Goodification: Are companies damaging their brand through poor grammar?

Don't get me wrong, I love to make up my own words. A a child, my brother and I referred to summersaults as 'joo-bar-joo-cees', because it was apparently easier to say. I have at times said, 'betterer', 'bestest' and even 'yous'. It pains me to admit my grammatical shortcomings, but I am a mere mortal.

On the other hand, you have a company like KFC, who have unleashed a campaign of "Goodification". This is a play on their slogan of 'So Good' and has spawn terms such  as, 'gooder', 'gooderer', 'gooderest' and 'goodest'. The premise behind these new terms, is apparently to demonstrate a commitment to improve, from service to product. Unfortunately, the teacher in me wants to pack away my gold stars and let loose with a red pen. But I stop myself and ask, "am I fighting a losing battle?"

I can understand that companies want to connect with young, hip, textese speaking individuals, and what better way to connect, than to 'speak their language'. But the realist in me is coming to accept that respect for, and in fact knowledge of, the English language is being diminished each day. During my time at University, studying a Teaching degree no less, my cohort was reminded countless times that presenting our essays with text-message-esque abbreviations was not acceptable. This instructions had to be explicitly and repeatedly stated, to people now considered professionals, and now charged with the responsibility to teach your children how to read, write and spell correctly.

Marketing and advertising professionals have a job to do. It is not to educate or maintain the sanctity of the English language. It is to sell a product, a concept, an idea. It is to entrench brands into our everyday lives. The question is, are companies alienating potential consumers through the use of campaigns containing poor grammar? The actual sales stats of the 'Goodification' campaign would be interesting, and may paint a different picture, but the reply comments to the youtube Goodification do not point to an encouraging uptake of this campaign. So too, the comments following a Goodification story on mUmBRELLA, signal widespread dissatisfaction with the bastardisation of the English language. I am left to ponder though, are the individuals who are so moved to comment publicly, really all that likely to purchase KFC products? If potential consumers are educated to a standard where they possess an extensive vocabulary of superlatives, surely they would have examined the nutritional and financial implications of purchasing and consuming something from KFC? It remains to be seen if the Goodification campaign will pay off for KFC, but for now it is at least resulting in some interesting online discussion.

Companies can run the risk of damaging their brand, or even worse, failing to connect with potential clients, through the use of poor grammar (deliberate or unintentional). Caution should be exercised in implementing marketing campaigns targeted, through use of language, at a specific demographic. New business gained through such strategies may initially result in growth, but can greatly undermine an established customer base. Overall, I believe consumers should be given more credit, as a majority can see through Gen Y inspired marketing ploys. Children are being educated to be more savvy consumers, and as such can no longer be enticed with fun, cool concepts and shiny things. There is no need to 'dumbify' concepts, simply to cater for the lowest common denominator. Treat consumers, like the English language,  and show the respect which is deserved.