“Do you want your caffe latte with taste?”
“Can I get it without taste?”
“Of course, but for only five kroner extra, you have it with taste.”

That was a snippet of a rather bizarre conversation I had recently in an Oslo cafe. I was rather puzzled by what a tasteless cafe latte may be: with a swirly straw perhaps. Maybe with a colourful umbrella. But after some further interrogation, I realised that the word the waitress was looking for was flavour. A small difference in word, but a huge difference in meaning. She was referring too flavoured sirups, but even with the correct word, the question still needs a little polishing to get the actual meaning right.

This wasn’t some out of the way cafe in the suburbs that wasn’t used to foreigners. It was on the main drag, two minutes walk from where the tourist boats dock - and with a clear view of the royal castle. Which made me think - perhaps special English courses designed just for waiting staff would be a good idea. If you know of any, let me know and I’ll pass the details onto the cafe in question.

In Denmark, “You are welcome to send an unsolicited application” is used quite a bit – but few feel comfortable with it. Quite often, our clients ask us: Is unsolicited application the right term to use? Will people understand it? What can we say instead?

So we decided to write a WordSpin article on this topic, suggesting possible - and friendlier? - alternatives. Check out This month’s questionable phrase: unsolicited applications.

What does your company use? Do you have a great alternative to unsolicited applications that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

For reasons that only the Norwegian state can explain, I’m not allowed a mobile phone subscription until I’ve lived in the country for three years. The solution offered by Chess, my mobile provider, was simple. Get the subscription in my wife’s name.

So on my wife’s birthday, I recevied an SMS from Chess wishing me (her) a happy birthday. But what is the point? I don’t for a minute believe that someone at Chess said to themselves, “Oh, it’s Klara’s birthday, I’ll just send her an SMS to give her my best wishes.” It’s so obvious that this is an automated function. And instead of making me feel like a valued customer, it made me feel like a tiny cog in a very large impersonal, automated money-making machine.

One great advantage of these systems is that they remind you of information like this. But the key is to turn this information into tailored, personal messages - if you do this, you can make your customers feel valued.

Blue Angel. Fuchsia. Ireland. Apple. Pilot Inspektor. Poppy Honey. Moxie CrimeFighter. Princess.

What’s your guess? PlayStation game characters? FBI operation code names?

Nice try, but no. They’re a selection of bizarre celebrity baby names. In their quest for originality and headline space, celebrities seem to be putting their kids’ future sanity on the line. But it’s not just A-listers who are picking words off cerial boxes and Kabbalah literature and putting them on birth certificates. Ordinary folks are doing it too. There’s Ish. And Jeehee. And Nattapong.

But thanks to Denmark’s Law on Personal Names, this crazy stuff can’t happen here. As the International Herald Tribune writes:

In Denmark, a country that embraces rules with the same gusto that Italy defies them, choosing a first and last name for a child is a serious, multitiered affair, governed by law and subject to the approval of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs…

About 1,100 names are reviewed every year, and 15 percent to 20 percent are rejected, mostly for odd spellings.

At first, I thought this rule was completely crazy. But then I realized it prevents people like George from Seinfeld from naming their kid Seven, and I thought - OK. With 7540 approved boy names and 9869 approved girl names, the good and not-too-weird names should be covered.

Right?

Wrong. My name, Anastasya, is not on the list. Anastasia is. Anastasiya is. But not my spelling. So I end up right up there with Camera and Pilot Inspektor, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about that.

To check if you name is on the list, visit the Approved Names Search page - and then let me know what you think about this naming business.

This was one of the questions asked during our seminar yesterday, “Boost your brand with great writing”. At the seminar, we looked at how messaging platforms, tone of voice guides and style guides are essential tools for marketers and communicators. As communications managers, everyone could see the value in these. But afterwards, a few people asked me basically the same question: “How do I convince company management?”

I can see the problem. To someone who doesn’t prioritize communications, it seems like a lot of resources to allocate to preparation and planning. “Can’t we just get this campaign rolling next week?” management may ask.

The point is, of course, that it’s much easier to produce any campaign if you’ve done the planning and set specific, long-lasting guidelines. For each campaign, you’ll greatly increase your chances of success – such as increased response and more sales opportunities. It also ensures your company’s communications remain ‘on message’ and that no rogues appear from different corners of the organization.

With a firm eye on the bottom line, top management wants to see financial benefits. Yes, investment is required upfront, but in the not-so-long term, there should be savings as marketing materials are produced faster and more consistently. A challenge for communications and marketing managers is to document results and, wherever possible, show the numbers.

Another important argument is that the leading brands do it. Why is it that GE’s ads, website and other external communications continue to build a homogenous picture all based on the same story? You can say the same about Apple, Microsoft, LEGO and many others. Look at the effort that goes into communications planning – and look at the value of their brands.

Burning issues
At our seminar yesterday, there were lots of other interesting questions. We always learn a lot hearing about the real issues facing companies today. And with company sizes ranging from over 90,000 employees to less than a hundred, we heard a fascinating mix. Some of the issues that spring to mind are:

Are a company’s values the same as the company’s tone of voice?
We use our style guide, but no-one else in the company knows it exists
When we have the tools in place, how do we make sure they have the right effect in our local offices around the world?

We’ll be holding more seminars about these and other communications topics, so let us know if you’d like to be kept in the loop. And we’ve also written a WordSpin article on a similar topic. Check out Who’s telling your brand story?

A couple of days ago I came across this vision from iStone. And it’s amazing how quickly I turned off as soon as I saw the word vision.

The vision of iStone is to become the customers’ obvious partner concerning everything that involves their business system. We want all our customers to be highly satisfied with our products and services. In order to achieve this we offer a cooperate agreement.

