Simplicity of language is something most marketers "get" and, in fact, it's something in which they typically excel. That's not true of attorneys, however. You definitely wouldn't want your attorney to write your next brochure or print ad.
But there is an often overlooked piece of marketing and branding communication where we do just that: the contract. While contracts are more prevalent in the B2B world, they are also frequently found in the B2C space as well (think cell phones, car rentals, etc.)
The contract speaks volumes about a company's brand. Is this company easy to do business with, or do they hide behind jargon and legalese? Are they customer friendly? Are they trying to screw me? A brand can attempt to stand for a lot of things, but the contract can knock the train off of the rails very quickly. Suddenly, the customer's experience trumps the company's marketing.
Virgin Mobile's contract is one that lives up to its brand. The company touted this in a recent press release:
Tom Alexander, CEO of Virgin Mobile, said: “Virgin Mobile’s Pay Monthly contract is unique: we are the only network to be upfront about monthly costs and, by having challenged convention, we guarantee our customers won’t be unlucky at month 13. We’ll tell them when their contract’s up and cut their costs – we won’t make them pay for their phone twice.
Can you imagine any of the other carriers drawing this much attention to their contracts?
Here's the rub. Contracts written in plain English are just as binding as those written in unfriendly, hard to understand legalese.
Check out your company's contract and see what it says about your company...about your brand. Then get a dialog going with legal or whoever "owns" the contract in your company. It won't happen overnight, but when it does you'll be one step closer to truly living your brand.
Good point!
Posted by: olivier blanchard | December 07, 2005 at 10:56 PM