Buzz in your Bizz: Neologisms for better marketing
Image by: @ninjason
A neologism refers to coining a new name for something: a product, a trend, a concept. Its use in marketing is to attribute certain characteristics that help in brand recognition and sales. Something catchy that gets into our slang and our culture and makes it memorable. Some companies were successful enough to irrevocably replace the actual description of the product by their brand name in this way: Bandaid, Kleenex, Qtip. Swedish furniture giant names all of their items and now, many people don’t just buy a bookcase, but a BILLY bookcase. And most will know what they are referring to!
Examples of modern neologisms are terms like fitspiration, staycation, flexitarian. The concepts behind those words were always around, but just like we do with our celebs (think Bennifer and Brangelina), we create new words that are faster to say, more descriptive and more talk-worthy. It sounds like life may be boring when you’re staying home on Spring Break, but a staycation? Local adventures await! Mixing some coconut oil into your coffee because it will keep you full, nothing special. But when you call it Bullet Coffee - it’s a bio-hack (and that’s 2 neologisms combined)!
Using Neologisms in marketing your photography business
Through my research, I found out that The Washington Post even has a neologism competition! Some of these really made me laugh. There is a lot of creativity! And while fun, you may be asking yourself how this fits into your business.
It sparks creativity other than in your photos
As owners of our own business, we wear many hats. We are the photographer, the business owner, the marketer, the accountant, the admin support, the office cleaner. But most of our creativity is reserved for the photographer role. How often do I come across a post in a group where a photographer says they have no idea how to caption their IG posts, or they use the most generic “10 minutes, 10 files, 100 bucks” verbiage in an ad? I often say that if we are able to be creative in our photography then we are also capable of and must extend that creativity into other areas. Remember, a 5-pillar ShineSparkL approach promotes harmony across your business which means a sprinkle of creativity in all areas is beneficial.
Just today, there was a photographer in a group discussing her composite creations and she showed an image of a little girl with a unicorn. Magical, whimsical, imaginative. She was asking about selling composites as add-ons. It was a great post to use here as an example. Her corresponding unicorn portrait marketing would ideally also be magical, whimsical, imaginative - words and calls to action that match the tone and the spirit of what it is she’s trying to sell.
Imagine her creating a neologism:
Uni-Corny Sessions if her spin is a little bit of cheesy fun. Back to the My-Little-Pony-type pastel nostalgia!
Stylicorn Sessions: Implies a more styled and fashionable shoot on the more modern side
Iconicorn Sessions: Cultivates a feeling of reverence and legacy as the term iconic has a luxury feel to it.
These may draw people over a basic description that doesn’t embody the same energy as the work being promoted, such as Unicorn Sessions.
When you exercise your brain in coming up with neologisms, it can become easier to find that creative edge in your marketing that will extend to captioning posts and writing blogs. You don’t have to use neologisms everywhere you go, but that creativity training is the important bit. Then that creativity feeds your business beast and can inspire creativity back into your photography too!
It breaks you from the saturated photography market
Photographers are eternally searching for an edge so that they stand out from a saturated market. Ironically, fewer search or implement anything other than manipulating the time, the number of images or the price of their sessions, which is not actually an edge; it’s an undercutting/ undermining strategy. Anyone can lower their price by $10, or $100; you don’t need to learn or pay for anything to do that and it’s not unique or special. But not everyone will learn or buy marketing education and that can be very special in that it helps you find and develop a real edge. In this case, the edge is using neologisms.
Does it take work to understand and implement something like this? Yes, but I’ll argue that for the benefit, the effort is relatively small. Most seek a magic pill, but a marketing pill is really what’s needed.
If all the photographers in your area are on the generic side and all kind of look and seem similar, then you have plenty of opportunity to differentiate by creating some fun and exciting buzzwords to stand out. A neologism can be used to creatively name your sessions or collections, it can be used to define something special about your business in your branding and it can be used as above for special bundles and themed shoots. The amazing part is that you don’t even need to change a single thing about your business. It’s simply taking a few elements and gift-wrapping them in a beautiful way, to get noticed! A marketing pill IS a magic pill.
For example, I created a word in my photography business. The word is Lightness. It is a blend of the words Light and Likeness. I explain it as the intersection of three things: Likeness (what my clients actually look like), inner light (what my client’s energy is) and physical light (being a photographer). These are all things that are part of what I do, and none are too exciting on their own. The edge comes from the fact that I say that many photographers can capture likeness as in taking a photograph, but that fewer are able to capture lightness which goes deeper into the essence and dynamics of people and mastery of light to make them look amazing. I then back that up with my artistic style, my formal photography education and my degree in psychology, which is what supports that neologism for me.
It also has the benefit of reducing copycats. While everyone uses common industry terms such as “capturing memories” and we aren’t able to stop anyone else from using them or something similar, it’s a lot harder for a copycat to use someone else’s made up words or phrases and not look like a plagiarizer.
On a fun note, the world of alarm clocks may interest some, but for most of us it’s an evil little glowing thing on our nightstand that forces us out of our comfy beds at horrid hours. Ikea named an alarm clock the Slabang. While many of the Ikea names are derived from actual Swedish places or things, this one doesn’t seem to have those roots and seems instead to approximate the sound your hand may make in fumbling around and slamming down on that snooze button. If you saw an opportunity to buy a generic alarm clock or a Slabang — which on some level implies permission to return a dose of revenge on that ticking demon — which would you choose? Whatever your choice, great marketing play even if most of us now use our phones as alarms!
It kickstarts other marketing ideas and spin-offs
Just like the Marvel-verse that has grown with in characters, movies, spin-off series, video games, lego sets etc, neologisms can birth offshoot brands, products, marketing campaigns, you name it! Something that starts simply being named can turn into full out universes that have a life of their own which fuel powerful marketing.
For example, the neologism of staycation spurred a resurgence of local/ domestic tourism marketing. If people didn’t plan a trip and just stayed near home, there is nothing remarkable about it, and there was nothing for those in the tourism industry to sink their teeth into. An undiscovered market, or at least under-discovered. They marketed mostly towards people outside of their geographical location, to draw those people to their area to explore and spend. But with the economic troubles in 2008 where gas prices spiked and travel reduced, the term gained popularity and uncovered opportunity for the tourism industry to find a new market - the people who might be living around the corner!
So how about a Photocation or Phot-O-asis campaign targeting the tourists that come to your area? For all those offering same-old beach sessions for tourists for example, you can create an entire idea and energy around the concept of these neologisms. Still at the same beach, similar session, but naming it adds curiosity or intrigue and stirs some imagination and feelings, all which are great marketing tools that get you noticed. Possible spin-offs? Add some local cheesy swag like keychains, a coupon to the popular ice-cream place and maybe even a possibility of submitting a client’s photo to a local tourist magazine for the summer cover. See how transformative this fairly simple concept can be? Give it a go!
The Little Luxuries Handbook
Little to no-cost ways to elevate your business and appeal to a more affluent client. Break free of the saturated market and enter the ShineSparkL market.