The only thing that stays the same is change. And this constant is nowhere more apt than in our business communications.
Business messages that we have stood by for years can change as language, meaning and culture evolve. This process can occur slowly and imperceptibly without us even noticing. Times change as do outlooks, demographics and customers. While we may feel no different from when we were 21, everyone else has moved on.
This was amply demonstrated recently in a radio news bulletin. A health board interviewee was complaining that budgetary measures were being portrayed as cuts rather than savings. She then went on to state: “It’s wicked to say that this is a cost-cutting exercise.”
Presumably, a large proportion of the audience understood her to be critical of those alleging budget cuts. Other listeners, especially those with baggy skater-boy trousers and pimples, no doubt heard her giving those same people the thumbs-up.
It’s not just the spoken word, it’s the written word too where danger lurks. Suppose for a minute that you are writing text for your web site and happen to use the term drifter. Depending on the context of the sentence, drifter could variously be interpreted as meaning A) a member of a 1950s vocal group, B) a chocolate bar, C) a small fishing vessel using drift nets, D) a person with no permanent employment or accommodation, or E) a person who likes to put their car into a “power slide”.
But possibly the unluckiest marketing mishap occurred in the US to Ayds, a chocolate-flavoured appetite suppressant candy. It was one of the top-selling diet products in the 1960s and ’70s, but the name met problems shortly after the AIDS virus was discovered in 1980. And sometimes a bit more thought is required as these examples of poorly-considered company names show.
The meaning placed on a particular word or phrase is very much determined by the times and the reader’s age, experience, background and nationality. These factors should always be borne in mind when writing for the web. Summer in the UK, for instance, isn’t summer time in Australia. Potentially, then, it is a minefield that needs careful negotiation.
Horror stories abound. Don’t be a victim of unwanted attention, make sure your site really says what you mean.
