Are you nailing—or ballsing up—your Corona comms?
I’m having a bit of an allergic reaction to being bullied in shops, restaurants, and public places. Greet me with a smile and a question and I’ll do anything to try and comply. But barked orders and a barrage of shouting signs…
“ONE WAY SYSTEM”
“DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING”
“DO NOT TRY ON”
…make me anxious.
A low point was being chased around Sweaty Betty by a cross woman saying something I couldn’t hear through her mask. It turned out she was upset that I’d missed the hand sanitiser machine, tastefully concealed in a plastic bush on the way in.
Which makes this a good moment to get some perspective from freelance copywriter, Katherine Wildman, about striking the right tone when communicating about such important and sensitive things. Katherine is based in Newcastle and has been out on ‘safari’ taking pictures of copy that did and didn’t land for big and local brands.
The losers?
Brands that struggled didn’t read the mood because they didn’t connect with how people were feeling and/or theyventured into the “you must” tone.
First place for missing the mood, the headline grabber was Dettol, over-estimating all of our affection for the office.‘Office bantz’ sealed the deal.
Local examples missed the mark too—a hairdressers near her “We’ve been told to close: goodbye”. And mine which converted itself into a room like a meat packing plant, with every chair shrouded in plastic and the advice “not to talk to your stylist unnecessarily”.
And of course, The Government, for its changes of messages and confusion about ‘staying alert’ from a virus we cannot see, and then ending up with different rules in different areas. This week’s debacle about the definition of‘mingling’ being typical—grouse shooting, anyone?
The winners?
Those that empathised with the experiences of their own customers and employees and spoke to us with warmth and emotional honesty.
The Mexican restaurant with a window sign that said, “All booze has been removed from the property to help owners get through these crazy times xx”. As Katherine says, who wouldn’t want to be back there drinking tequila when it reopens?
Costa, “We know you’re a coffee lover and look forward to welcoming you back”
The Co-op, messages about community and keeping people safe (noticed they posted some positive results too)
Grammarly opening with “Stay Safe and Safe Well’
Cook Shop and Cox and Cox have also kept their tone reassuringly warm through the crisis.
And the little local lad Archie, with his ‘don’t be a moron’ sign in support of the NHS, that won Katherine’s heart and mind.
Learnings
If you’re not sure whether your communications will land, use this simple matrix to help you analyse it. Where do you plot?
The big one is tone: does it sound human, kind and warm? Or cold, corporate and formal?
The second is, where the communication comes from: Is it an instruction from inside your organisation that you are imposing on others, or is it framed in compassion and trying to do the best in difficult times?
Katherine’s examples are from John Lewis and Fenwick. Rather than telling people to use a hand sanitiser, they greet you with it as you come through the door. Which is, to be fair, can be a bit easier if you run a big business: and making what you write even more important if you’re a small one.
Do send me your best and worst example of Corona comms.
- Christine x
