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Making Stuff Up

Written by
Paul Hassing

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19
Jul

What’s the magic word?

We’ve seen how business strap lines can become part of mainstream culture.

How about words?

Hoover, Xerox and Google all went from brand names to generic English terms.

Can we give our brands a similar boost?

Word Up

In almost every book he writes, Seth Godin either invents or takes control of another term, from permission marketing to purple cow to linchpin.

These terms have helped cement his place as a global thought leader.

Should we, as businesspeople, do likewise?

Liferal

I’ve been trying to get liferal in the dictionary for years.

It wasn’t doing much, until it featured on national radio this month.

The ABC kindly agreed to add an Empire link and suddenly I’m getting more traffic from here than anywhere else.

Having the nation’s broadcaster pointing at my site should boost its search engine ranking.

Will this translate into business? Probably not immediately or directly.

But it should add to my long term momentum.

Swagger

Our Mike Boyle is also on a word quest.

As a sales specialist, he’s been trying to find (or create) the perfect word to encapsulate the quality of a great salesperson.

Here’s what Mike says about his term, swagger:

Sales people aren’t born; they’re trained. High performance sales comes from developing through four stages:

Build a sales PROCESS.
Conduct ACTIVITY around that process.
From your wins and good losses build SWAGGER.
Through refinement create sales EFFECTIVENESS and efficiency.

Of these, swagger is the key enabler of rock-star sales people.

We’ve racked our brains to find a different word, because swagger doesn’t quite cut it.

Poor sales people are arrogant and pushy. Great sales people have a certain rare vibe/force/thing about them that makes them stand out. A calm urgency, coolness with persuasion, confidence with empathy and directness with rapport.

These behaviours, seemingly at odds, perfectly describe swagger. The trouble is, swagger can also mean pompous.

So I’ve also toyed with sales essence, but it’s still not right.

If your readers have a better word, I’d love to hear it!

Say the Word

The best I can come up with is elan (energy, style and enthusiasm).

Mike doesn’t think this beats swagger. He’s still searching.

If he succeeds, the world will know him as the bloke who invented the magic word.

Can you suggest a better term than swagger, sales essence or elan?

Failing that, do you have a special word you’d like to promote?

If not, what’s your favourite made-up (or appropriated) word and who owns it?

What good has it done them?

This forum is open,

sesame!

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

advertising, brand, business, copywriting, image, marketing, Purple Cow, reputation, Seth Godin

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What others are saying

Author

leon Noone

July 19, 2011 at 10:44 am

G’Day Paul,
You just knew that I’d respond like a shot to this post, particularly in view of the Mighty Bombers recent successes.So….

I’m inclined to think that the best way to pick an outstanding salesperson is simple. He or she makes, and continues to make, lots and lots of sales. If you want to invent a word for that……

But, you knew that there’d be a “but,” remember that there was a time when Seth Godin didn’t own any words. Then he became THE Seth Godin. Now that he’s SETH GODIN, we let him claim any word he likes. Good for him. He just needs to learn how to spell “lynchpin.’

Recently there’s been a bit of a debate going on in one of the LinkedIn groups I’m a member of. It’s concerned with the importance or otherwise of being first in the marketplace. All sorts of people, including that Noone bloke, have been weighing in with their opinions and citing innumerable examples to back up what they think.

All this stuff about owning a word or phrase gained its greatest impetus in a 1981 marketing book, “Positioning, The Battle for The Mind” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It’s still in print in 2011!

Apple owns ‘ iPad,’ Volvo owns ‘safety’, Woolworths owns ‘ fresh.’ But if you’re not into hi-tech personal computing, are primarily concerned with speed and power in your car and prefer frozen food to fresh,
the ownership of those words is irrelevant to you.

Frankly Paul, I reckon that every business owner and manager should firstly concern themselves with discovering the word or phrase they wish to “own” in the minds of their prospects and customers in their target market. You probably don’t need to invent a word. But you do need to find one that’s not already owned by someone else.

To do this effectively, you need a very clear business focus and a specific narrow target market .And when you are successful, people will say you have panache, swagger, elan, even charisma. Unless, of course, you’re Rupert Murdoch. But that, as he’d say, is another story.

Regards

Leon

Reply
Author

Paul Hassing

July 19, 2011 at 10:48 am

Thank you once again, Leon. You add such value to our debates. I didn’t know you’d respond; I try not to assume. But I’m mighty glad you did!

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Adam Finlay

July 19, 2011 at 10:58 am

I had an eland once, but I weren’t allowed to keep it in back yard. Great topic though, Paul! Your Radio National interview was highly amusing.

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Paul Hassing

July 19, 2011 at 10:59 am

Thank you very much, Ad. Writers yearn to be read (or heard). You just validated my existence.

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Adam Finlay

July 19, 2011 at 11:08 am

You’re welcome. It’s the cattlebeast I could do.

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Daniel Watson

July 19, 2011 at 12:09 pm

Mojo might be a word that could work in the context of a great salesperson because without it they have nothing.

