I’ve been naming things for a living for over 30 years. If you’ve ever run in the Berby Derby, had a meeting in Network 222, gotten treated at Access Health, or stayed at the Evensong Spa in Green Lake, you have seen my naming process at work.
Join me now in a large government building off the square. I have just presented the process to the statewide board of a visionary environmental organization. About 70% of my naming examples are from for-profit clients like Coca-Cola, Wrigley, and Famous Footwear. After the meeting, a brilliant and committed client asks me the question that inspired this column: Will the naming and marketing processes that worked in the
corporate world for packaged goods and for-profit clients, work for this good cause?
In the tradition of ad guys and politicians everywhere, I’d like to answer this question definitively: Yes. And no.
I say “And no” because I fully acknowledge that the advertising content of a good cause and a good retailer must be different.
Focus groups often agree. Comparing your product to Brand X has been a staple of commercial advertising since the 1950s. Yet I have seen many a health care ad rejected for comparing itself to a competitor. People
expect hospitals to be out for the greater good, not to be competitive with the other hospitals.
On the flip side, I’ve seen focus groups reject oil company ads that educate the public about energy conservation and other green practices, because “everyone knows corporations are out to make a buck, not save the planet.” Advertising content and style does not always transfer across the profit divide.
And yet, I also say “Yes” to my client’s question, because for-profit and nonprofit marketing processes should be the same. Why? Because we human beings don’t stop being human when we go volunteer or go shopping (unless you’re a rabid bargain hound at a close-out sale … then you’re not human). And because, communication-wise, both organizations are in the same pickle.
The pickle is that everyone must compete for attention in a sea of 200-6,000 selling messages a day. That includes your dating personals ad, every good cause, every big box retailer, President Obama, and yes, even Oprah. Okay, maybe not Oprah.
Both nonprofit and for-profit organizations must find a creative way to capture the attention of a target audience in under half a second with something unexpected or useful. Both need a message strategy process to find the most powerful reason to care.
Both nonprofit and for-profit organizations have competitors. Google “donations and volunteer Dane County” and you will get 37,100 listings competing for your attention. Google soft drink brands and you get 2.69 million listings. Both for-profit and non-profit organizations need a positioning process to find their important point of difference so they can compete.
Both types of organizations need a creative process that organizes mere information into powerful ideas and takes into account how people actually read. Whether you are Planned Parenthood or Proctor & Gamble, reversing white type out of a black background can drop your ad readership 40%.
And whether you’re naming a new hospital wing or a new cheesey puff, you need a naming process that bows to the preferences of the human brain. We humans prefer the concrete image (The Rainbow Project, Apple Computer) to the abstraction, and we prefer the short and sweet (Bratfest, Sprint) to the long and hard-to-pronounce. We also love rhyme (Berbee Derby, Slim Jim), alliteration (Attic Angels, Swiffer Sweeper), and opposition (Big Brothers Big Sisters, Stop-N-Go).
Oh, I almost forgot. Both for-profit and nonprofit ads (and even this column) need a clear call to action. So I encourage you to make a tax-deductible donation of $25, $50, $100, or more to the Rainbow Project for the treatment and prevention of child abuse. They do amazing work in our area: The Rainbow Project, Inc., 831 E. Washington Ave., Madison, WI, 53703, or donate online at www.rainbowproject.bizland.com.
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