Wanna hear something strange?
Of all the snow we’ve gotten in the decade I’ve lived in Buffalo, the storm I remember most happened before I moved here.
It was November 2014.
That’s when back-to-back lake-effect snowstorms crippled the area, leaving some people digging out from up to seven feet of snow.
But that’s not why it sticks out to me.
More indelible was the Buffalo-themed “survival package” I got from a group of friends who lived through it.
Nestled within the assortment of candy, cheeses, dips, and other Western New York specialties was something called a sparkling loganberry drink.
I was about to toss it since I’m not much for soda pop. But my three-year-old son Wylie begged me to reconsider. To him, something purple in a glass bottle was far more refined than his usual juice box, unknown berry be damned!
He’d never had a fizzy drink before. But given the choice between explaining carbonation to a toddler and doing nothing, I let it play out.
Wylie tipped the bottle toward his mouth long enough to take a single swallow. Then, he politely offered me the rest as if any more would have impaired his ability to drive.
I could tell something was off. But his reflective expression told me it was more complex than simply not liking it.
Eventually, he broke his silence with a combination of words I’d never heard before …
“It tastes like electricity.”
Like electricity.
It’s vivid, textured, alive. You can’t say that about bubbly, tingly, or even effervescent.
And even though that description was personal to Wylie, it makes perfect sense to the rest of us—even if we wouldn’t have thought of it ourselves.
* * *
Listen close enough and you’ll hear people talk about how they see the world in loads of colorful and unexpected ways.
Like when my chiropractor described a seismic neck adjustment as a “rowdy” maneuver.
Or when a friend in Philadelphia said an especially oppressive summer day was like “swimming in Vaseline.”
That’s the kind of language worth digging for if you want your marketing to feel authentic to your audience.
I say “digging for” because as marketers, we’re also investigators.
We investigate our product for that one unique element we can build a story around.
We investigate our competition to see what we’re up against.
But none of that work matters if we don’t investigate our audience so we can speak to their deepest feelings and motivations. That’s why …
Your most valuable marketing asset is the language of the market.
As much as I’ve been playing with AI for certain tasks, this is no time for a chatbot assist.
I’ll show you what I mean …
When I asked ChatGPT “What does anxiety feel like?” it gave me these 10 descriptions:
- A racing heart or chest tightness
- Shortness of breath or a feeling like you can’t get a deep breath
- Stomach discomfort, nausea, or “butterflies”
- Sweating, trembling, or feeling jittery
- A sense of restlessness—like you can’t sit still
- Constant worry, often about things that may not happen
- A sense of dread or feeling like something bad is coming
- Difficulty concentrating or feeling mentally “foggy”
- Irritability or being easily overwhelmed
- Feeling disconnected or detached from your surroundings (sometimes called depersonalization or derealization)
Not terrible if you like reading medical textbooks.
Now, compare those to these 10 snippets I pulled from a Reddit thread when I asked it the same question:
- “You feel like a fragile thing and could be blown away by the slightest thing”
- “Like a clingy-ass child at my hip 24/7 365 days of the year and refuses to let go”
- “Don’t know how to enjoy a party without fretting and overthinking about it”
- “Fear that won’t go away even when there is no reason to be afraid”
- “Like I am doing everything wrong, when doing nothing wrong”
- “My mind is heavy with thoughts, and I can’t organize them all”
- “Feels like that saying ‘I have no mouth but I must scream’”
- “My heart feels like it’s being squeezed tightly and it becomes harder to breathe”
- “Like I’m falling down very fast from a very high place but I’m standing still”
- “I feel brainless”
See the difference? More importantly, do you feel the difference?
GPT’s answers aren’t technically wrong. But they’re not nearly as vivid, moving, and deeply relatable to people who suffer from anxiety as what I peeled off Reddit.
So, if you had to develop a promotion for an anti-anxiety supplement, you’d have a much better chance at connecting with your audience using real language from forums or reviews vs. AI’s neater and more sanitized response.
That’s why taking the time to collect rich, voice-of-customer data is a step you should never ignore—no matter how much everyone is barking at you to “get the campaign out.”
Otherwise, you’ll end up with marketing that feels flat and mass-produced.
Or, if you happen to be in Buffalo, like a lifeless juice box instead of something that’s a bit more, you know …
Like electricity.
Here’s a song to play you out >>>
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