Corporate Cringe

I’m no stranger to cor­por­ate cringe.

Have you ever been in a situ­ation where you take a step back and look at your company’s com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts — and some­how feel that it’s just not very good? 

In many cases, it’s not a lack of effort.
Not a lack of strategy.
Not a lack of resources.

No, it’s the lack of some­thing else.

It’s the lack of good taste.

I. Communication = The Language of Emotions

In PR, met­rics and best prac­tices are essen­tial. Instincts are not to be trus­ted, we think. But com­mu­nic­a­tion is highly situ­ation­al. Communication is con­text. While feel­ings might hinder ration­al ana­lys­is, com­mu­nic­a­tion stems from our emotions.

Without that emo­tion­al lay­er, we know something’s off.
It’s human instinct.

Many have spoken to Alexa or Siri. I don’t know about you, but speak­ing with them … makes me want to stop talk­ing to them. Alexa and Siri have some emo­tion­al matur­ity to do before they pass the Turing test. ¹For more on the invent­or Alan Turing, I recom­mend the film The Imitation Game star­ring Benedict Cumberbatch.

As pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­nic­at­ors, we can con­vey our cor­por­ate mes­sages by the book (as in no-one-will-get-fired-over-this) and still miss the mark by a mile. The PR industry must be cau­tious in rely­ing upon tem­plates, scripts, clichés, auto­mated mes­sages, jar­gon, plat­it­udes, hyper­boles etc. No amount of data can sup­port a “text­book approach” in cor­por­ate communication. 

Emotions will always be our bot­tom line regard­ing PR and estab­lish­ing human connections.

II. Organisations Must Learn To Speak Human

We’re all hard­wired to com­mu­nic­ate emo­tion­ally. You and I would have no trouble passing the Turing test. And this is why we all cringe when organ­isa­tions speak to us in their cor­por­ate voice. 

Naturally, we feel uneasy when some­thing is try­ing to com­mu­nic­ate with us non-humanly. 

A few reas­ons come to mind:

There’s the fal­lacy of tra­di­tion; if an organ­isa­tion has been doing some­thing in a cer­tain way for ages, then we con­vince ourselves that it must work well. 

Read also: 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases

Also, cor­por­ate ton­al­ity is a form of art and, there­fore, dif­fi­cult to quantify.

How do we get it right?

III. An Industry-Wide Shortage of Good Taste

Having worked as a cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions adviser since 2005, I’ve told CEOs that their strategies are plain wrong. I’ve told mar­keters that they’re hurt­ing their brand from short-sighted­ness. I’ve told com­mu­nic­at­ors that they’ve spent huge budgets on unne­ces­sary activities. 

After all, my cli­ents pay me to tell them the truth and noth­ing but. 

If you drench cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion with plat­it­udes and unin­spired, stale, and corny hyper­boles — why shouldn’t that matter? 

Read also: The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Speak

We might adequately plan, execute, and meas­ure our activ­it­ies, but that won’t mat­ter if our com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­it­ies sound corny.

However, tell a com­mu­nic­a­tions depart­ment that they have poor taste in com­mu­nic­a­tion, and you’re out faster than they can slam the door behind you.

Perhaps we’re drown­ing ourselves in cor­por­ate cringe since we’ve nev­er had this conversation.

Read also: Corporational Determinism: Grandiose Product Launches

IV. Examples of Corporate Cringe

V. Great Taste is a Basic PR Skill

Unlike many oth­er cre­at­ive pro­fes­sions, cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions often seem obli­vi­ous to the import­ance of being … taste­ful. Our industry’s ignor­ance of what con­sti­tutes good taste is pecu­li­ar because we ought to know bet­ter. ²This is ana­log­ous to cor­por­ate storytelling: while we might be aware of the storytelling ele­ments in the­ory, there’s still the chal­lenge of telling a great story in prac­tice.

We are com­mu­nic­a­tion pro­fes­sion­als, after all. 

Read also: Top 5 Communication Skills Everyone Should Know

Tonality isn’t just for copy­writers. Look and feel isn’t just art dir­ect­ors.
Great taste is a PR skill, too.

But there’s a way out of this poorly lit tun­nel of mediocrity. We’re in a pos­i­tion to mit­ig­ate cringe-worthy cor­por­ate messaging:

Join the fight. Never settle for unin­spired PR messages. 

PR Resource: Symptoms of Platitude Sickness

PR Resource: Checklist for Leadership Clarity