The yin and yang of communications

Communications is made up of two halves, something like yin and yang. I call them the positive side and the negative side. In using a word like “negative” we immediately think it is something bad. But it isn’t. Both sides can be done well or poorly so the positive side, done wrong, can be very bad. The negative side, done very well, can be very good. Let’s see if I can explain what I mean.

What I call the positive side is essentially the message we want to get across. Sometimes this is referred to as marketing “happy talk” but that isn’t what it is unless it is done badly. Happy talk is empty. It lacks substance. It’s the kind of communication that tells potential customers your product is “cool” or “awesome” or “great” without ever saying why. In other words, it doesn’t explain the benefits – why a customer would want it. It’s actually negative communication because it’s characterized my absence.

Negative communication is a bit dodgy but it can be summed up this way: it’s all the material we don’t provide because it isn’t overtly about promoting the product or service. In terms of the positive side, it’s all the material that would have made the marketing communications you did substantive – it’s the material that would have explained why something was “awesome.”

Put another way, everything is communications – sometimes good, sometimes bad. Even no communication is a kind of communication. It tells customers you don’t care, or don’t know, or don’t have the courage to say, or that you are so slap-dash you forgot.

A good question to ask is, “What am I not saying?” One of the hardest things to figure out is what is missing in our communications. Are all the I’s dotted, the T’s crossed?

I came across an example the other day where a TV ad for a site made reference to something very specific (amongst several specifics). When I went to the site, however, I couldn’t find it, despite my searching. Eventually I found it – using Google. What do you imagine my impression of the company was?

This is what I mean by negative communication. It’s everything we neglect or choose not to say.