Join Justin St Clair-Charles as he explores why, in today’s world, the words brands choose matter more than ever. He looks at how powerful – or risky – the right (or wrong) message can be, and why clarity, honesty, and authenticity are essential in modern comms.
“Words are like a loaded pistol.” Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous observation is arguably even more compelling now than when he first uttered it in the middle of the last century. The current mood of deep economic, political, social and cultural upheaval imbues Sartre’s reflection with heavy resonance.
Amplified by social media, the scrutiny under which virtually every word articulated by politicians, influencers, corporations and the media is placed, has intensified, significantly. That makes effective corporate communications a whole lot harder than it once was. The tricky task of helping brands know what they want to say – and, critically, how they say it – has ramped up, considerably.
Sartre based his proposition on the broad principle that language is never neutral, never passive. Every word is an invocation to get involved; hence every word is ‘loaded’ with consequences – either good or bad – that can’t be undone. That’s the warning for comms professionals: get the balance (between message, meaning, delivery and impact) right and trust in an organisation, surges. Get it wrong and be prepared for reputations to plummet, customers to abandon brands and sales to tank.
There are as many examples of companies pulling the trigger and hitting the bullseye as there are of those for whom the message ricocheted with disastrous outcomes.
Remember this: ‘Don’t buy this jacket’? Patagonia’s 2018 campaign went well beyond marketing for its own sake. It spelled out Patagonia’s commitment to addressing the negative ecological consequences of the clothing industry. The language was uncompromising, but it aligned with Patagonia’s core brand values which made it totally authentic. They took a gamble, but this paid off handsomely by building trust and customer loyalty and driving sales.
And what about this: ‘Beyond petroleum’? BP’s rhetoric of sustainability was spectacularly misaligned with the firm’s behaviours. The oil giant’s reputation was all but erased and its share price dived in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2017. And in an ultimate act of Sartrean ‘bad faith’ BP’s then hapless CEO, Tony Hayward, ineptly shot out his extremely ill-judged “I want my life back” comment, which cost him his job.
So what? Well, so plenty, actually. Such examples offer a few simple and obvious lessons that, perhaps now more than ever, we could all do well to remind ourselves of from time to:
Alongside philosophy, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a master wordsmith and communicator. There’s no record of him running a side-hustle in corporate comms but I’ve a hunch that he’d have been quite successful at this, too.