NORTHERN PLANNER

So I finally got around to reading Stephen Pinker’s the stuff of thought. Which is every bit as interesting as I’d hoped. Far too much to recount here, you’ll just have to read it, but there was one bit that struck me about wordplay and proposition writing.

There’s a little bit that talks about polysemy and its role in humour. Polysemy is where a word had more than one meaning, which you can deduce from its context within other words and sentence construction. Like red has a variety of meanings – red-hot, red-hair, red-alert for example. Red hair is ginger, red-hot is a particular expression of heat that is very hot, but not as searing as white hot (thought red hot coals are orange).

These words are brilliant for wordplay and dry humour -like Mae West’s, " Marriage is an institution, but I’m not ready for an institution yet". Flipping the meaning of ‘institution’ get the effect.

Or WC Field’s answer to, " It must be hard to lose a relative". The answer was, "Nearly impossible". Changing the meaning of ‘lose’.

So what’s my point? Well, I get nervous of propositions in briefs that try to be headlines. But you do need to make them interesting. They need a hook, some tension. I think that this kind of polysemous wordplay is a great trick to make them sing out without falling into the trap of writing a headline.

I’ve often got out of being stuck by using liberating not for example. This usually works by looking at what great about something, and dramatising what it ISN’T rather than what it is. So Lynx is NOT dirty. This works through the more than one meaning of ‘dirty’.

Then there’s the trick of forcing a word into sentence it shouldn’t really live in, using metaphor. It forces the reader to give it more attention than it should normally warrant, paints a picture in the mind. Make information emotional, not just fact. Like Tom Lebvers’ " Soon we’ll be sliding down the razorblade of life". Which makes ‘life is hard’ more graphic, you can almost feel it…which brings me to maybe my favourite proposition – polaroid is not a camera, it’s social lubrication (by the way they get to this by giving wedding guests free cameras and seeing what they did them…doubt it would have come from groups!). It allows you some traction, friction or whatever metaphor you like, in a sentence.

I’ll be looking for polysemy and metaphor in my propositions. I think it’s a good way of finding hooks, unless you’re one of those natural proposition writers. If so, count your blessings.

I loved history as child, and as grown up I still do since knowing where you came from can tell you a lot about who you are. So Andrew Marr’s a History of Modern Britain is a delight.

He writes beautifully, which is a timely reminder that good information is made so much better if it’s delivered in an inspirational way, but it’s so much more than that.

Most history, and in fact, most news and current affairs tends to focus on politics and big, macro stories. But that’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s the rhythm of everyday life, the conversations, the hopes, the fears, the language. You only get a good sense of that from poetry, books and (last century anyway, films, radio and TV). What this book does really well is get down to that level and think about what real life was life for real people.

This is something planning folk should think about more. Big grand strategy is all well and good but what’s the grammar and rhythm of everyday life? I can assure you that the texture of the everyday for the Fashionista girl I’m beginning to know as well as myself is at once very similar and incredibly different to my own. The trick is to know how and why.

On another note, the people from the 40’s 50’s and 60’s seemed totally alien to me, until I realise they are still with me now. They’re called Grandma and Mum and Dad. Not sure what this means, but it seems very important. I suppose it puts credit crunches and oil prices into perspective. I should ask about stuff like this more, what it was like they won’t be around forever. That’sa big part of growing up for me, seeing your parents as people rather than just ‘parents’.

In Paul Watzlwick’s The Situation is hopeless but not serious he opens with a little story about the Austrians.

A once great Empire, the sheer diversity meant that agreeing on the common sensical was virtually impossible and absurdity permeated every facet of life. ‘Simple problemswere impossible and impossible problems acheievable by default’. ‘Austria loses every battle but the hopeless ones’. Sounds like planning to me, trying to do impossibly clever stuff just because that’s what planners are supposed to do.

We’ve all been guilty of it, inexplicable inability to do something perfectly good and right because it’s too simple. I suspect that many have ignored a flash of inspiration that came too early in the process.."Hold on, I haven’t thought enough about thism surely there must be more?"

Yes, very often we cannot resist the urge to muddy things with added layers of complication just because we want to be shinier, harder, looks like genius. I’m not sure last week’s Campaign helped when they argued that some of their percieved best work recently looks like it’s had no planning – like Drench, Sony Balls or the Gorilla. Simple ideas (truths?) executed very well.

What I dislike about this observation is that ‘planning’ needs to shine out of the work, it needs to look really, really, really clever. On the most frustrating things about my job is that very few people see how much you’ve left out. But that’s the job.

That doesn’t mean reducing stuff down to something dumb, or bullet hard advertising propositions, but it does mean compressing lots of good stuff into a rich, simple idea. But that’s the job. Leave your ego at the door and get on with it.

When you developing strategy it’s very easy to do the right thing. You know, do masses of groups, prove your point with a quant study and develop an lovely, elegant strategy that makes total sense. Who knows, there may be shining insight. It will probably track well too.

But you’re probably missing as trick. I’m often amazed at how how few marketing people actually go out and talk to the people who use their product or service while they’re actually using it. They never see what the true relationship actually is – they won’t say much that matches your brand onion, but they will tell you exactly what your company really means to them. Stuff that doesn’t come out in groups because it’s too intuitive.

Rich stuff tends to tumble out. Not just how best to promote what you’re selling, but NPD, product development, real meaty business stuff.

One of the best NPD guys I ever worked with worked for a handtools brand and used to look at how professionals modified their tools – and simply made it. No one else bothered and they continually remained one step ahead of the competition.