Congruence is Key with Clients!
- Victoria Hogg
- Mar 7
- 3 min read
You’re an actor in an improvised play about to walk on stage. You have no clue who your character is, how you relate to the other players already on stage or even what your first line is. And yet, you walk on anyway. “Aha! Here comes the chimney sweep!”, someone exclaims. And there you go: not only do you have a job, you have a persona too as you adopt the swagger and cockney chit-chat of Dick Van Dyke. The audience gets it, you get it, the other players get it. It’s congruence all round. Hooray!
Now imagine if you walked on and your first words were “Er, no - I’m an accountant”. The audience are thrown, the players are thrown. The denial is jolting and needs a recovery. In that moment there is no congruence. Booooo!
Congruence, in improv terms, is all about being obvious and keeping it simple. It makes sense to just say the next obvious thing. Nothing too complicated. Otherwise you confuse the room.
IMPROV Inc. helps small businesses refine their niche and align with their clients using improv techniques. That’s what we do. We reduce confusion - because a confused person says “No”. And we want people to say yes to you when you tell them about your business.
Something I stumbled upon…
Last week, I walked around a rather remote neighbourhood where cars don’t exist and the residents and workforce walk or take electric scooters everywhere. There were occasional electric golf-buggy-style mini people transporters too. It was refreshing to see how people can live and work in such a non-car dependant world.
Except I couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that this car-free design still felt anti-pedestrian. The walkways were narrow and on raised kerbs. Street furniture and lamp posts cluttered the way and created trip hazards. Some very clear pedestrian desire lines ended in flower beds or weren’t aligned with pedestrian crossings…. and why were there pedestrian crossings? In a car-free zone?
The messaging and imaging of this car-free place, to me, just didn’t align with what’s actually been built. And yet it seems so easy to have done it differently. How incongruent!
“Does exactly what it says on the tin” The Ronseal Guy: Dave Shelton / Liz Whiston for Ronseal
Something that “does exactly what it says on the tin”…
This is a phrase that sits in the Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms and is one of the greatest marketing slogans ever created. The line comes from the famous Ronseal TV adverts from the early 1990’s. “If you’ve got wood to stain and you want it to dry quickly then use Ronseal’s Quick-Drying Wood Stain”. And there you have it. It’s obvious and leaves zero doubt. No messing.
It reminds me of when the comedian Andy Parsons was having a rant about the obvious messaging of cereal packets where they offer a suggestion of pairing the cereal with a food to complement and elevate the eating experience. “‘Weetabix: Nice with Strawberries”, was the slogan that Andy would rant, adding: “THAT’S BECAUSE STRAWBERRIES ARE NICE!” Well, quite.
Both are correct, of course. The cereal company for stating the obvious (strawberries are nice) and Parsons for pulling the humour in an obvious way. Messaging lands fastest when it’s relatable and at its simplest - in slogans; in one-liners. It’s the same with your business.
Something that tingled…
There can be no denying the connection between the players and coaching staff of Hibernian football club and their fans. If you’ve ever seen the crowds rendition of The Proclaimers’ ‘Sunshine on Leith’ - the long-adopted anthem for Hibernian fans - it’s evident.
They belted this out, last weekend, after their victory over their city rivals: Hearts. It’s inescapable: the unison of the singing, no missed beats, the silence between sung lines, the harmony and resonance of the lyrics, the passion in the crowd’s voice, the very clear bond with players and fans…. Across Scotland, the song is synonymous with the club, and this is spreading across the football world.
Branding at its best. Proper congruence.
If you YouTube one thing this week do this. Catch the goose-bump emotions here: Sunshine on Leith.
Comentarios