What Aristotle can teach us about communication
We recently met with the Marketing Director of a company to talk about their B2B communications. By their own admission they needed to review the approach and outlined their circumstances. Two themes stuck out.
- There was a large team of people producing content (defined as forty page documents of research) packed with data on various economic trends.
- They were pushing information out but had no idea if it was being read (it probably wasn't).
Financial Services companies often have a number of similar traits. They have access to lots of data. They have teams of people, hidden away in dark places, which churn and analyse numbers. The results of their labour is used to produce vast amounts of reports, charts, powerpoint slides for internal and external use. And, finally, they aren't always the best at sharing this in easily digestible formats where the reader can benefit.
What's gone wrong?
Putting it simply, everyone's forgotten they are communicating with people. Humans in the western world juggle impossible work loads and find themselves under lots of pressure. Plus, as reported in The Telegraph, we have undergone a collective collapse in our ability to concentrate.
If you look at institutional asset management, and many B2B organisations, it is clear that those responsible for communications need to refine the approach. There is a tendency to shift into highly technical and verbose descriptions of what it is they are trying to say or sell.
On the run up to the Scottish referendum last year, as the Scots toyed with the idea of waving goodbye to the union (maybe an appropriate description is waving two fingers), I read an excellent article by Nick Jefferson on the 'no' campaign. He was highly critical of the dry, emotionless rhetoric being used in what was, essentially, a highly emotional decision. In the article he referenced Aristotle's Modes of persuasion.
Aristotle
Aristotle said that, in any effective piece of communication or argument, there were three 'appeals': ethos, logos and pathos.
Ethos: the source's credibility, the speaker's/author's authority
Logos: the logic used to support a claim; can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument.
Pathos: the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language and numerous sensory details.
Lots of companies are concentrating on logic. But, they aren't doing anything to convey who they are or communicate in a simple conversational tone which is easier to respond to. As a result, the senses are quickly bogged down in technical language which leaves us scatter-brains reaching for something different to do.
It sounds obvious. It is. But many aren't doing it.
Back to basics
Organisations need to explain more than just the nuts and bolts of their widgets. They need to think about how they are going to appeal to the people they are trying to influence. They need to be mindful of the state of mind of the audience. And, above all, keep it simple and succinct.
Links to articles...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-jefferson/scotland-its-a-family-aff_b_5537931.html
Co-founder and CEO at BAZU Company | AI-driven CRM systems to scale and improve the efficiency of your business | Pleasure to connect with other experts!
1 年Cool stuff ??