The hyphen, the marketing professional’s little helper

The appropriate use of hyphens is one of those hard-to-explain conventions of written English, because there seem to be as many exceptions as there are rules.

For example, anti-democracy has a hyphen while antibiotic and antiseptic do not. Basically, hyphens should help clarify meaning. The easiest way to explain this is with the following example:

French language student = a French student studying language
French-language student = a student studying the French language

We have not included all the hyphen rules here, just the ones most commonly associated with marketing ‘speak’. The reason marketing people are fond of hyphens is because they can be used to create adjectives (or adjective phrases) that describe products and services, such as cutting-edge technology, industry-leading software, state-of-the-art design, round-the-clock service.

As always, if you’re ever in doubt about when to use a hyphen just contact us.

1. Use a hyphen when two or more words form an adjective (called a compound adjective) before a noun.

End-user website
Cost-benefit analysis
Customer-focused approach
Thought-provoking statement
World-class performance

You do NOT need to use a hyphen if the words are NOT used before a noun.

The website is for the end user.
The approach is customer focused.
That statement was very thought provoking.
The performance was world class.

2. Use a hyphen when you are using an adverb (such as well, ill, lower, etc.) together with another word to form a compound adjective.

Lower-paid job
Less-common phrases
Fast-paced environment
Ill-equipped hikers

EXCEPT when that adverb ends with ‘ly’:

Expensively dressed supermodel
Commonly used phrases
Wholly owned subsidiary
Closely fought contest

3. Use a hyphen when you join words together to form an adjective or adjective phrase, but take care.

Although the examples below are common phrases, there are times when using hyphens in this way can be pointless and irritating, such as: This is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opportunity!

Call-to-action phrases
Door-to-door delivery
Easy-to-use instruction guide

As mentioned above, this is not the conclusive guide to using hyphens. If you’d like to brush up your grammar and writing style, sign up for one of Eye for Image's customized writing courses!