My reaction - glazing of the eyes, idling of the brain - leads me to believe that one of the biggest issues with vision texts is how they are presented. Visions are sterile things and we’ve become immune to them. To catch a reader’s attention, the vision has to be rephrased and represented in a compelling way. Instead of starting a sentence with Our vision, it would be better to kick off with something like:

We want to see…
For us, the future is…
We can see a time when…

But this still won’t work if the vision isn’t…well…visionary. Wouldn’t it be nice if a vision created an amazing future picture of the world that taps into the reader’s imagination? I would read, and care about, the iStone’s vision if it said:

Imagine a world where business systems run automatically, doing all the administration tasks for you so you have time to concentrate on the work you love.

But of course, vision still need to be presented internally. To do that, you could simply start We work towards creating a world where…

Perhaps a pharma company could phrase a vision something like this:

We want to live in a world where intestinal pain is a thing of the past; where everyone has access to affordable medicine that treats intestinal illness instantly.

(Internally, this could be presented as: Our goal is to create affordable medicine that…)

I guess I have a vision: Think of a future where company vision statements are truly exciting statements of the possible future of our world.

Der er i øjeblikket en heftig debat i gang blandt kommunikatører om, hvorvidt det danske sprog er ved at blive oversvømmet og udvandet af engelske ord. Uden at gå for meget i detaljer omkring, hvor jeg selv står i den diskussion, vil jeg gerne dele en lille anekdote med jer.

Jeg deltog for nylig i en konference, hvor en masse dygtige danske forretningsfolk gav vi andre dødelige et indblik i, hvordan de arbejder med markedsføring og kommunikation. Eventen “in itself” vil nok ikke gå over i historien for mig, men flere af talerne gjorde dybt indtryk med deres brug af flotte engelske ord!

Jeg har derfor opdigtet en lille tekst, der ikke har direkte relation til det, en af talerne i virkeligheden delte med sit publikum. Men samtlige engelske ord i min tekst indgik rent faktisk i vedkommendes ”danske” indlæg. Enjoy!

En lille exercice
“I denne lille exercice vil jeg tage jer med på en tur gennem det danske sprogs mange nye opportunities – et indspark til debatten om de mange engelske ord, der hver dag sniger sig ind i det danske business-language.

For at se, om vi er on track, kan vi foretage forskellige actions for at måle det danske sprogs performance ude i den virkelige business-verden. Man kunne for eksempel starte med at opstille en execution liste og outline en workstream, så vi er sikre på at få det hele med. Det giver os mulighed for at predicte på, hvor mange engelske ord, der sniger sig ind i f.eks. danske business blogs, websites eller one-pagere.

Når vi så har handled analyserne og løbende har tjekket op på vores KPI’er, så vil de fremkomne charts formentlig give os et view på, om vi har nået vores targets. Resultatet vil uden tvivl vise, at det danske sprog ikke længere er aligned med det sprog, man talte for bare et par år siden, da den engelske influence var noget mindre. Vi er nået way past common-sense stadiet, og jeg tror, at der skal sættes nogle drivers i gang, så vi ikke ender med totalt at out-spende vores kvote af tilladte engelske ord per tekst i det danske sprog.

Hvad er vores learning?
Vores learning må være, at vi hver dag når nye milestones med vores sprog – og at vi dermed løber nogle risks for ikke at kunne benchmarke sproget og skabe ækvivalenter til de mange engelske business terms…”

Walking into a pre-sales meeting armed with a complete and comprehensive power point presentation can be dangerous. Not dangerous as in something to fear. But dangerous in the sense of missing something important – such as an opportunity to provide an important client with something they need.

Marketing is no longer about persuading your prospect to see things your way. Modern business communication is just too advanced for that. Try it, and your audience will almost certainly get restless, if not outright hostile. Dangerous. Something more open-ended and interactive is needed so your prospect becomes an active and more engaged part of the process.

Techie trickery - or not…
I recently made a presentation to give some feedback on a project we’d run with a major client. Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties – not uncommon when I’m involved. To cut a long story short, I couldn’t access the slideshow I’d put together.

Rather than shout, ‘Look, a baby wolf!’ and run out of the room, my colleague and I sat down and began asking our clients questions. We knew what we wanted to talk about, but by asking questions, we quickly found out what they wanted to talk about. And we had the responses to hand without needing a single bullet point.

Your client will always get the point - if they made it themselves
When we did finally hook up the laptop, we’d already covered most of the points - or our client had covered them for us. As a result, we raced through the slides while everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement. How could they do otherwise? They’d made most of the points themselves. And there they were, on the screen, as if by magic. It was clear that everyone was onboard: when we all walked out of the meeting together, we were still talking.

In fact, the conversation made it through reception and into the kitchen. The result? Two further meetings have been scheduled already - one of them with top management. It would seem that the ‘Best parties end up in the kitchen’ rule could also apply to business meetings.

While a loose, informal approach may not be appropriate in all business meeting scenarios, when it comes to finding out what your clients need, it never hurts to listen.

Last week we had our friends over from NNE Pharmaplan for a bit of table tennis. It was a great opportunity for us all to let our hair down after having worked hard on a major project together.

NP United came fully prepared with their t-shirts and even tried the old distraction technique by supplying us with delicious alcohol and sweets. But, with our new team name ‘Eye of the Tiger’, we managed to keep our blood sugar and alcohol levels under control.

Although we won most of the games (which means we hold onto our trophy), NP United’s Hassan and Ingo managed to thrash us twice, 11 points to love. Other highlights included Ingo’s famous ping pong ball-rolling ‘Guess which hand?’ technique, and the singles games towards the end, which were pretty close on points, resulted in a ‘best of three’ nailbiting finish.

Thanks for coming over NP United! Let us know when you’re ready for a rematch - or if you would like to challenge us to a different game. Badminton perhaps?