đ, Iâm Kimberly. Iâve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, Iâm giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
This weekend, the Bomb Cyclone hit the West Coastâpelting us with nonstop rain and tree-toppling winds.
In California, weâre happy to have rain to drown out the wildfire season.
And the rain was fun at first. It made for the kind of day where you cozy up inside and build a pillow fort in your sonâs room (which we did!).
But, twelve hours into the storm, water started pouring in our dining room window and creeping through the side wallsâoverflow from our unluckier upstairs neighbors, who had a few inches drowning their dining space.
Rain is good. But too much of a good thing can equal a bad thing.
This leads me to this weekâs newsletter topic.
Words that used to be goodâŠ
But theyâve been used so much in marketingâthat they equal a bad thing.
Iâm calling it my Nope List.
Before I begin, note that this Nope List is in no way exhaustive. There are definitely way more words that could be added here.
Also noteâthis list is never final. It is a living document, that can and should be added to as new words make themselves into the Millennial-GenZ-GenAlpha zeitgeist.
Letâs begin withâŠ
đ FUN đ
My favorite illustration of the word âfunâ backfiring has to be Kawhi Leonardâs epic reference to himself in an interview.
For those who are not familiar, Kawhi Leonard is an NBA player who is not much of a talker. His matter-of-fact persona had earned him the most taciturn reputation in the league.
At a press conference in 2018, a reporter asked Kawhi to describe himself to the fans in Canada who might not know him that well.
âA lot of people up here donât know much about you,â Doug Smith of The Toronto Star said to Leonard. âHow would you describe yourself, and what would you like people to know about you?â
âIâm a fun guy,â Leonard replied.
âObviously, I love the game of basketball, but there are more questions that you would have to ask in order for me to tell you about myself. I just canât give you a whole spiel.â
Kawhi followed up his response with an awkward and befuddling laugh, which quickly became the stuff memes are made of.
Kawhi seems like a very nice guy.
But if you have to say that youâre funâyouâre probably not really.
Donât make it awkward.
đ„ INNOVATIVE đ„
Board of Innovation, a global consulting firm, estimates that there are about 70,000 books on innovation available for purchase right now.
Technically, people arenât in the wrong to be using the word so much, because it has a super broad definition.
innovate (verb)
in·âno·âvate | \ Ëi-nÉ-ËvÄt \
: to make changes : do something in a new way
Viewed this way, literally anything you change about how you make a product or perform a service could be considered âinnovative.â
But this doesnât mean you should say it, just like everyone else is.
Youâll be better off âinnovatingâ on your descriptions, rather than using this word thatâs become so commonâpeople glaze over it.
đŁ DISRUPTIVE đŁ
This one really started to gain traction in the early days of DTC.
Warby Parker disrupted the eye care industry! Dollar Shave Club disrupted the shaving industry! ThirdLove disrupted the underwear industry!
You can even read this Fast Company article about not one, not two, but six brands disrupting the toilet paper industry!
Once reserved for VC pitch decks, the word âdisruptiveâ made itself into the vocabulary of customer marketing, where it served as code for âyoung upstart company taking on the old stodgy industry,â the classic David and Goliath scenario.
But this word has very little meaning for your consumers.
Your customers care about what youâre doing for them personally, not about your brandâs positioning in the marketplace.
So, send this buzzword back to your pitch decks where it belongs.
Although, scratch thatâŠ
Iâd say âdisruptiveâ has become a word thatâs so common and overused that investors donât see exciting meaning in it, either.
đȘ EMPOWER đȘ
This one is more recentâand has gained more and more momentum as of late.
empower (verb)
in·âno·âvate | \ Ëi-nÉ-ËvÄt \
: to give power to (someone)
: to make someone stronger and more confident
: to promote the self-actualization or influence of
Itâs the stuff todayâs mission statements are quite literally made of.
The word âempowerâ makes more sense for companies in certain industriesâlike the beauty world, where looking your best naturally makes you feel even more confident.
And if you were to take a look at the many, many brands books Iâve created for my clientsâI have 100% used this word.
