Is it just me, or is marketing using the word “human” everywhere right now?
To my eyes and ears, it seems every product and service is being marketed as “human-powered,” “human-centric,” or “designed to be human” or “a more human way to…” or “a human-first approach” or perhaps the most fraught, “for humans”— (who else would it be for?)— and I get the sense this wave is only building.
As a qualitative researcher that speaks with consumers fairly frequently, let me share this take:
The word “human” isn’t a consumer-facing word.
Think about it. You might be a marketer or advertiser, but take off that ‘job title’ hat for a minute and do a thought experiment: when in your day-to-day (non-work) life do you EVER use that word?
I’m guessing the answer is never.
Look, I understand that with the advent of AI, “human” is going to take on a whole new meaning, and that has already begun— lots of the marketing with ‘human’ in it will inevitably be drawing a (potentially necessary) contrast with the way human beings process information, speak, and so on. BUT… and hear me out here…
It’s not colloquial. It’s got no resemblance to common language people use on daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. It’s formal. It’s scientific in its origin. In that, it has a cold and sterile feel.
Trust me on this one— to say you are a “human” builds a wall between your audience and your brand, whether you intend it or not.
The first explanation for this is an old adage for us in marketing and marketing-adjacencies: if you feel you have to say you are a thing, it might instead signal that you’re naturally not.
The second reason is, consumers are better than ever at picking out specific language that marketers use…. and they personally do not use. Recognizing this gap has become a carefully-honed skill of theirs — and I’ve found it’s one of the primary methods people use to dismiss communications out-of-hand.
Think of language as a screening criteria of sorts that their overtaxed brains are using to determine if they should pay attention (or not) to what comes next. In that split second of electing to be receptive to your message or throw up a barrier, anything that quickly screams ‘marketing language’ compels their attention to bolt for the exits.
How do I know this?
In the years I’ve been doing consumer research, I have conducted countless qualitative studies that expose potential copy or strategy text, with the aim of having people weigh in on the phraseology on the page— in this kind of study, the questions clients might want to ask are varied, but tend to roll up to two really important ones:
Does it break through?
Does it resonate with people?
The initial question— of breakthrough— relies on GETTING THROUGH. Which means that people must first be open to inviting the message in (or communications risk being booted out before they even stand a chance).
This decision— letting it in, or booting it out— often rests on language alone.
Reader: I’ve seen it and know it to be true— a message has to be colloquial above all else to succeed. It has to be simple, daily language to get past the first instant!
If you are tasked with writing strategic or creative concepts, and are wondering what blend of alchemy, luck, and magic you need to deploy in your writing— just remember to use language that people use every day, and you’re (literally) 75% of the way there.
I understand that I’ve revealed no mystery here— we all try to simplify our language each time we set out to write. So perhaps this sounds like too simplistic of a topic to warrant a LinkedIn article— but then again, simplicity is the point. And you wouldn’t believe how many convoluted, overwrought, over-thesaurused creative and strategic concepts that have crossed my desk.
We’re all guilty of it sometimes. We just also need to be aware of the way that overwriting in the voice of a marketer can mean that our entreaties bounce right off the outer layer of consumers’ well-honed defenses.
In short, remember that your consumer-facing language should SOUND LIKE a human, but in doing so, ought not to use the word “human”— or any of the other words that marketers say, but real people never do.
What are your favorite examples of this, other than “human”?
How about “empowered,” or “journey,” or “seamless,” or “personalization,” or “artisan”?
I don’t use these words at all in my day-to-day life, but I see them ad nauseam in communications.
Any others we should add to the stack?
the Insight Inn 