Remember When a Pre-Owned Vehicle Was Just a Used Car?

During a recent interview segment on American Public Media’s Marketplace program, the guest, novelist John Lanchester, used the term “re-branding” to describe a contributing factor in our economic meltdown. Here’s the quote, in context (emphasis mine):

Kai Ryssdal (host): That’s a great word, actually, frictionless-ness because that’s really sort of what happened to cause this whole thing. I mean, money was moving all over the place and nobody really knew it.

John Lanchester: Yeah, I think that is it. It’s strange how easy it is for that to seem natural. It’s almost a trick of re-branding. They didn’t so much call it money, they call it credit. Once upon a time credit used to be called debt, which is what it is. But if you rename money as credit, and give people the idea that access to credit is something that is almost a right, it’s something that should be easy, that should be freely available, that shouldn’t really have consequences, I think it becomes much easier to jam people with all the debts that they got stuck with.

This “trick” of simply calling something by another name, can be powerful. Remember when a “pre-owned vehicle” was just a “used car”? Wouldn’t you rather get behind “revenue enhancement” than a “tax increase”? Or does “climate change” sound more benign than “global warming”? Taken to the Orwellian extreme, this manipulation of language results in people believing “war is peace”, “freedom is slavery”, and “ignorance is bliss”.

As with any trick, it helps if it plays into what the audience wants to believe. And it seems you can never go wrong by appealing to self-interest and/or baser instincts. Therein lays the power of substituting the word “credit” for the word “debt”. It changes the focus from the consequences to the reward: instant gratification.

But does this constitute “re-branding”, or is this simply “spin”? And what’s the difference? First, it may help to define what we mean by “brand”:

According to Seth Godin,

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.

The genius of changing “debt” to “credit” goes deeper than just the words. Indeed, our whole perception has been altered. What was once a mark of weakness and shame (you can’t afford to pay for that?) or even a crime (debtors prisons operated in America until 1850) was transformed into a mark of status (do you carry a green American Express? Gold? Black?) The amount you could owe became a source of pride and power. Who knew that people would actually spend money that they didn’t have, and probably would never be able to earn? Or that our bankers and financial institutions would do the same? Yeah, right.

Looked at in this light, it is easy to see why the growth of our credit culture qualifies as a true re-branding. Additionally though, it is a reminder that we need to be more discerning about the way we process and the way we use words. As brand signifiers, carefully chosen words can be the front line of the re-branding cascade. This kind of re-branding may become more difficult in the Internet age, where peer-to-peer communication, social networks and instantaneous access to information had led to increased value for authenticity. But then again, maybe not. Just look at some of the examples in Frank Luntz’s book, Words That Work. If you notice “energy exploration” replacing “drilling for oil” in public discourse, you can blame Frank. “Spin” — a simple choice of words or turn of phrase — can be the seed of re-branding.

This was posted by Steve Calkins on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 and is filed under Blog, Brand, Creative Team Blog, Interactive Team Blog, Media Team Blog, Misc, Social Media, Strategy Team Blog, it contains the following tags .

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