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Paul Hassing

July 19, 2011 at 12:31 pm

Nice one, Daniel! I keep thinking of Austin Powers, but I’d probably buy a used car off him any day! What say you, Mike?

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Author

Emma from MYOB

July 19, 2011 at 1:38 pm

Can I digress slightly? (I can? Excellent.)

I also think a very important consideration when making up a word or slogan is to conduct some very extensive market testing! Leon’s put forward some great points about situations whereby brands have benefited from their slogan/made up word…but what about those times that it goes the other way?

Case in point. I detest the current Melbourne Rebels slogan. Friends and I have discussed, at great length. how much it annoys us. They’ve invented a word – Rebelolution. (‘Join the Rebeloution’) It annoys us that they couldn’t just use rebellion (ie, ‘Join the Rebellion’). Why invent a word when you have a perfectly good one? (That personally, I think sounds cooler!)

I guess they can own the word ‘rebeloution’…but what good does that do when there’s a collective scoff every time we see/hear it?

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Author

Paul Hassing

July 19, 2011 at 1:43 pm

You sure can, Emma. Some of our best debates have nothing to do with the topic!

Reading your comment, it actually looks totally on song. As there’s NO word that could interest me in ANY sport, however, we’d better throw to the floor. Best regards, P.

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Jason Hess

July 19, 2011 at 5:11 pm

What if there was a team called the Melbourne Panzers?

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Paul Hassing

July 19, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Hmmm….

If they were a mixed veteran skeet shooting team, I could be tempted.

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Author

leon Noone

July 19, 2011 at 5:25 pm

G’Day Emma,
I’ll address you directly There’s no point in hassling Hassing about sport. One day God may give him the grace. Until then he can wander aimlessly in the exterior darkness.

You are absolutely correct, Not only is “rebelolution’ a cumbersome mouthful: it’s five syllables long. Who on earth is going to learn a sloppily constructed hard to pronounce, new five syllable word? I dunno.
And why on earth choose such a word when you’re a tiny footie minnow in a pool full of oversize AFL whales? Even the rebelolutionists will have trouble finding you.

It’s further evidence that even so-called marketing experts don’t understand that marketing occurs in the mind. And Emma, there are oodles of examples where products and services have suffered from words that just didn’t register in the minds of the target market, regardless of the quality of the product or service.

See: what you had to say was germaine; even if not Greer.

Regards

Leon

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Author

Emma from MYOB

July 19, 2011 at 5:52 pm

True you are, Leon! I had to resist the urge to comment on your ‘Mighty Bombers’ comment earlier in the day, which seems rude in the face of such a convincing final term to storm home against those pesky Crows.

Glad I’m not the only one having having a hissy fit over ‘rebelolution’. I’m not even sure how to spell it, let alone say it. It’s almost as poorly thought out as Nandos Restaurant’s recent DIY advertising campaign. (I’m not even going to go there. As a former advertising professional, it’s an insult to advertising)

Paul – perhaps if we invented a new sport: Speed Blogging? We could be the Melbourne Bloginators…

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Paul Hassing

July 20, 2011 at 6:41 am

I’d be up for that. Or even a reality show about haikus.

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Emma from MYOB

July 20, 2011 at 10:17 am

Or perhaps a reality show about office kitchens?! =)
You could get immunity for refilling the tea bags, and voted off for leaving traces of sugar in the coffee…

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Paul Hassing

July 20, 2011 at 10:22 am

That could actually fly! It’s such a universal problem.

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Desolie

July 20, 2011 at 12:52 pm

I noticed last night that Volvo was promoting their Volvolution sale (what an ugly word!, me thinks).

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Paul Hassing

July 20, 2011 at 1:04 pm

Oh wow, Desolie; that’s another shocker!

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a catchy word end in ‘olution’.

I’m more of an ‘a-rama’ fan (with the noted exception of Chuck-A-Rama, which would probably need to be localised for Australian conditions).

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Author

Tina Gray

June 28, 2012 at 8:51 pm

Having read this article from top to bottom and left to right I could not stop myself from blurting out words which came into my mind as the article subject grew on me…which got 100mph on my mind limit clock. Anyway, after much deliberation and …” YOU CAN ADD A WORD OF YOUR CHOICE HERE “…I have decided to take the concept of growth, agreed, absolute etc …AmmeniQinA. Amen { in agreement ) and mannequin { no strings } iQ { intelligent } and Qi { Qi is Stephen Fry…the Seth Godin of words in my bubble, Seth Godin would be this word should it exist…ask Stephen Fry…he does NOT lie and knows presactly how to cut the mustard with words Lol “…Seth is a God in the Aquatic sQUID Kingdom who is GODin the making money { QUIDS} online Kingdom, whereas Stephen is merely a FRY { not a big fish } in Seth Godins Kingdom but in my world Stephen Fry would be AmmeniQinA….

Reply
- Author
  
  Paul Hassing Founder & Senior Writer - The Feisty Empire
  
  June 28, 2012 at 9:28 pm
  
  Golly, Tina. You really have given this some thought, haven’t you?!
  
  I love watching the gears of your mind at work.
  
  Thanks very much for joining our discussion.
  
  Reply