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July 11, 2006

When you get wrapped up in your own industry jargon

I was actually watching live television last night (nothing on the DVR to watch, sigh) and I saw a commercial for toilet paper. I don't remember which brand. The commercial was tapping into the consumer trend we all know as "trading-up." The spot was addressing a woman and saying, "you trade-up for everything else, why not your toilet paper." Ok, we all know what trading up is. But how many consumers do? Sure, they probably do trade-up. And yes, we want them to do that with whatever premium product we may be selling. But shouldn't we speak to them in their language instead of ours?

A good example of exactly the same concept was a Tampax Pearl ad. This one seemed to talk to the consumer more on her level. "You upgrade for everything else, why not your tampons?" Just a simple word change - from trading-up to upgrade - seems to make all the difference to me.

I know it's tough to remember, but you do not always belong to your target market. And just because you know the industry language and jargon does not mean that they will get it.

Any other examples of industry jargon floating out there in ads you've seen?

Posted by Jennifer Whetzel on July 11, 2006 at 09:22 AM | Permalink
Categories: Advertising

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- Adverbox highlights a new campaign from Sony for its line of colored notebooks computers which consists of television, transit and magazine. It was created by Ignited Minds. - American Copywriter says leave the industry jargon out of your... [Read More]

Tracked on July 18, 2006 at 09:30 AM

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Brands as a whole (all the branded products/services in the world, taken collectively) have huge influence over people. Why else would we trade up? Why else would people aspire to buy better, nicer-looking things? Because they have power,... [Read More]

Tracked on July 18, 2006 at 09:59 AM

Comments

Current KFC spots each have one great marketing-jargonism but this one was the best:

I’m semi-para-rememberinbg the exact set-up here but:

Mother and daughter at home. Mom just brought home KFC. Turning to the daughter:

“You eat those other fast-casual meals.”

Guess they couldn’t get the rights to ‘fast food®”

Posted by:makethelogobigger | July 11, 2006 at 08:20 PM

This is an oldie, but my word is "consumer." People were customers back in the day, weren't they? I have a huge aversion to "consumer" because it makes us all seem like buyers. There's no service rendered or relationship there--just a wallet and a cash register.

Posted by:Laura | July 25, 2006 at 06:13 PM

please tell me where you saw that ad and explain i am doing a project on it and I can't find it any where :(

Posted by:meg | October 14, 2006 at 09:40 PM

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