Sunday, March 26, 2006
Words That Don’t Sell
byNot that this should come as a big surprise to some of us in marketing, but here’s a story on an elaborate study that shows many words intended to imbue a brand with human qualities are ineffective. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Harvard University, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on study subjects to measure the effect of anthropomorphic marketing adjectives to describe a product or service. The study looked at 450 words such as: friendly, down-to-earth, sophisticated, warm-hearted, dependable, sincere, reliable, trustworthy cheerful, etc.
The final results of the study aren’t due to be published until June, but it would appear that using words such as this in marketing copy or corporate positioning lines will not have the intended effect. I have long thought that lines such as “We’re the friendly folks” or “We’re the company you can trust” are somewhat vacuous. People can be friendly (or not) and people can be trustworthy (or not). It’s the people we deal with in these companies that will reflect the brand. Besides, just about the time you have to deal with one of the staff at the “friendly folks,” they may have had a day from hell and decide to take out their frustration on you. Bingo, brand disconnect.
