February 2009

The wow factor

25 Feb, 2009  No Comment

In marketing the ideal ingredient to make a campaign stand out and get cut-through is the wow factor. But what is wow?

Wow, would you believe, is a Scottish word from 1513, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, representing a natural exclamation of amazement. Exactly what context it was first recorded is not explained; 1513 was the year that the Scottish King James IV was killed at the Battle of Flodden by the English. Not much wow there for the Scots!

The verb “to wow” meaning to overwhelm with delight or amazement is an American usage first used in the twenties (some time before the stock market crash).

The Urban Dictionary defines the wow factor as

The distinctive appeal that an object, behavior or person has on others. An impressive display brought on by a certain object, behavior or person.

But it doesn’t quite get there, nor can our ever unreliable source, Wikipedia, which does not have an entry.

So how would I define the wow factor? The wow factor is a heightened aesthetic response to an external stimulus - it is how your message cuts through, firing up the pleasure centres of the brain, abandoning the turmoil in the soul, and ultimately creating the desire to purchase your product!

Contact Madrigal Communications to get your wow factor.

Cucumber cool

14 Feb, 2009  No Comment

The temperatures have been hotter than ever this summer so we are in great need of a cool word. How much cooler can you get than cucumber? If we want to be cool, we’ll be as cool as a cucumber.

The cucumber is a member of the gourd family, along with melons and squashes, and has been grown for food since the beginning of history.

If you believe the Internet, and it is an oft-repeated statement, a cucumber can be ten to twenty degrees cooler on the inside than the outside temperature. But we should remain skeptical about this when it is quoted:

according to scientists who have measured this phenomenon with precisely calibrated vegetable thermometers.  

Indeed, if I happened to have a specially-designed, vegetable thermometer I would not need to precisely calibrate it to measure a ten-degree difference.

Apart from the obvious technical difficulties for the cucumber in maintaining this cool interior, our suspicion should be raised further: if it were true we would be powering all our air conditioners with Cucumber Factor X.

But even without Factor X cucumbers are a particularly suitable food for hot climates due to their high water content. The Old Testament refers to cucumbers being eaten in ancient Egypt by the Israelites. The ancient Egyptians used cucumbers as a source of water while travelling across the desert. Moses may have had a few in his satchel as he led the Israelites out of Egypt.

In the Mediterranean, the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, wanted to eat cucumbers every day and his gardeners worked very hard to supply them to him.

It was likely the Romans introduced them to England where they were known as eorþæppla, or earth-apples (in a similar way that the French refer to potatoes as pomme d’terres, apples of the ground). Perhaps the climate was not warm enough to create a real passion for them because they later became known as cowcumbers, the common explanation being that they were believed only fit for cows. (However, this ignores the source of the English word from the Old French, cocombre, which in turn comes from the Latin, cucumis).

The cucumber, its reputation risen beyond bovine fodder, was brought to Australia by the English on the First Fleet (the Reverend Richard Johnson, grew them in his Sydney garden in 1789). And we have been eating them in the summer ever since.

If you want your business communications to be as cool as a cucumber contact Madrigal Communications for a free consultation.