| Your business success depends on your ability to | | | | want to outwit our competition, we instruct our staff |
| communicate effectively to an interested audience. | | | | to "take no prisoners" and if we are successful we |
| Driving appropriate traffic to your site is important, | | | | 'blew them away;' business often resorts to war |
| but the tactics that generate visitors are not the | | | | metaphors to emphasize the enormity of the stakes |
| same tactics that get visitors to stay on your site. | | | | involved in business initiatives, or should I say |
| Websites that consistently under perform and that | | | | 'campaigns.' |
| don't meet business expectations generally suffer | | | | And it is not just written and verbal communication |
| because they are not designed to hold viewers | | | | that is perpetually encased in a cocoon of evocative |
| attention long enough to communicate a clear concise | | | | metaphor. Visual communication, including images and |
| marketing message. | | | | video, has its own idiomatic metaphorical sign |
| Web-communication is a series of elaborate | | | | language that helps communicate a message in |
| multi-sensory sign languages; signs being the words, | | | | meaningful short-hand. The producers of 30-second |
| images, audio and videos that constitute the range of | | | | TV commercials are expert in this style of |
| presentation vehicles that like all forms of | | | | communication, how else can a complete marketing |
| communication have their own grammar, context, | | | | story be told in 30 seconds? |
| and relevance as interpreted from personal | | | | Relevance of Character and Situation |
| experience by each member of your | | | | When we create Web-video commercials we need |
| customer-audience. | | | | to tell a story that the audience can relate to. This |
| When Words Lose Their Meaning | | | | story should be a metaphor that draws upon the |
| Marketing is one of those words that has lost its | | | | audience's own experiences, and if done properly it |
| currency because it has been tossed about with little | | | | should allow the viewer to let down their natural sales |
| respect for its meaning. To many, it's merely just | | | | defense mechanism and let the humanity of the |
| another word for advertising, which of course it is | | | | characters and situation penetrate on a meaningful |
| not. To the more sophisticated it takes in all the | | | | human level. This style of presentation makes the |
| disciplines of branding, positioning, identity, advertising, | | | | point and delivers the message in a much more |
| and more. Above all marketing implies a strategic | | | | effective manner than a hit-you-over-the-head, hard |
| approach to implementing these tactics. | | | | sell style commercial, or a meaningless exhortation of |
| For companies interested in using the Web to further | | | | business platitudes. |
| their business objectives, Web-marketing is the | | | | Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, a sociology professor at the |
| execution of a communication strategy through the | | | | University of Canterbury in New Zealand, in the |
| creative implementation of multi-sensory signature | | | | 'Psychology Today' article, 'Friends In Cerebral Places' |
| presentations. | | | | by Kaja Perina states: "The human brain is hardwired |
| Semiotics: The Study of Signs | | | | to respond to stimuli as it did in its ancestral |
| "Sign, Sign, everywhere a sign, | | | | environment, where television and movies didn't exist. |
| Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind, | | | | Kanazawa says that we have evolved to believe |
| Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign." | | | | that 'all realistic images of people you encounter |
| - Five Man Electrical Band | | | | repeatedly are friends and family.' |
| Like the lyrics of the song, 'Signs,' by the Five Man | | | | In the environment of evolutionary adaptedness |
| Electrical Band' suggests, we are surrounded by signs, | | | | there was no one-way acquaintance, as there is |
| the interpretation of which creates our reality. The | | | | today with celebrities." |
| study of signs and how meaning is derived from | | | | The implication of Kanazawa's research for the |
| them is called 'semiotics.' | | | | Web-marketer is significant. If you as marketers can |
| We are bombarded by signs, not just images, but | | | | create websites and webmedia presentations |
| the words, voicing, gestures, posture, attire, and | | | | populated with ongoing characters to which your |
| movements of the messengers, as well as the music | | | | Web-audience can relate, then you have solved the |
| and sound effects that accompany the presentation; | | | | biggest obstacle in the Web-sales process: lack of |
| not to mention the chosen media itself. | | | | trust. |
| Each of these elements is a language all its own. And | | | | People buy things from people they trust, people |
| like all forms of language if you don't learn the rules, | | | | they know and like, and people to whom they can |
