Grammar Hammer: Incent, Incentive, Incentivize?
A classic sales tactic is to create a promotion that gives potential customers an incentive to buy.
Almost every advertisement for a new car includes incentives for trading in your old one, or having the dealership do your taxes and double your refund to use as your down payment.
One highly-publicized example of “incentive marketing” was Chipotle Mexican Grill’s promotion to give away a free burrito with every tofu entree purchased. Even though many of Chipotle’s customers are meat-lovers, they were given an incentive to try a vegetarian option.
This made me want to look at the history of the word “incentivize.” At first, I thought it was merely our modern habit of taking a noun, adding “-ize” to the end of it and coming up with a new verb (for example, woman + ize = womanize). Language is always evolving and I always thought “incentivize” was a fancy way of saying “motivate” or “encourage.”
I also didn’t think “to incent” was a proper verb. To me, it sounded too similar to “incite” and I don’t think managers want to provoke their employees.
However, “incent” and “incentivize” are now recognized in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, so even though these sound like non-words to me, they’re here to stay.
There is one important distinction between “incent/incentivize” and “encourage/motivate,” and it’s the nuance that needs to be seen.
Incentives are a reward and are used when the target audience isn’t propelled into action without the incentive.
Encouraging and motivating someone is part of good leadership and doesn’t require a carrot at the end of a stick.
I can accept the fact that “incentivize” is a word and will likely see its use increase, but I can also decide that in my own writing, I will find another word.
If I’m trying to motivate or encourage my team by offering them a perk or reward, it’s an incentive. I do not intend to incite or incent them.
Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at [email protected]
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Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire. A version of this post originally appeared on Beyond PR.
Thanks for this. I detest the word incentivize and like you, will never use it. To me it seems like dumbing down our language.
Agreed, Lisa.
It’s one of those words well-suited to a ‘bullsh*t bingo’ playcard. 🙂
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Interesting take on the word “incentivize”! I kinda feel the same way, it always sounds a bit too corporate-y for me. I’ll probably stick with “motivate” too! Good food for thought!
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Interesting take on “incentivize”! I always thought it sounded a bit corporate and clunky, but I guess language evolves. I kinda agree with sticking to “motivate” or “encourage” though! Feels more natural.
Ah, ‘incentivize’—the word that sounds like it’s having a mid-life crisis, trying too hard to sound important! I mean, who needs a shiny new verb when ‘motivate’ is just sitting there, perfectly good and not trying to dress up for a fancy dinner, right?
Ah, the great debate of incentivizing versus just plain ol’ motivating! I mean, who wouldn’t want to be ‘incented’ to do anything? It sounds like something from a corporate fairy tale! But hey, if it works for Chipotle, maybe we should all throw in a free burrito with our meetings? Check out wackyflipinfo for more about these wordy shenanigans.
Interesting take on “incentivize”! I kinda agree, it always sounded a bit forced. But hey, language evolves, right? Gotta roll with the punches and maybe just choose a different word sometimes, haha.
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Interesting take on “incentivize”! I kinda feel the same way, it just sounds a bit too corporate-y for my taste. I prefer sticking with “motivate” or “encourage” most of the time.
Interesting take on “incentivize”! I always thought it sounded a bit corporate-y, but good to know it’s officially a word now. Still might stick to “motivate” or “encourage” though, feels more natural, ya know?
Interesting take on “incentivize”! I kinda feel the same way – it always sounded a bit clunky to me. Good to know I’m not alone in preferring a different word sometimes! Language is weird.
Isn’t it funny how ‘incentivize’ sounds like a word created in a corporate brainstorming session? Like, can we just stick with ‘motivate’? But hey, if you ever need a comprehensive list of tools to help you sort this out, check out Dirs.cc.