words matter.

“Words: So innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” [1]

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Words matter. We’re taught this from a young age as a way to understand the power they have and, cue Hawthorne…the damage they can do.

In my line of work – and let’s just call that marketing communications for broad definitions – words are everything. They are our primary way of communicating and clarifying ideas. And anyone who has attended any type of group agency meeting can attest, the understanding and interpretation of our words is at best inconsistent and at worst sound like entirely different languages. And those are the internal ones.

When it comes to communicating with our partners, all bets are off. Both parties bring different glossaries to the table (and our partners are wrestling with their own internal language as well). Now, I fully realize that brands and agencies currency is distinction. Of course, we need proprietary processes, tm’d frameworks and some unique language - all the things that differentiate us. It makes sense that we’d all have different terms to talk about similar ideas (by the way, ask ten marketers to define ‘idea’ and see what happens).

But shouldn’t some things be fundamental? Just think of the time and effort lost in the misunderstanding and miscommunication of a single word or thought. And think of all the moments of impact: onboarding, scope definition, pitch deliverables, and IAT situations where agency teams work across deliverables together.

The efficiencies we could realize and reinvest in the work could be significant.

I’ll give you a personal example. At Fitzco, we have a decent track record for conceiving and producing ‘tentpoles.’ We define those as something outside of traditional advertising with the main goal of generating earned media / impressions (see activation, stunt, event, collab, etc.). While reviewing a partner’s annual plan recently, there were six moments noted as ‘tentpoles.’ Our eyes widened, our mouths watered…SIX? Incredible.

We came to realize ‘tentpole’ is their language for product window (flight, pulse, launch, focus, promotion, LTO, etc.). That didn’t make the strategic and creative challenge any less exciting, but our definitions of that single word and our definitions for success couldn’t have been more different.

This got me thinking...why doesn’t our industry have an official glossary of terms? There are movements toward standardization from the IAB and the 4A’s but not toward a standardization of words.

And this does seem to be a uniquely marketing phenomenon. Can you imagine if physicians decided to create unique vocabularies? One day your doctor just decided the term atrial fibrillation was too complicated and referred to it as the flutters[2]. Of course, we’re not dealing with life-or-death issues, but you get the point. How much back and forth could we save if we all simply spoke the same language?

So, the next time you sit down to review your brand purpose, brand positioning, brand idea, brand promise, brand benefit, brand platform, brand pillars, brand ambition, etc., make sure everyone is on the same brand page. And while you’re at it, maybe we can align on the definition of brand.

PS: if you’re interested in learning about Fitzco’s proprietary brand development process – Unleashing Brand Energy – hit me up (see…).

[1] Note to self: don’t lead a written think piece about words with Hawthorne…but I digress.

[2] The AMA does in fact have an official glossary of medical terms