Chris West - Strong Language: The Fastest, Smartest, Cheapest Marketing Tool Youre Not Using

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Copyright 2021 Chris West

All rights reserved.

Excerpts with kind permission of Mini UK and Ferrari S.p.A

ISBN: 978-1-5445-2357-6

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To Mum and Dad, for giving me a love of reading.

To Caroline, for showing me the power of determination.

To Charlotte, for giving me so much more love and support than I ever imagined, or come to think of it, deserved.

And to Clemmie and Caspar every day is a great day when I hear your voices. Love you.

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Writing a book is easy. All you have to do is excuse yourself from family commitments for a year or two. So first, Id like to say there wouldnt be a word on a page here without the continued love, encouragement, and support of Charlotte, and the trust of Caspar and Clemmie. Thank you.

Before Id ever thought about writing a book, some people inspired me to think about writing. My first Creative Director, Simon Dicketts, was also my first editor: hed carefully look at a headline Id written, then put a thumb over a word and say, Do we really need that, do we, hmmm? He was always right.

To him, my other Creative Directors, and my Editors, thank you.

I wouldnt have even been in that room (and a few other good places) if it werent for the encouragement of one of the worlds most talented art directors and nicest people, John Messum. Thank you, mate.

My thinking has been inspired so often by one of the worlds other most decent, brilliant people, Adam Morgan. He literally wrote the book on Challenger Brands, and hes never stopped giving me advice. I almost wish youd go and read his book Eating the Big Fish instead of reading this one. Almost.

Adam, thank you so much.

Other writers Ive been lucky enough to meet and be inspired by include Sean Doyle, Tim Riley, and Matt Rudd. Thank you for encouraging me so often, even when you didnt realise you were.

When this book was half an idea, some people were generous with their time and advice. Thank you for everything, Susy Korb, Anthony Finbow, Fred Burt, Cedric Krummes, Liz McGrath, Simon Spilsbury, David Clark, and Giles Spackman. Im sure Ive forgotten someone here, so to you thank you and my apologies.

When this book was almost a book, everything was made a lot easier by having a great photographer thank you, Mocho and a great publishing team: thank you, Rose, Brian, and the team at Scribe.

I am lucky.

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It could be a fright dream.

You find yourself in a big office, sitting behind a big desk with piles of papers scattered across it. It feels familiar but somehow not. There are 20 people in there, sitting, standing, younger, older, all staring at you. It takes a moment to work out whats hand-painted onto the other side of your office door:

Editor

You look down at the piles of papers on your desk: each of them is an article, and all the people in the room are watching you and waiting for you to approve or improve their story. They need you to edit all those words, no time to waste, the presses are waiting. Fifty thousand words in the voice of this newspaper youve somehow found yourself in charge of.

You flick through the papers some writing is great; some is just terrible. But whys the great great and the terrible terrible? Itll be all right if you can just work fast enough. Then a feeling of nausea surges through you: this is just todays newspaper. Tomorrow therell be another 50,000 words to edit. A bell starts ringing, the red light in the corner of your office starts flashing: the presses are turning, giant rolls of newssheet are now running through them. Theyre coming out totally blank. The bell keeps ringing. And ringing.

You wake up. The bell is your alarm clock. Its just a dream.

You get into the office with the sound of the alarm still echoing round your head. And there are already 20 people queueing up outside, and each of them has a piece of paper in their hand: the new web copy, the new social media campaign, the new contact centre scripts, the CEOs speech, the Head of Investor Relations quarterly report, the packaging copy, the internal comms campaign, the new employees pack. Everyone is looking at you expectantly. And then the phone on your desk starts ringing, clashing with the alarm thats still sounding in your head. Its the CEOs line. Whys she calling? What does she want? Your arm reaches out; why are you wearing pyjamas in front of these people? You pick up the phone, but it doesnt stop ringing.

And now you wake up for real.

And as you lie there, you work it out in your head: every day, youre responsible for more words coming out of your company than the Editor of the Guardian newspaper had to put into todays printed edition. But unlike the Editor of the Guardian, youve never been told how to edit, guide, or inspire writers. And unlike newspapers, no ones choosing to hear what you want to say.

If you want your brand to grow, if you dont want to have to squander budget just to win attention, if you want to engage your customers, if you want to build loyalty, if you want to shine in Customer Experience, if you want to motivate your company, if you want your packaging to tell your story, you have to find a way to say everything your brand wants to say, and say it in a voice that grabs everyones attention.

In the last ten years, the number of channels has exploded: web, social, CRM, loyalty comms, Customer Service, internal comms, and theres still advertising, packaging, brochures, investor relations, legal, and all the rest.

But these arent one-way channels. Today, consumers expect to be in a dialogue with brands they like. And who hangs around for a response in a real dialogue? You now have to be able to trust your writers to send out brand comms through multiple channels, at greater volumes than ever before, and without you ever seeing it. Are they staying on-brand? Are they interesting? Are they flexing the writing to suit the channels environment so youre not showing up like Dad at a school disco?

When budgets are being cut, expectations are rising, and theres less time than ever before to do anything, you have to learn a fast and effective way to define your brand voice and guide all your writers in using it.

But everyone can write, cant they?

The truth is, everyone cant write. Not well. Not in a way that makes your brand stand out. But everyone can be taught how to do it.

Everyone can be taught to write in a strong brand voice. A voice that does sound different and engages people, painting pictures in their minds. A voice which can be consistently on-brand but also flexes to suit the moment and the channel. It is possible for you to critique your writers so they stay on track and march out of your office inspired. Its possible to walk through your contact centre and not cringe at how someones describing your brand. You can be regularly signing off Version 2 instead of Version 22. You can field a call from a member of the Board and describe objectively why your teams written something in a certain way. You can direct your writers to use language to reposition your product into a new category. And you never ever need to look at something your brands written and say, Its not right, its not us, but I just dont know whats wrong with it.