Wired Words - Softcover

Morris, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0273650904 ISBN 13: 9780273650904

Publisher: ft com, 2000

Synopsis

Words are the oxygen of corporate identity. With e-business making real the dream of one-to-one marketing, corporate branding can no longer be one-dimensional. A brand needs to live, to speak, to communicate in this forum of connectivity. Customers are no longer passive listeners of corporate messages. They are communication partners involved in an interactive process. All organizations have their own personality - their own corporate DNA. This may affect the way a company writes, communicates, speaks, but this is not enough. We need to analyze the personality of a business and develop a coherent tone of voice and approach to language that really helps build and strengthen its brand impact. Wired words are core to this.

About this title

Review

In the beginning was the word. According to Steve Morris, writer and authority on corporate voice, the word is the building block of successful business. "Any company that doesn't learn to talk and listen fast will be dead within three years," he says. "The language we use will be the battleground where this modern war will take place." With the Internet changing the nature of customer-business relationships from passive listening to interactive participation, the one dimensional corporate brands created by personality-free communication will have to become a thing of the past. For those who still need convincing, the stylish Wired Words, sets out the right--and the wrong--ways for companies to use language on the Internet.

As the key channel for person to person communication, e-mail is central to corporate success. Morris explains the importance of achieving the right tone and emphasises the advantage of an e-mail style which shies away from unnecessary formality and remains consistent across all employees. He shows how language helps brand a Web site and any product sold from it, offering a convincing account of how choice of words can attract--or repel--visitors. Providing visitors with feedback, he argues, is the equivalent of Internet conversation and essential if they are to revisit a site at a later date. Of course, this feedback must be delivered in the right tone and getting it right is crucial to any e-commerce site that wants to retain its customers. Some of the most interesting chapters in Wired Words revolve around the role of words in establishing brand personality and Morris puts it all in context with examples from real Web sites. His evaluations provide some real gems of insight. Wired Words could just be the last word on the subject. --Sandra Vogel

From the Publisher

ft.com
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." - Rudyard Kipling

"Colours fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure." - Edward Thorndike

Words are the oxygen of corporate identity. With e-business making real the dream of one-to-one marketing, corporate branding can no longer be one-dimensional. A brand needs to live, to speak, and to communicate in this forum of connectivity. Customers are no longer passive listeners of corporate messages. They are communication partners involved in an interactive process.

All organisations have their own personality - their own coporate DNA. This may affect the way a companywrites, communicates, speaks, but this is not enough. We need to analyse the personality of a business and develop a coherent tone of voice and approach to language that really helps build and strengthen its brand impact. Words have a core role to play in this.

About this edition

• Publisher: ft com
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0273650904
• ISBN 13: 9780273650904
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208