The Pretension Trap: an excellent piece – all the way from Melbourne, and full of good sense

How is it that most agencies trot out exactly the same meaningless bilge? I don’t know, but here’s a pretty good guide to what to avoid

One day I must create a very large file called “Stuff Drayton wishes he had written”.

This piece from Ryan Wallman of Wellmark Associates is an example. It is particularly encouraging that better writing helps differentiate your brand.

This is a heartening contrast to the usual view that you need a new logo, a wanky slogan – like Be More Cat or  Always Going Forward or perhaps Passionate About Dogshit –  a good dollop of cliche’d puffery and visual guidelines from designers who know little and care less about what makes reading easy .

Here is what Ryan wrote.

***

I recently perused the websites of some consulting companies, in an attempt to understand how they differentiate themselves.

Alas, I remain none the wiser.

All of these companies used every one of the following terms to describe themselves and their services:

  • Innovative
  • Value-adding
  • Quality
  • Passionate
  • Committed
  • Empowering
  • Engaged.

In some cases, several of these adjectives (assuming we accept the use of ‘quality’ as an adjective, which I don’t) were used in combination. Take this little mash-up of banalities, for example:

“… innovative and committed to delivering value-adding ideas, products and services”

And the kicker? Each of these companies – demonstrating an admittedly admirable degree of chutzpah – described its offering as ‘unique’.

Never mind that this kind of linguistic guff leaves most people cold. The bigger problem it creates for these companies is that all of their major competitors are saying exactly the same things as they are. If any of them do in fact have a significant point of difference, then they certainly don’t communicate it.

So why do they do it?

Probably because they think it sounds impressive. But that puts them in an awkward place. And since we’re talking about the consulting industry, perhaps the best way to explain this is with a 2 x 2 matrix.

Comunications-intelligence matrix 281x300 update

We might call the lower-left cell of this matrix the ‘pretension trap’. It’s a trap, for businesses, because it means they sound just like everyone else – a potentially fatal mistake in a competitive market.

The pretension trap is a marketer’s dream

If you’re in the corporate world, this state of affairs represents a golden opportunity. When all your competitors sound the same, eschewing the ‘accepted’ language of business communications represents a ridiculously easy way to differentiate your brand. Can you say that about any other aspect of your business?

Not only that, but you’ll actually sound more intelligent, as this cognitive study found:

“… write clearly and simply if you can, and you’ll be more likely to be thought of as intelligent”

Time to get smart?

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. Robert Lawrence

    The Communications Intelligence Matrix is a good graphic way to bolster your position.
    There is, however, one problem with the matrix: you cannot read it!
    It is too faint to read.

    1. Drayton

      It was a bit faint — nothing I can do about it, I’m afraid; anyhow I thought the piece made its point even without that extra flourish

  2. I liked this so much I just posted a link to it on the mail page of Linkedin. I think I can generate you some art that’s easier to read, in just a few minutes. Let’s see how I do.
    Cheers!

  3. Rachael

    Drayton, I really enjoyed this post: very entertaining and informative! I peruse agency websites daily and meaningless bilge is rife. Very few seem to clock that simplicity of expression and a clear brand message is actually effective. My boss frequently paraphrases a quote from Jonathan Ive, which I like:

    “Different and new is relatively easy. Doing something that’s genuinely better is very hard.”

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