7 Words that Can Put You in Ruin

Twenty-five years ago this month the iconic phrase, “If you build it, he will come,” was whispered on the silver screen in the baseball-themed movie, Field of Dreams. Starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones, the film had an unintentional, yet profoundly negative, impact on the perception of marketing. For a quarter century, business owners have manipulated the story line in their minds. They twisted those seven little words and repeated in their own heads, “If I build it, they will come.” They decide all they have to do is listen to their inner voice, lay down some bricks and mortar, and customers will flock to buy their widgets, services, tacos, or whatever. They enjoy their specialty and decide that marketing (paid media placements) and PR (unpaid media placements) are not necessary.
 
I'm working with a manufacturing company with a sales team that, before we started working together a year ago, couldn't clearly define its value proposition or tell the company's story. The company was built through the founder's great relationships with contractors, but 30 years after founding his business, the market place changed. Competition was closing in, spreading erroneous information, and the company was losing bids. After 12 months of building the company's communication playbook and executing new strategies, my client is making a comeback. We developed a game plan and strategically hit the target audience right between the eyes using multiple methods. We've created a fan base, and the founder increased the company's sales goal by 30 percent.

Field of Dreams has a great storyline filled with drama and mystery, but that memorable catch phrase, forgive the pun, is what box office movies are made of, not big business.

What You Did in the Sixth Grade

You sat at your desk, sharpened pencil in hand, and watched as your teacher wrote the rules on comma usage and apostrophes on the blackboard. You dutifully memorized the list of prepositions, and wrote carefully on your wide rule notebook paper that you will never end a sentence with one of those words. These rules have served you well your entire life. However, many of those standards, much like the clothes you wore during adolescence, are out of date. If you don’t stay current, you

look as if showed up to work today sporting a polyester leisure suit.

Don’t take my word for it. Check out the list below with links to sage grammarians.

Two spaces after a period – Stop it now!

Ending a sentence with a preposition – Not the offense it once was, or ever was. Worth taking a look at. (Although my fingers did have a hard time ending a sentence with at. It didn’t get any easier the second time I did it.)

Adding an apostrophe s to a word that ends in s – (ie. James’s book.) This is still hard for me to accept. The extra s appears awkward, and seems as unnecessary as wearing suspenders and a belt.

Capitalization of a salutation, or a complementary close – No change here, but the following is a common mistake:

Best Regards,
John Doe

I figured it was time to clear up the specifics of this rule.

The hard part is being bold enough to change. When do you compensate for others? You want to appear fashion-forward, not ignorant. I’ve seen people get fist-pounding mad about ending a sentence with a prepositions, “Didn’t you go to school? That’s not correct!” This is why it is important to remember your audience. Afraid to end a sentence with a preposition in your peer reviewed case study? Fair enough, but if you’re running an ad campaign targeting the youth of America, keep it casual.

If only the English language had slick ad campaigns with good looking models informing all of us of the latest style changes.

Look, commas have a new cover girl!

6 Points to Winning Fans for Economic Development

I recently completed a public relations and marketing plan for a North Texas community interested in growing its tax base. Economic development has its fans, but not everyone in the community is a cheerleader for growth. Some homeowners want things to stay the same. Others are frustrated that new restaurants and stores aren't coming in fast enough. Six days before the big game seemed like the prime time to list tips for scoring points with the public.