On St. Valentine’s Day I gave my wife a lovely bunch of fresh shit sticks, they cost a pretty penny but I knew she would love them. They are a thing of beauty and the smell of fresh shit sticks wafted throughout the entire house...Ok, you get the picture, if a rose was called a shit stick, no matter how beautiful and fresh smelling it is, no one would buy them, let alone give them to a loved one.
But that’s a product name and no right minded business would be so stupid as to name a product so badly that no one wanted to buy it. The fact is, businesses spend vast amounts of money on marketing to get things like the name right so that we the consumer buy the product. Take perfume for example, it’s as individual as the people who buy it, or so they say. Wrong! Perfume is not individual. It is designed to fit a segment of the consumer market. It is a response to crunching numbers, analysing data such as that published by the CSO on the make up of the “people”, their whereabouts, their age, their marital status, the breakdown of the sexes, working or not in work (I hate using the word “unemployed” so I won’t use it) and the type of work they do… etc. etc.
This data is fed into the marketing dept. and from this comes a request for a new fragrance which has “tones” of whatever best fits in with the data. Then comes the name, the packaging, the look and feel of the product, the ad campaign etc. etc.
As consumers, especially those in the targeted market segment, we don’t stand a chance. The opposition is loaded with star players and we are just an amateur side.
So when I hear the words “Debt Forgiveness” I can’t but help think about marketing and the way it works in favour of some and against others. If I was running a bank in Ireland and had available to me the data on home loans in arrears, I would be looking for a way to protect the bank above all else. I would be well aware of the pressure building up from all sides to deliver a solution, that is inevitable, but a solution at what cost, that’s something I as the head of the bank can do something about through clever marketing.
So off to the Head of Marketing I go with my data and from this meeting we decide to “name the product” this is very important as it will be used to divide up the loan book from those who are paying and those who are not. You see the Irish consumer is ashamed of not being able to pay the bills and this shame is a tone we can use to limit the amount of deals the bank will have to make and thus limit the losses. So I want a name which is strong but still open, I want the name to have an action, I want it to come with remorse and so I call it “Debt Forgiveness”
This is a great name because it makes those who need it feel guilty and those who don’t feel anger against those who do. Perfect! The more we use this name the more we will limit the damage to the banking sector. We can be seen as “ready and willing to help” but we can also play the poor hand card to the government and put blame on the shoulders of those who can not pay. The name will cause debate on the airwaves, it will split the population between the can and cannot pay, between those who bought a new house and those who didn’t but most of all it will set neighbour against neighbour, home owner against home owner, friend against friend and will make sure that they can never join forces against the banks!
This naming trick is nothing new, in fact the banking sector in Ireland is the most successful player of this trick in the world as far as I can tell. The people of Ireland has over the last number of years been fed a long line of tones in the form of action names, such as “Bank Recapitalisation”, “Debt Restructuring”, “Economic Recovery”, “Fiscal Consolidation” all great action names with enough tones to feed an army on the march.
But look at the examples I gave you, three of them use “Re” to set the correct tone in the minds of those who hear it. This is a tone of hope, it signals a new beginning based on the past experience, “we’ll re-build it better this time – don’t worry” yet when it comes to the issue of mortgage debt we hear the word “Forgiveness” this is very strong, “you did wrong, but I will forgive you as long as you never do it again!” where is the hope of a new beginning in this tone? There is none, none by design! We are to be repentant of our sins until the day we die…
For what it’s worth, I believe in finding a solution to the issue of mortgage debt for the good of the country. I believe there should be a blanket “Equity Debt Write Down” programme which would revalue all mortgages taken out over the last eight years under an agreed set amount of percentage level discounts. I believe that this programme should only apply to primary homes and not to any second (buy to let) / investment properties as these are seen as a business venture and are subject to being handled under business law. This country needs to secure future growth but that is dependent on the amount of spend in the pockets of the people.
No action on mortgages = no growth in the economy, let this happen and a depression will be the only outcome for one and all.
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