December 2009

Tally-ho to ho-ho-ho

17 Dec, 2009  No Comment

This year’s Christmas word is ho. It is a word used to focus people’s attention but lacks any real meaning. It has been used this way for about 700 years (according to the Online Etymological Dictionary).

It can be used after the name of a place to which attention is called, like Westward-Ho, from about 400 years ago. And was originally a mariners call announcing departures for a particular destination. Sydney-ho!

Heave-ho is similar in calling attention to a physical action or effort. It is also modern slang for being sacked or forcibly removed, as in being given the old heave-ho.

Tally ho the cry of a participant at a hunt to encourage the hounds when the quarry is sighted – is probably an alteration of French taïaut from about 250 years ago.

Gung-ho, meaning unthinkingly enthusiastic and eager, especially in battle, was introduced into English during the Second World War by Lt Colonel Evans Carlson (1896-1947), the leader of the famous Carlson Raiders. He used the Chinese motto, gōnghé (to work together), at meetings with his Marine battalion and they began calling themselves the Gung Ho Battalion.

Even hello is related to ho as it comes via hullo and hallo from hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded about 400 years ago. [Hello, the American form took over from hullo, the English form with the spreading use of the telephone about 120 years ago].

A very modern, slang use of ho is as an insult implying the subject is a prostitute. It is obviously a variation on whore.

By this stage, you might be thinking ho-hum (an 80 year old expression), this is so lacking in interest as to cause me mental weariness, or the rarer heigh-ho (a four hundred and fifty year old phrase), an exclamation of yawning or sighing, but don’t despair I am almost finished.

Ho-ho-ho expressing laughter, so often associated with Santa Claus, you will be please to know is not an invention of greeting card publishers or Hollywood family films but one of the oldest recorded uses of the word ho and dates from about 850 years ago.

So ho-ho-ho and have a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from me and Madrigal Communications.

Raising leverage as a real marketing word

9 Dec, 2009  No Comment

I was involved in an online discussion about the use of the word leverage in marketing. I was surprised that quite a few participants considered leverage to be a weasel word – that is a word that sounds good but really doesn’t mean anything.

In its original, physical sense, leverage is the advantage gained by converting a weak force over a long distance into a strong force over a short distance. A lever is a long pole that is used to lift an object using a fulcrum.

Lever comes from the Latin word levare meaning to raise (fulcrum also comes from Latin and originally meant the post of a couch or bedpost). This Latin root, levare, crops up in a wonderfully diverse set of words but all with a common sense of something being raised:

  • A levee is a raised embankment that stops rivers overflowing.
  • To levy is to raise funds; originally referring to the collection of taxes.
  • Leaven is a substance, usually yeast, added to dough to make it rise.
  • To levitate is to rise, or cause to rise and hover in the air.
  • Elevate is to lift to a higher position or raise to a higher level or status.
  • The Levant is the Mediterranean lands east of Italy, so called because it is in the direction from which the sun rose.

In the financial sense leverage refers to the amount of debt used to finance assets, for example, a company with significantly more debt than equity is considered to be highly leveraged.

In the marketing sense leverage is less well defined and used rather loosely. However it relates to the power or ability to influence people or their buying decisions. So leverage in marketing relates very closely with concepts like brand and reputation. The stronger your brand the more leverage you have in selling products.

It is apparent in major brands selling a wide range of products – it is not the quality of the individual product that sells it but the reputation of the brand. This is where leveraging is very tangible, when companies make the most of their brand to sell a range of products. It is also evident in the power of celebrity advertising – using well-known people to sell products is leveraging their reputation to the product brand.

The case for using leveraging in the marketing sense is legitimate and not really very weasel like.