But in the past year especially, the word âempowerâ has become so standard that it makes me roll my eyes a bit.
Now, it seems that every company from my toothbrush brand to my babyâs diaper brand wants to âempowerâ me to be my best self.
The use of the word âempowerâ in marketing has also become borderline offensive to some people, who ask âWhy do I need a brand to empower me, when my power comes from within?â
With that, I empower us all to stop empowering!
đ JOY đ
Like âempower,â this is another word Iâve seen take off tremendously in the past few years.
And others have noticed it, too.
Just Eat tells us of the âjoy of the takeawayâ
Cupcake Vineyards asks us to âchoose joyâ
Aperol believes that âtogether we joyâ
Dominoâs âowns the emotional territory of joyâ
Halifax recently told us all of the âjoy of that new home feelingâ
Fintech companies tell us of the âjoy of digital bankingâ
Citibank has created âmoments of joyâ pop-up customer experiences
Thereâs a reason people like it. The word joy is very positive, friendly, and emotive.
It is also fluffy and easy and so non-specific that it can apply to practically any product or service in any industry.
It sounds a bit less generic than âhappyââbut really, it isnât.
So, if your companyâs mission is âto empower people and create joy,â please book a time with me right nowâand Iâll gift you thirty minute consult to talk through how we can make your statement stronger.
đ BEST IN CLASS đ
When I see this phraseâI sayâŠ
âHmm, ok. But how are you defining your class?
And who decided you were best in it, exactly?â
These days, there are so many types of legitimate seals and awards and organizations that your company can be involved in to help add to its credibility.
An empty phrase like âbest in classâ with no further explanation reeks of marketing-only.
3 Ways to Flip These Words
If youâre currently one of the many brands using these words, itâs time for you to change them.
Here are a few ways to rethink your vocabulary.
Show, Donât Tell
How can you use all of the marketing tools available to you to show your customer that you are embodying the spirit of one of these words?
For example, if you really think youâre a âfunâ brand:
How can you show that youâre fun with your visuals?
How can you show that youâre fun with your language?
How can you show that youâre fun with your customer experience?
How can you show that youâre fun with your product itself?
Try the 5 Whyâs
Take any of the words above, like âempower,â and ask yourself âWhyâ five times.
Hereâs an example:
Our mission is to empower people.
Why do you want to empower people?
Because I want them to feel more confident.Why do you want people to feel more confident?
So that they feel comfortable making bolder decisions.Why do you want them to feel comfortable making bolder decisions?
Because bolder decisions are more likely to have a major impact.Why are bolder decisions more likely to have a major impact?
Because people pay more attention to them.Why do people pay more attention to them?
Because the changes are more significant.
And hereâs what your revised mission statement could look like
Our mission is to make people confident about being decisiveâso they feel comfortable making big, bold, attention-grabbing changes that impact the world.
Be As Specific As You Possibly Can
When youâre telling a story or describing a scene, adjectives and details are what really make it come alive.
For example, read the following paragraph:
Itâs nighttime. There are stars in the sky, the moon is on the right of the canvas. The wind is blowing. A patch of trees is in the foreground to the left, and a village is in the background in front of the mountains.
Now read this one:
Itâs nighttime. Bright yellow stars twinkle in the multi-toned blue sky, and the big yellow moon floats on the right of the canvas. The white wind is curling and swirling. A patch of wavy dark green trees rises in the foreground to the left, and a small quaint village with a tall white church steeple rest in the background in front of the rolling mountains.
Both paragraphs are describing this famous work of artâbut the second is much more specific.
Letâs say your companyâs product or service is innovativeâwhich, by the definition we reviewed earlier, it most likely is.
Write down every single way your company is innovating, and drill down into the details⊠right down to the drill youâre using, if thatâs something special.
The more specific you can be, the better.
In Closing
Letâs circle back to that Bomb Cyclone.
A little drizzle is refreshing.
A rainy afternoon can be downright pleasant.
But when a serious deluge startsâitâs time to get out of the way⊠and expand your marketing vocabulary.
If youâre finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends, or subscribing if you arenât already.
About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, theyâll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprintâa uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.
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