Marketing Mishaps: Pushing the "Edgy" Envelope a Bit TOO Far

Marketing Mishaps: Pushing the "Edgy" Envelope a Bit TOO Far

Twice in two days, I came across branding that caught me off-guard. First, I was directed to this "coaching" site; then, I saw a new business near my house.

Now, I'm not a prude, but the coaching site really stunned me. Maybe it's the giant cow's nose on the Facebook page. Maybe it's the whip. Maybe it's just use of a crass word for a business that looks as if it desperately wants to be professional.

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The F-Bomb store actually made a lesser impact. More of a "Hmm ... check that out," because I know it's not a place I'll likely ever shop.The thing about my responses to these two "brands" is that they are personal. My dad must have told me a thousand times, "There's no accounting for taste," usually when I was complaining about politics, food, or someone's choice of a partner. And he was right — there IS no accounting for taste. Except for places and instances when we generally expcet things to be tasteful.

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You may have heard me rant about the business coach I once heard speak who described herself as a "business pimp." Crikey — that term still gets under my skin. Wonder how that branding worked out for her.

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Another incident involving a speaker brings home this idea of each person's taste being unique. A friend recently told me about losing all respect for a national speaker who, in telling a story during her keynote at national convention, said something to the effect of, "I laughed so hard, I nearly peed my pants."
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"So what?" I wanted to ask my friend, who clearly thought the comment was tawdry and unworthy of the speaker. We each have differing degrees of what we consider appropriate.

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Entertaiment may be the one place where it can benefit an act to push things to an extreme. I was just out of college when Van Halen released an album titled, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." In case the words don't ring a bell, check out the initial caps in the title.

Then, more recently, a little Law of Attraction movie created quite a stir. Initially titled, "What the #$@! Do We Know!?" it became colloquially known as "What the Bleep?" I'm not sure the title had anything to do with the movie's success, but I'm not sure it didn't, either.

People have different perspectives about coarse language in the business world. Right Spot Media makes the case that such language can actually help public speakers: "[R]esearch shows that—at least for speakers delivering presentations—obscenities can increase the perception of passion and enthusiasm." Of course, they go on to mention mild epithets like "hell" and "damn," but in some places not long ago, use of those by a speaker would have been considered scandalous.

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Similarly, the following excerpt from Influential Marketing Blog makes a case for pushing things a bit to attract attention:

The first time I thought about this was when reading about a wonderful social marketing campaign from Saatchi and Saatchi that was done close to 20 years ago. It was for an organization fighting childhood hunger on the streets in Canada (I think) and as the ad featured visuals of young homeless boys on the street just trying to survive, the following voice-over of a boy's voice came on:

                "If I said 'I'm hungry,' that probabbly wouldn't bother you."

                "If I said f*ck, it probably would."

                "F*ck, I'm hungry."
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That being said, there are still those who seem to agree with me that some words just don't belong in business, particularly in a brand name. Case in point: this discussion on the use of swear words in domain names.
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There's no accounting for taste.

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It was from branding expert Peter Montoya that I first heard the comment, "Good branding repels as much as it attracts." The thing the marketer/brand/business owner needs to determine ahead of time is how far they can safely push the envelope and still reach their intended audience. I may be the perfect demographic for the whip-wielding coach, but I will never hire her because I find her brand name tacky.

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When you're building a brand, it will serve you to remember a couple of key points:

1. You are not your client.
2. Test everything. 

If you have examples of branding that gave you a bad taste in your mouth or left you wishing the business owner had been a bit more selective, please share them in the comments section  below.

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Until next time — happy marketing!

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