Have Brands Gone Too Far In Their Quest For "Corporate Language"?

The amusing story this week of the English Professor who claims she was thrown out of Starbucks for refusing to use their corporate language has been one of those stories that everyone feels strongly about. The professor's apparent distaste for corporate language seems to have resonated with many of us who object to being told how to use language by a company.

It's easy to feel slightly stupid ordering coffee from an American store in Italian, then there is the added confusion of just what the names of those coffees actually mean. It's not only this particular chain of coffee establishments that practice this form of marketing speak however, and now you feel like you should go armed with a phrase book whenever you enter a different coffee chain. Evolution takes place in every language, but have we seen the dawn of linguistic evolution started by corporations?

With stories like this it is easy to have a short memory and think that only modern companies are trying to get us to talk their language. There's no doubt that it has become a legitimate marketing technique to use specific words, phrases and music to remind us of an individual brand. Starbucks use the terms tall, grande and venti to sell their different sizes of coffee, a practice that riles many people. There is an argument however that given the aura of exclusivity that goes with coffee drinkers in Britain and the US that pretentious language is part and parcel of the experience. After all, Starbucks haven't done too badly at all out of the practice.

As I mentioned it would be misleading to believe that marketing terms entering everyday language is a new thing. How many people continue to "Hoover" the carpet, even though that particular term refers to a manufacturer and not a practice. We also make announcements over a "Tannoy" and "Google" a query online, yet these do not appear to provoke the same ire as the language used by a coffee establishment.

The real issue would appear to be the motives used by companies when this marketing terminology becomes part of language. The more accepted marketing and brand terms that are used appear to have naturally entered modern language without an obvious attempt by a marketing department to force feed us their language. In places where you are forced to order a product in the language given to you by a company, resentment can happen (has anyone else been tempted to tell the staff of a popular fast food chain to Mc off?!).

So what can the world of marketing and corporate gifts learn from this? Well, that there is no doubt associating language with your company is an effective way of promoting your business, but it's the way you do it that counts. Come up with something snappy and inventive and if you're lucky it might go viral. But don't force people into accepting your brand language as you could very soon see people starting to avoid your company as a result.

And if you get lucky with your slogan and people love it, visit The Corporate Gifts Company and get it engraved on your next set of corporate gifts!