Ambiguity is the act of making a claim using language that avoid specifics. Strategic ambiguity is normally used as a strategic device in business communication for some situation in real world. It is applicable in advertisement, communication, and in political situation. Ambiguity is a very important and effective form of effective communication in organization where communication is often ambiguous and unclear. Jim and Strbiak says that strategic ambiguity are situation where individuals or organizations uses ambiguity to accomplish their goals. This article discuss and gives an example of strategic ambiguity in real world. It gives the stakeholders involved, the potential conflicts that the ambiguity sidesteps and the dangers that the ambiguity may arose when implemented in real world.
An example of strategic ambiguity is in advertisement slogan used by Electrolux Company. Electrolux is a multinational home appliance manufacturing company. In its advertising slogan of its Electrolux vacuum, cleaner "NOTHING SUCKS LIKE AN ELECTRONUX" the company employs strategic ambiguity. In this slogan, the word "Sucks" may sound negative and grabs the attention of the people. Although the word is very positive in real, sense since sucking is the major purpose of a vacuum cleaner. The company slogan remain positive and potential means of advertisement to the organization. Many other manufacturing, producing, marketing, and selling organization employ ambiguity to gain and generate sell and appeal to the market. The stakeholders involves in this strategic ambiguity in advertisements are material supplies, industry standard groups and the advertising agencies who are the supporting companies.
Although strategic ambiguity is useful for advertisement in organization, it has its own shortcomings. Utilization of ambiguous communication encourages avoidance of responsibility in case of offensive messages due to lack of accountability. Additionally, ambiguity held the receivers at risk of been held responsible for conveyed message. Strategic use of ambiguity as means of effective communication has raise concerns since it has minimizes the importance of ethics.
Ambiguity sidesteps potential conflicts in the advertisement organization. The conflicts raised by ambiguity in advertisement include frequent acquisition of taking shortcuts that ignore grammar and angle of people attention. For instance the Electrolux advertisement slogan that says, “Nothing sucks like an electronic.” The slogan do not state explain in details rather it requires individual to come up with his or her own interpretation. Another advertisement that practice strategic ambiguity is the Apples slogan, which state "Think different.” The advert shy from using "differently," despite the fact that the advert may would have been of more grammatical correct (Xi, 2016). The advert manages to play around with the mind of the audience and appeal effectively to the targeted peoples.
Finally, in the real world, ambiguity has it negative effect especially in the advertisement industry. There are dangers that might eventually arise from using this ambiguity in advertisement. They can pose negative image of the business to the public and can lead to rebellion from the customers. Additionally, Ambiguity creates complexity and means decision-making is difficult. Finally, ambiguity lead to negative repercussions for non-targeted groups and minorities. The above paper discusses the strategic ambiguity in the real world in the advertisement industry. It gives the example of Electrolux and Apples slogans used in advertisement.
References
Jim, P., & Strbiak, C. A. (2007). The Ethics of Strategic Ambiguity. Business Communication, 32(02).
March, J. G. (2007). Ambiguity and choice in organizations. Florida: Bergen.
Mooij, M. K. (2010). Global marketing and advertising : understanding cultural paradoxes. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Xi, T. (2016). Examples of Ambiguity in Advertising. Yourbusiness.azcentral.com. Retrieved 14 May 2016, from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/examples-ambiguity-advertising-24437.html
