—Part 3 of 4

In Part 2, I suggested that marketing departments initiate the process of brainstorming to define and convey the brand personality so innuendo, as a key tactical component in brand development and maintenance strategies, can be utilized. This process ultimately enfolds many dimensions: specifically, insinuation, suggestion and overtone are key.

A. DEFINITION.
One very fun and effective method that I participated in at Hallmark Cards is to discuss your company as though it were a person, and compile a detailed overview of this person’s personality and unique attributes. These components then become the “food” for innuendos intentionally used and incorporated into the creative, ongoing expression and strengthening of your brand message over time.

This is fun and also very worthwhile when done seriously.  We made day of it. Our Marketing VP took us off-site to a stimulating destination and purposefully engaged us in this process, over an entire day, inviting those in the company and agencies who knew the brand best to participate. You, too, should engage employees, agencies, shareholders and, perhaps, even current customers via primary and/or focus group research, in your process!

Our facilitator asked realistic questions and forced us to “get basic and honest” about who we were and who we wanted to be—in this case our “person” was the already-existing international headquarters/campus of Hallmark Cards, Inc. (which included the marketing of convention hotels, office, residential, retail, entertainment and parking products).

How could be pretend to see this conglomeration of products as a person, with a unique personality?  And how to keep it honest?  We said our “person” was “mature and sophisticated.” But, could we deliver a “mature and sophisticated experience” to the visitors?  Consistently—in every business unit? Were our parking lot attendee as ‘mature and sophisticated” as our fine dining restaurant’s hostess or our Hyatt Hotel’s bellhop was?  Could we deliver the personality promise in reality?  If not that personality attribute questioned.

Your logo or symbol, your tag line, your graphics, copy and colors should all suggest who you are and hint at what you actually deliver to the consumer in terms of product, experience and/or service.

• What are your core values and are they implicit in your business identity?
• Get clear about your business, service and/or product’s “personality overtones?”  Are you aggressive, playful, serious, and demonstrative, under spoken, creative, and thoughtful?  And…are you adeptly, intentionally, applying emotional overtones in your advertising messaging that evoke, suggest or “hint at” these attributes?

At the end of our brainstorming outing at Hallmark Cards we had specifically defined our “personality” —and it’s possible expressions via our restaurants, upscale department store, our family-oriented ice-skating rink, and our upscale convention hotels.  And, as a result of this exercise, we knew precisely what overtones we wanted to communicate,  At this juncture we each took the lead in directing our ad agencies—and their creative directors, art directors, copywriters, photographers and illustrators—in directing the appropriate overtones to be used in the visual and verbal execution of our advertising messaging.

And this brings me to my second point.

B. CONVEYANCE
Advertising campaigns conceived and executed with “innuendo intendo” provide versatile and expansive communication “legs.”

“Hinting,” allows companies to simultaneously become more nimble and more precise.  Innuendo allows expressing, expanding, recreating, and suggesting brand personality in ongoing advertising campaigns.  You’ll find that intentional overtones and implications can be expressed in any number of ways as long as their “hint” remains “loyal to the brand personality and core values” is realized in the consumer’s experience.

Do not pretend to be what you are not; but yes, use the mighty innuendo for all it’s worth.

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Let’s face it, innuendo is used as a powerful and direct technique to deliver high impact and reinforced brand recognition via insinuations and overtones.  It’s done all the time.

Stay with me, you’ll see what I mean.

Insinuations and overtones. As an even further investigation into the definition nuances of innuendo, I looked up the word overtone.  Bingo, a bridge to support my postulation.

Overtone is defined, in part, as “a secondary effect, quality, or meaning; suggestion, connotation.” There is a silver lining—an alternative way to interpret innuendo only being effective and utilized in the context of “insult.”  It is not always a “disparaging allusion.”  It can be, and is, an overtone.  And overtones can and should be used tactically in brand expression.  And used intentionally.

So, now it’s time for action.  Ask yourself and your marketing team:

1. How can I tactically utilize innuendo intendo as a component of my brand development and maintenance strategies?
2. Is there a process we can use to define brand overtones and determine how they can be conveyed?

Yes, there are several strategic methods that can be engaged to define brand attributes and then convey those attributes via innuendo.

Is it time to brain storm and develop your brand personality?  In Part 3 I will discuss some activities that I’ve participated in to do this.  Group cognition is helpful, especially early in the development of identity and brand.  Your marketing, communications and sales “brain trust” must collectively agree that, indeed, words matter, color matters, design matters—and therefore agree to define and convey these “tools” with an intended overtone and message in mind.

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—A Hint of Innuendo Goes a Long Way

Part 1 of 4

I’ve set out to ponder the idea of innuendo in relation to brand development, expression and management.  Don’t ask me why.  Actually the idea came to me, as many do, as an association.  I was listening to Michael Feldman on NPR several Saturday’s ago.  I started pondering it and have come to see innuendo as a relevant overview idea.

I also see it as an extension of my previous discussions about the importance of words and color in the overall expression of brand dimensions across varied and/or integrated communications platforms.  Innuendo seems like a very savvy tactic in this regard.

Innuendo Intendo: selecting words and copy, color and image based on implication and overtones.

Little did I realize that innuendo has a rather “bad rap.”

Innuendo is loosely defined in Wikipedia as a remark or question, typically disparaging, which works obliquely by allusion and insinuation.  It goes on to say that the “disparaging allusion” is often an insult or accusation, veiled in such a way as to make the words seem innocent.  Do we really want to engage in innuendo?

Merriam Webster offers a more “kind” definition, albeit vague. Here innuendo is defined as “a hint, insinuation—especially a veiled reflection on character or reputation.”  Nothing necessarily “disparaging” about this—unless you “feel” emotionally the same way about the word insinuation as you do about innuendo.  If so, you probably are going to stop reading at this point.

Let’s step back a moment and look at the etymology of the word.  It’s from the Latin word meaning to hint, and then derived from the French innuere, to hint, and nuere, to nod.  It took just a little more probing to uncover the an extensive use of innuendo already at work in the background in our culture and public dialogue—especially as television “conversations” infiltrated the western psyche with various voices, advertising, and programming formats.

It’s true, it seems.  Innuendo is often used in a low brow, degrading fashion, especially with comedians and lyricists, offering sexual humor and suggestion in a manner that makes even the bawdy blush.  However, I remain strongly convicted in postulating
Why, from a creative director’s perspective, the idea of innuendo is a worthy one, even an enticing one!

And furthermore—the value of using intentional innuendo seems obvious.

I think the popular operative word may be “spin.”  “To give a hint.”  Isn’t this what the subtleties of branding are all about??

I postulate that—from large corporations, to smaller companies and organizations, to developing small businesses—branding effectiveness requires a series of hints, expressed in multiple ways, across integrated marketing platforms.

Voila!   Innuendo intendo!

(To be continued…)

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