—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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