I’ve been fascinated by some of the language that’s in the news at the moment around Brexit and how we can take lessons from it into our businesses.
Specifically, I’m very interested in three phrases. The first is ‘Brexit means Brexit’, which was used until it was announced that Article 50 would be triggered in March 2017. Since then, phrases such as ‘the will of the people’ or a ‘clear mandate’ are being used whenever discussing anything to do with Brexit.
Using simple phrases like these does several things. It suggests certainty and strength so the government appears to be in control and know what it’s doing, even though the reality is uncertain and unknown and the referendum result was a lot closer than these phrases suggest. And repeating the messages over and over again reinforces them and gives them power and ‘stickability’ in a way that has totally reframed the debate.
I think this is a lesson we can all learn for our businesses if we want to get our messages out there effectively.
Keep your core messages simple, strong and clear. Make sure they position your business as an expert and a leader in your field. Don’t be afraid to repeat them and don’t change them. If people have heard your messages before, hearing the same things again will only reinforce them. And if they haven’t heard them before, they won’t know you’re using the same messages so it doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) tweak or change your logo every time you put out a piece of marketing literature, so you shouldn’t change your core messages. In doing this you’ll give your business a lot more ‘stickability’. And isn’t that what we all want?
