Advertisers often talk about cut-through – the degree to which a campaign or advertisement reaches its audience. Why? Because without it, whatever message the advertisers intend to convey is doomed to invisibility. So cut-through is really the sine qua non of successful advertising: the ‘ticket to the game’, as it were.

Many businesses would do well to take note of this principle. In my experience, business communications are soporifically similar to each other: a fatal flaw of any communication that actually aims to be heard. With few exceptions, they are couched in the bland, clichéd language of the modern office. But rather than just being a depressing fact of corporate life, this is something that can be exploited by the astute business. So how can you make the ‘voice’ of your organisation distinctive and – equally importantly – ensure that it rings true?

Looking again to advertising as a model, the first rule is to be genuine with your audience. Greg Ippolito, writing about The Psychology of Sameness in AdWeek, believes that this is the key to avoiding uniformity: ‘Part of the problem is a lack of empathy. Good creatives know that, in order to craft meaningful communications, you need to empathize with your audience – to understand their worldviews and “pain points” within the context of the product or service you are selling. But very few people are wired for empathy.’

It’s an observation that is essentially true of communication in any sphere, so why should the business world be any different? Granted, some corporate communications are constrained by legal and regulatory requirements, but this alone does not account for the modern tendency towards inert language, repetition and mindless cliché. For this we can also blame complacency, laziness and – above all – a basic lack of respect for the audience.

To extrapolate a little, the homogeneity of business communications probably reflects the broader use of ‘management-speak’. And there’s the rub. As Don Watson and others have noted, this kind of communication does not resonate with most people for the simple reason that it is inauthentic. People bristle when they hear a boss talking about ‘maximising synergies’ because it is not how people really talk – or at least not how they talk to someone with whom they have a genuine relationship. Moreover, this kind of communication can be perceived as an insult to the audience’s intelligence, something to which people are unlikely to respond with great enthusiasm. (Go figure.)

With so much of this swill around – falling on the increasingly deaf ears of a sceptical audience – there is a clear opportunity here for businesses to stand out from their competitors and connect with their audience. And the real bonus? Half the battle is won just by being yourself. If you have a good sense of your own brand (not just some imposed version of it), you can speak with a voice that conveys real personality. You’ll certainly stand out from your pompous-sounding competitors and, hell, people might even like you. It’s common sense – and good business sense.

It is generally accepted that good advertising, indeed good communication, does not condescend. Time for business to get real?

Ryan Wallman is a Senior Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency that specialises in making complex communications simple.

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