Now you're talking my language

I'm reading a book at the moment called 'The Advertised Mind' by Erik du Plessis. He works at Millward Brown in South Africa and has a long history in the field of advertising research. It's a great book, delving into the world of the mental processes to try to uncover how to make advertising as effective as possible.

One anecdote from the book struck a particular chord with me. Du Plessis tells a story that he states to be the most valuable lesson in communication he's ever had. So, it must be good. It goes something like this.

Doing research into the opinions of black miners in South Africa, he found that they preferred to be given instructions by their (white) managers in English, rather than in Afrikaans. This seemed odd as most black miners were more proficient in Afrikaans than English (they were their 3rd and 4th languages, respectively). Why did they want to receive instructions in a language they were less proficient in?

The answer was to do with the person giving the instructions. When managers gave instructions in Afrikaans (their first language) they gave them quickly and assumed they had been understood. If things went wrong, the managers would then be angry. When they gave them in English (their second language) they had to spend more time and care getting their message across and checking it had all been understood. This meant it was less likely that things would be missed and the workers would get something wrong.

The difference is that in Afrikaans, the managers believed they had done a good job in communication. In English, they had actually done a good job in communication.

Du Plessis cites this to support his argument for creative testing. Advertising professionals need to ensure that their advertising communication (their first language) is understood by the audience (who are not as well versed in the language of advertising), rather than assuming it will be.

I think this is also very applicable for media. Media has its own weird language more than just about any other discipline and we often formulate our plans with this language dictating things - frequency, impact, cut-through, flighting, etc. We need to ensure we are planning with the audience's language in mind.

This is where planning to ideas rather than channels (and associated terminology) comes to the fore. Our ideas must have a clarity of purpose. What are we trying to achieve through communication, in terms of what consumers think and do? What do we need consumers to get out of it? What influences will aid them get to where they want to go? We need to consider what they want, and in what what way they want it. This is the language our planning should express itself in.

If we plan in the language of the consumer, it's far more likely that they will understand what we're trying to say and respond in the way we want.

-- Alex

Comments

[Erik du Plessis]

Thanks for this.
Erik