| the grammar and syntax, you can't communicate | | | | relate. You can establish this relationship with a |
| coherently. | | | | continuous campaign of audio and video presentations |
| Fear of Meaning | | | | delivered by characters representing your company's |
| Most business communication is shrouded in a haze of | | | | personality, delivering a message that improves your |
| protective ambiguity caused by the fear of making a | | | | audience's lives or business interests. |
| decisive statement of who you are, and what you | | | | The Familiarity of Presentation Genres |
| stand for. This kind of defensive thinking may | | | | An effective Web-commercial must touch your |
| protect your company from some criticism, but it | | | | audience in some way. One method that we use to |
| also distances you from your real audience, people | | | | make this connection is through the exploitation of |
| and businesses that could be responsive to what you | | | | genres. |
| have to offer. | | | | Genres are storytelling formats with built-in |
| Advertisements, videos, images and copy designed | | | | conventions, rules and guidelines. These conventions |
| to not offend, will fail to communicate meaning and if | | | | provide a communication-shorthand allowing |
| what you have to say is not meaningful, how can | | | | Web-storytellers to deliver rich content in an |
| you expect your audience to respond? Bland | | | | economical use of time and space. |
| royalty-free images, stock video clips, and | | | | Since the audience already understands what the |
| talking-head presentations of statistics and | | | | conventions of the recognizable genre are, resources |
| specifications will guarantee all the money you spent | | | | need not be wasted establishing a |
| on generating traffic will go down the drain as visitors | | | | frame-of-reference that is built into the genre itself. |
| leave faster than they arrive. | | | | It is here that the Web-commercial producer must |
| Instead of just looking at how many hits your | | | | expand the concept of genres beyond that which is |
| website is getting each week, take a look at how | | | | normally understood. Everyone understands the |
| long they are staying on your site. If people are | | | | western, detective, romance, and sitcom styles of |
| leaving within a few seconds of arriving, then they | | | | storytelling genres, but genres exist beyond the |
| have determined you have nothing to offer them, | | | | confines of literature, movies, and television series. |
| which may or may not be true. You need your | | | | Genres also exist in the truncated world of television |
| website visitors to stay long enough to get the | | | | commercial storytelling. Take for instance the current |
| essence of your marketing message and if they | | | | ubiquitous series of Macintosh television commercials |
| aren't, then maybe it's time to rethink the message | | | | that have been copied numerous times by many |
| and how it's being delivered. | | | | people on the Web and even on television itself. |
| A Little Yiddish May Help | | | | The use of genres as a method of presenting |
| Yiddish is a language of idiom, of colloquial metaphor, | | | | Web-commercials provides a set of expectations for |
| a series of expressions that by strict interpretation | | | | the viewer or what has been referred to as 'cultural |
| of the words mean little, but through the common | | | | capital.' While the recognition of the familiar provides a |
| experience and relevance of the listener mean more | | | | connection, its creative manipulation provides |
| than mere words can imply. | | | | enjoyment and more importantly aids memory and |
| In Yiddish there are many ways to tell somebody to | | | | enhances recall. You can see an example of this |
| 'drop dead,' not a very nice thing to say to someone, | | | | genre manipulation at |
| but a sentiment that is often expressed anyway. | | | | The Bottom Line |
| So how then do you tell someone how you feel | | | | If real estate is about, 'location, location, location' then |
| without resorting to the crude direct approach? In | | | | websites are about, 'communication, communication, |
| Yiddish you would use one of the many expressions | | | | communication.' The skillful Web-marketer will |
| available such as, "zolst vaksn vi a tzibele mitn kop in | | | | understand this and use their website the way it was |
| dr'erd!" which literally means "may you grow like an | | | | always supposed to be used, as a means of |
| onion with your head in the ground," a far more | | | | communication; but that communication no longer has |
| colorful, poetic turn of phrase with humorous | | | | to be delivered in mere text form, but rather it can |
| undertones that softens the intensity of the raw | | | | now be delivered using all the multi-sensory media |
| meaning. | | | | tools available. The caveat, of course, is knowing |
| Our everyday language is full of idiom and metaphor | | | | how to use these tools properly. |
| and for the most part we don't even notice. If we | | | | |