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Old Rule:
| Express your ideas clearly and they will be remembered.
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New Rule:
| Express your ideas memorably to cut through the
Thousands of messages bombarding us every day.
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Excerpt from Chapter 7
Harness the Power of Names, Signature Words,
and Sound Bites to Lock in Your Message
Own a Key Word
Brands try to own a word, or a short phrase, in the minds of consumers. If they succeed, people think of the brand when they hear the word. For example, FedEx owns “overnight,” Coke owns “cola,” and Volvo owns “safety.”
Owning a word is important because it means that your brand is positioned with an important attribute in the minds of prospects. Your brand has meaning in a world where there are so many brands and messages that most do not stand for anything. It’s like being the dominant response that comes up when you enter a key word in a search engine.
Owning a word helps self-brands too. Your word could be a positive attribute that defines you. It could be a niche in the market that you dominate, or it could even be an idea or point of view that people associate with you.
Many people end up owning a word by writing a book, as Larry Bossidy did with “execution,” Tom Peters did with “excellence,” Al Ries and Jack Trout did with “positioning,” and Jay Conrad Levinson did with “guerrilla.”
As a celebrity CEO, Jack Welch didn’t need to increase his renown by writing a book (though he may have wanted to do some brand polishing after a messy divorce). But with his publishing success, he laid claim to the word “winning.”
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Self-brand keyword:
| A signature word is a word that is closely identified
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You might choose to own a word that expresses an important attribute you believe in, as Benjamin did with “accountability.” He used “accountability” in talking about his vision for the company in internal meetings, in memos, and on the company Website.
But Benjamin also took action to embed “accountability” in the culture and associate the word with his leadership. He introduced new sales reporting metrics and performance reviews and instituted client feedback mechanisms and similar procedures that tangibly demonstrated accountability in action.
Name Your Ideas
Business doesn’t have to be just about facts and statistics. And it’s not smart branding if that is the way you approach it. You have to create interest, not bore people. That’s why smart businesspeople, like smart brand managers, brand their ideas by packaging them with a name.
Naming is a good way to create tangible assets for your self-brand. Naming an important idea or project has enormous advantages. When you give something a name, you make a tangible thing out of an intangible. A name will help people visualize and understand your idea or the point you are making.
Names make your ideas and points more memorable. When you name something, you are branding it and giving it the potential to be a “big idea.” Names will help you sell your project to your clients, whether external or within your organization.
Coining your own word or expression gives you a marvelous branding device for both your idea and yourself. If you express your key message in an interesting way, it helps people see your point of view and makes you more memorable.
Make It Sticky
Give your idea or point an unusual or quirky name. Quirky words are sticky—they stay in the mind, and people remember them.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, President George W. Bush used the sticky expression “flip-flopper” to brand John Kerry. If Bush had simply said that Kerry changes his position a lot, it wouldn’t have had the same impact with the media or with voters. “Flip-flopper” was sticky.
Give your idea a particularly memorable name or one with emotional content, and you can create a company rallying cry. At GE, Jack Welch used the strange word “boundarylessness” for the idea of employees finding good ideas everywhere and sharing them throughout the company. Welch could have simply said “idea sharing,” but it wouldn’t have had the same impact. Though awkward and a bit of a tongue twister, “boundarylessness” was unusual and unexpected. It was sticky.
You can also persuade people to your point of view with the names you give things, particularly options in a series that are under consideration. Henry Kissinger talked about “coloring the options” when he presented various alternatives for President Richard M. Nixon to consider.
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