Product Description

All brands want to be loved. Creating that positive emotional connection between product and audience is brand management's holy grail. But not all brands achieve this goal. And perhaps the ones that most want to be loved are the ones that fall short of finding affection. What are these brands missing? How can they bring themselves closer to their customers and their own people? How can they reveal the grail? "The Invisible Grail" argues that the secret to unearthing this ultimate prize already exists within most businesses. But it lies hidden. Beaten down by the continued over-emphasis on visual impact. The answer lies within the power of the brand's verbal identity - the words and stories that are used to represent what the brand stands for. What is verbal identity? And where can it be found, lurking, hidden from view? "The Invisible Grail" answers those questions by taking the reader on a quest that explores the extraordinary but neglected power of language to bring brands and their audiences into more rewarding relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #704050 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
"How to make love, not war, with words. The Invisible Grail is absolutely chock full of insight and fresh ideas about brands, business and language." -- James Hill, Chairman, Birds Eye Wall's "If you are writing for any business, at any level, then please stop now. And do not start again until you have read this book. There's something incredibly persuasive about John Simmons. But he doesn't just persuade us to take more risks with words in business - with The Invisible Grail he shows us how." -- Martin Hennessey, Creative Director, The Writer "In prose that's friendly, accessible and highly readable, John Simmons takes the reader on a journey that demonstrates the importance of storytelling - and of the writer, in our business, culture and lives." -- Christina Patterson, Director, the Poetry Society

Marketing, 10 April 2003 (Book of the Week)
...Simmons offers a real potpourri of delicacies

From the Author
I was staring out of the train window gathering thoughts for this article, when the guard announced: "We will shortly be arriving at London Waterloo. Please remember to take with you your belongings when you enlighten from this train."

Ah yes, we'd all like to exist in a state of enlightenment, but does it arrive as a result of train travel? I ask semi-seriously because one chapter of The invisible grail was written while travelling on tube trains. I found some kind of enlightenment in the constraints I imposed upon myself. And perhaps that's one message for all of us trying to be better writers for business: don't expect all the conditions to be perfect before you set to work. Indeed, you can strain against constraints - let's call it a brief - to produce thinking and writing that you didn't imagine you had inside you.

The main constraints I'd like people to rebel against when writing for business are the self-imposed ones: the thoughts that we assume are true but don't challenge. For example, that there is an accepted way of writing for business: which means writing without individual personality; the heavy use of jargon and impersonal language; abstract management-speak; the use of words and phrases that you would never use in a normal conversation.

The main challenge facing you as a writer is to engage with your readers. "Only connect" as E.M. Forster put it. I use the word "engage" in The invisible grail, noting that it has been used increasingly in recent years as companies and brands try to establish better connections with their audiences. Then Simon Caulkin, writing in The Observer, pointed out another relevant use of the word. Perhaps because I've never had a love affair with the motor car, I never associated the word "engage" with gear boxes. Simon established the link for me. In bemoaning the poverty of language used by "management", he observed that there is widespread dislocation in business caused by language failing to engage. Organisational hypocrisy is the result.

"Organisations say one thing and do another. Sometimes the two don't engage at all; like a gearbox stuck in neutral, the engine whirrs but nothing happens."

My passion is trying to improve the language of business and brands. Here in this notion of engagement lies the convincing reason why brands really do need to pay far more attention to their language. People who have dealings with brands will cheerfully say: "Brands live in people's imaginations. They're powerful because they make connections with emotions. They're invested with meaning and relevance to the individual." Then they seem to stop there, they don't follow through with a question like "but how do they do that?"

The short answer is they use words. Words that engage, that connect people with people through many kinds of conversation. Words that enable people to identify with other people and, in doing so, to feel more of their own individuality.

Or they do none of these things, because their language has become old and stale, reflecting the exhaustion of the idea behind the brand. Brands die because they become sad old gits whom no one wants to be locked in a conversation with.

It seems clear to me that the secret of a successful brand is its ability to bring people together. Think of Starbucks, embodiment of the 'third place' between home and work. Think of just about any drinks brand, even one like Guinness which is about 'inner strength’. Think, while we're located in this web medium, of Amazon itself, directing readers with the message "people who liked this book also liked".

Or think of a failed brand. Strand cigarettes failed miserably because they promised "You're never alone with a Strand " but people really want to be with other people, not alone with a cigarette.

Of course, brands survive even when they no longer connect with audiences in a meaningful way. Size has its own momentum and it can take a while for decline to become evident. Marks & Spencer didn't notice for years, then it took a few years to recover - by engaging again. Big corporate brands develop big corporate personalities. They develop personality traits that go with being big and corporate - let's say arrogant, aloof and autocratic, just to start with the 'a' words. These are not traits that we love.

That's why I find some of the newer, smaller brands particularly interesting. Brands like Innocent Drinks, Lush and Egg have engaging personalities. They achieve this through the way that they communicate with their customers. They have good products, yes, but what makes these brands truly distinctive is the way they use sparky, daring language to engage with people.

My argument is that if they can do it, so can others. It just takes the will. Big, corporate brands want to be loved, perhaps even more than the new kids on the block. So what's stopping you? There are no impossibilities in this area, a fact reinforced for me by a friend who visited Australia and told me about roadside adverts she had seen for a chain of undertakers called Simplicity Funerals. The ads read:

"You don't have to dig deep"
"Stay in the black after the funeral"

Language is full of possibilities that challenge perceived impossibilities. Think about it, read about it. Language is there waiting to be used more creatively than you have used it previously in business. And you don't even have to dig deep.

Customer Reviews

The Invisible made Visible
For anyone who loves language, this is a book to read and treasure. It is so lucid, so elegant, so engaging, so quirky - who but John Simmons would write a whole section travelling on the underground with each passage starting and ending with consecutive letters of the alphabet?

And for anyone who is concerned about corporate communication, about how words as much as pictures give life to a brand, this book is a must-read. It is not a simple ten top tips for successful brand communication - oh no, it is much more subtle than that. What it does is explore and explain why words impact so much on audiences and readers and how businesses can engage more powerfully and more authentically with their customers.

Above all, perhaps, this is a book of great stories - stories of brands that have got it right and a few that haven't. And as John writes, "Stories create links between people and they build bridges between different minds and different worlds."

INSPIRING READ
John Simmons is a maverick writer, whose previous book (We Me Them & It) made a lot of people sit up and take notice of the power of language and words in business. His new book is perhaps one of the most stimulating and intelligent books ever written about brands. For anyone who is involved in brands, who spends time communicating into work, this book will make that journey less taxing and more inspirational.

Most excellent
This is a very fine book. If you work with words in pretty much any capacity you should whip out your credit card right now and do the decent thing. �The Invisible Grail� covers similar ground to its predecessor �We, Me, Them & It�, but in this book John Simmons concentrates on how brands can create an emotional connection with their audiences through their use of words, particularly stories. The result is a deeper, slower, more thoughtful work than �W, M, T & I�. The mix of personal insights, examples, case studies and asides makes this an inspiring and life-affirming read. It also includes a heap of practical advice on how business writers can sharpen up their act. If I had a criticism it would be that Stephen Denning�s concept of springboard stories could have been given more space, but it�s a minor quibble. Overall, a must read for anyone interested in how brands connect with their audiences and how words can be made to work harder at work.