Misunderstandings abound in pop music — and mattress sales
By Gordon Hecht, YSN Contributor
Two score and five years ago the mighty Pittsburgh Pirates were starting their improbable World Series season. At the same time, Detroit-born Doug Fieger released a song that had an improbable climb to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100. The single remained there for six weeks and was featured on his band’s debut album, “Get the Knack.”
“My Sharona” took the nation by storm. Back in ’79 we loved the clever lyrics and foot-stomping beat. We just didn’t understand why someone would sing about “mice aroma.”
What are they saying?
Misunderstood lyrics are common in rock ’n roll. There’s even a term for it: mondegreen, a misheard word or phrase that makes sense in your head but is in fact incorrect.
In our own retail world, we can cause our own set of mondegreens. We quote a customer four-to-six weeks delivery. We mean around six weeks and our shoppers hear no more than four weeks. Same for arrival time on delivery day. We say between noon and 4 p.m. At 11:30 a.m. your shopper calls to ask why the truck is late.
Common mondegreens and ways to avoid them
Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza1: Some retail sales associates can cause a mondegreen when discussing warranties. Most product guarantees have exclusions and restrictions. Other products have longer coverage on some items and shorter terms on others. Think about items where parts are covered for five years and labor is covered for one year. When a shopper is told “This has a five-year warranty,” they understand it to mean full bumper-to-bumper coverage.
Give Me the Beach Boys and Free My Soul2: It’s uncomfortable getting used to new things. Our neighbors recently purchased a new $60,000 SUV and kept their 2008 Toyota Highlander as a second car. But as it turned out, they keep their new ride in the garage and continue to drive the Highlander.
You see, no one at the auto dealership showed them how to use all the buttons and gadgets on the new vehicle. Our neighbors will probably never be able to enjoy all the features and benefits they paid for.
People buy a new mattress for comfort and a great night’s sleep. Often they are also replacing a 2008 (or earlier) model. Luckily, there are no buttons or gadgets on a flat mattress. But there is a break-in period. That needs to be fully explained. Chances are good that the additional support and comfort level of the new bed will take some time to get used to. Often, it’s five or more nights.
Unless your customer understands and expects the break-in experience, you may still get that call, demanding an exchange the day after delivery.
I Travel the World in Generic Jeans3: Every business has nomenclature that includes initials, abbreviations and acronyms. They’re great time savers when communicating within your tribe. But all the inside lingo has little value or meaning to people outside the organization.
Abbreviations like IWC, PCM, PCF and IDL need to be explained to your shopper. What they mean and why it’s important. Terms like profile, firm, plush and Euro-top are cool descriptors to us hepcats of the bedding world. For your shopper though, you may be better off saying height, hard, soft and “one extra tape edge with a little more comfort.”
Make it easy
This is a great era for listening to music. For the past couple of decades, if you wanted to understand the actual lyrics to a song, you simply tapped a few buttons on your keyboard or phone.
Help your shoppers understand too. Provide information that can be printed or emailed. Add in a short video. And provide an easy-to-navigate phone system and a text help line.
Back when The Knack was recording “Good Girls Don’t,” you had to keep moving the needle on the 45 to hear a line from a song again. Or hit rewind on your cassette player. Or be totally lost on an Eagles 8-track and sing “You’ve been outright offensive for so long now4.”
Elton John1: “Hold me closer, tiny dancer.”
Uncle Kracker2: “Give me the beat boys and free my soul.”
Eurythmics3: “I travel the world and the seven seas.”
The Eagles4: “You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now.”
Gordon Hecht is a business growth and development consultant to the retail home furnishings industry and a regular contributor to YSN. You can reach him at Gordon.Hecht@aol.com.
