Communication Essentials - Did I pronounce that right? Uh, no. Not even close.

I’m re-watching “The Office” with my 13-year-old and we just saw the episode where Andy and Erin welcome Gabe, a liaison from the new parent company to Scranton. They wrote a song parody to the tune of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” that was all about their new owners, Sabre.

Actually pronounced ‘say-brrr’ like a lightsaber, they mistakenly think it’s pronounced ‘saab-ray’. They find this out minutes before they’re supposed to sing the song…and now nothing rhymes…and it’s awesome to watch.

I thought of this episode when I learned about the new campaign from car-manufacturer Hyundai, for its Hyundai UK group. In it they basically say ‘Hey, you’ve been pronouncing our name wrong. For years.’ You can see it here. Go ahead. Check it out. I’ll be here.

So, weird right? Why wait so long? Did it help them? Did they care? Did they not know we were saying it wrong?

According to them, one of the big reasons is because of its push toward the younger market: (from Carbuzz)

As is evident in the latest Hyundai models, the brand has taken an innovative approach that is aimed at a youthful market. Cutting-edge technology and progressive design have seen Hyundai leap forward in recent years, producing cars that lead the pack and showing massive growth over the last decade. The automaker recently announced the sale of its 15-millionth vehicle in the US, a Hyundai Tucson, which is available as a gas, hybrid, or plug-in hybrid model.

According to me…why not? Why not do it across the board? Why not ask every brand to consider this?

Reason number one. This is an era where we do quite a bit in voice to text, through home assistants and now with AI. It’s more important than ever for consumers to know how to pronounce your name. Time and money well spent.

Reason number two. It’s your brand, man.

Reason number three. Because it’s your name. And maybe that’s because I’m a guy whose last name is Brugler (Bewgler? Bugler? B-rug-ler?) that works for a company named akhia (cool – you work for the furniture company!). But hey, this is your name. For no other reason, it’s important that your audiences know who you are.

Thanks for reading. No matter what, you know now how to properly pronounce the name ‘Hyundai’.