Separating reality from rhetoric is a necessary first step toward taking charge of any brand, differentiating it from ostensible competitors, and freeing the employees who serve the brand to invest themselves in it. Promoting the brand requires even more acute attention to language – and to those to whom the language is directed. But while separating reality from rhetoric necessitated five tenets, effectively promoting the brand to prospective policyholders requires just three immutable rules.
Immutable Rule #1: We are not the target audience.
Exhibit A: In one of myriad idle moments during my employ at The Travelers, lo these many years ago, I read an article in Business Insurance that stayed with me because it was so direct and because it remains unflaggingly true. Recalling that article, I contacted my kind and patient friend, Rodd Zolkos, who rummaged through the archives until he found it. And there was that large, bitter pill, dated June 18, 1990:
[Insurance advertising] is incestuous. It’s blind following. They’re usually trying to please the CEO of the insurance company, instead of reaching the consumer … As a result, insurance company advertising executives are very cautious. They’re asking themselves, “What should I do to play it safe?” It’s safer doing something you know is going to work, even if it doesn’t work really well, than trying an unproven approach.
As suggested in #4 and #5 here, writing for ourselves or for the boss is a foolproof means of guaranteeing job security – as long as we consider ourselves and the boss to be the target audience and as long as we won’t be judged on the actual business results of our work.
Immutable Rule #2: We are not the target audience. This campaign was cracked.
Exhibit B: I don’t intend to criticize New York Life. My retirement planner is an agent of New York Life. It remains a very highly rated company. But I do intend to suggest that hen fruit is not the likely first thing that leaps to mind when one thinks of life insurance. If the company were marketing a life product specifically targeting not-yet-borns, newborns, or toddlers – to be purchased by parents or grandparents – maybe the concept would be logically coherent. But spring chickens don’t dwell much on life insurance. And, yes, life is fragile. But life insurance isn’t going to protect a life any more than a shell or a carton will protect a dropped egg. Life insurance protects the survivors of the deceased – not the deceased. So, this ad made the folks at New York Life feel safe. But the target audience? Not so much.
Immutable Rule #3: We are not the target audience.
Exhibit C: Business has been profoundly effective at obscuring, if not eliminating, the meaning of language. Case in point: the Liberty Mutual “responsibility” campaign. Again, I don’t intend to criticize Liberty Mutual. But the people in these spots are not demonstrating responsibility. Rather, they’re manifesting the vanishing arts of thoughtfulness, kindness, and common courtesy. And they’re presumably not intended to be Liberty Mutual employees. Beyond that, insurance is not a responsibility: it’s a contractual obligation. By accepting the small contributions of the many – our premium dollars – the insurer is contractually obligated to indemnify the large losses of the few. The insurer isn't being thoughtful, kind, courteous, or responsible in paying our claims. It's doing that to which it's legally bound. But saying so won’t make the folks at Liberty Mutual feel anywhere near as good, or safe in their own eyes and the boss’s, as saying they’re responsible. So, they show us pretty pictures, played against catchy music, leaving the target audience to scratch its collective noggin.
After adhering to the Three Immutable Rules, the only things required are some critical thinking, a determination to make our language meaningful, and a willingness to step out of our proverbial comfort zones. The folks in our target audiences live in very different zones.
Yes. Words do matter, especially to the people to whom we direct them. And since it appears we may be having company soon, we may as well get our linguistic house in order, no?