Bucking Society's Stereotypes in Your Message: Part One

When it comes to persuasive communication, there are often tough choices to be made.

Often some of the most effective communication and design utilizes cultural trends and norms to help convey the message.

You might consider the "green" undertones in more and more corporate messaging and marketing activities as various cultures become more aware of the consequences of resource depletion around the world.



...or you could focus on some of American society's less lofty stereotypes such as the sophistication level of football fans portrayed on mainstream beer advertisements during nationally televised (U.S.) football games.



Case 1: The green message takes a page from some of the world's more redeeming personal values, and is a topic of conversation around the world currently. (I have no interest in starting a climate change debate here...cutting down on pollution and landfill volume is a good goal regardless of the science to which you subscribe)


Case 2: The message which portrays American NFL fans in ways ranging from blindly loyal myopic fanatics to relatively unaware, yet jovial buffoons seems to resonate with the intended audience even though most members of that audience would be offended to be assessed this way in almost any other social situation.

Sometimes the effectiveness of thes strategies are puzzling.


In my career, I've both ridden societal stereotypes and bucked them.

Case 3: I had a Taiwanese software firm as a client some years ago and they had a challenging message. they made a sophisticated product that made a complex task easy. They made a video editing and DVD authoring package that could be used by non-professionals in that area. Basically the intended message was that you could edit video and author a DVD without being highly trained in either area. The challenge was that this message had to travel internationally cross-culture.


Case 4: I also have a law firm client who advertises to garner personal injury cases. I happen to know this group and I know that they buck society's "ambulance-chaser" stereotypes about PI lawyers. They're the real deal...professional, concerned, and they take their profession and their client's cases seriously. So how do I reach their audience as effectively as possible, yet stay counter to society's impressions of personal injury attorneys, and even to the superficial messages of competing law firms that simply feed those impressions?


Case 5: And...most recently I started working with a client who is in high technology retail who has been in business with their current brand since the 70's. That was when their logo was designed as well. It was extremely contemporary at the moment of design, taking advantage of and paying homage to the visual design trends of the 1970s, but it was so "in the moment" that now, even people who weren't born until the 80s see it and think it reminds them of shag carpeting and the "Keep On Truckin" thumbs-up/foot-forward guy... This client's brand is well known as it's been relatively stable since the 70s, so how do you break free of the design to advance the image of the company (the logo said "high tech" in 1974...) and update without scuttling 40 years of established brand strength?


If the intent is to buck the stereotype, the challenge is how to do it while making the messaging as clear as possible when stereotypes used to establish association can save lots of time... Think of handing someone an object and having to tell them that "It's a gift" vs. wrapping it in giftwrap and putting a bow on it. They probably don't receive their mail or their drycleaning in that manner. It's obviously a gift, no verbalization necessary.

Over the next couple weeks, I'll be talking more about these examples...maybe you'll have input as well.

Happy 2010.

TimK