good we hope to do.