Blog

The One-Word Difference

Posted on by Linda Anger

When William Shakespeare penned Romeo’s famous line, What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, he invoked a universal truth —how you perceive a thing is more important and more powerful than the name you assign it.

Most of the time, that is.

But as Frank Luntz, head of the Luntz Research Companies in Washington, D.C. points out, choosing one word over another can make a huge difference in how your company is perceived.  In his book Words that Work, Luntz shares statistics and insights from the political arena that also apply to the business world:

“… by almost two-to-one, Americans say we are spending too much on welfare (42 percent) rather than too little (23 percent). Yet an overwhelming 68 percent of Americans think we are spending too little on assistance to the poor, versus a mere 7 percent who think we’re spending too much.”

As Luntz points out, welfare is assistance to the poor. The difference in public response is in the positioning and phrasing. Welfare has a negative connotation. Assistance to the Poor sounds compassionate and charitable.  His results were similar in a survey regarding taxes to further law enforcement versus taxes to halt the rising crime rate. While the terms essentially point to the same thing, one was viewed as increased administrative costs, and the other as achieving a desirable result – making our world safer.

Back to Business

How your customers view your product or service is directly related to the words and phrases you choose to use in marketing and advertising, just as public opinion is swayed by the conscious word choices of politicians. According to Luntz, for example, accountability trumps professionalism and responsibility because it is the only one of the three that implies enforcement. Learn to weigh the impact of your words and designs carefully, and you’ll soon find that attending to Shakespeare’s question, What’s in a name? can make a difference in your sales, and help you turn thorns into roses.

 

What She Really Meant to Say

Posted on by Linda Anger

What do you suppose Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, really meant when she said she was “encouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage growth on the net”?

A)  She believes eBay is more popular than ever
B)  She’s glad Internet technology is growing
C)  She’s happy more people are using the net

In keeping with Ms. Whitman’s language choices, I have to say that I am discouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage of obscure communications in business. That is, I’m sad that so many business people are more concerned with sounding intellectual than they are with communicating clearly.

Simplicity is the name of the game in getting your message across, and in the end, it’s not what you say that matters. What your client or prospect hears is the critical factor.

Five Guidelines for Clear Messaging:

  1. Avoid words that require a dictionary for interpretation. Few people will bother to look them up.
  2. Use short sentences. Try to keep each sentence under 20 words. Break longer thoughts into multiple sentences.
  3. Make your message relevant. If what you say doesn’t matter to your intended audience, you will not be heard.
  4. Find a clear, concise message and stick with it.
  5. Do not assume your reader thinks and believes as you do.

In the end, language is a tool used to inform and enlighten. The simple choice between one word and another really does make a difference in how your message is understood.

As Dr. Frank Luntz says in his book Words that Work, we need to make people the center of our communication, not the target.

Wal-Mart Reconnaissance

Posted on by Linda Anger

John Nottingham and his business partner, John Spirk – a pair of 50-ish guys from Cleveland, Ohio – spend a lot of time in what they call “Wal-Mart Reconnaissance.” It’s a pastime that has brought them 464 patents and more than $30 billion in sales.

Their success is based on a simple process: find the things ordinary people use every day and make them better. The team invented things like the Sherwin-Williams Twist-and-Pour paint can that saves us from blobs of unintentional color on our otherwise neutral carpeting, and the Crest SpinBrush – the bestselling electric toothbrush on the market.

I heard about them through a profile on NBC news.

The Nottingham-Spirk story makes it clear that a bit of innovation and creative thinking can change an “ordinary” product or service into something extraordinary and wildly popular. Increased function or ease of use equate to higher value and desirability, which leads to increased sales.

Incorporating “Wal-Mart Reconnaissance” into your business might involve:

•  finding and expanding a niche area overlooked or underutilized by your competition
•  developing collaborative partnerships with industry-relative but non-competitive businesses
•  reworking the content and design of your websites, blogs, or brochures

Do your prospects and clients view you as “extraordinary”?  If you’re not sure, it may be time for a trip to Wal-Mart.

 

Ben Franklin’s Business Advice

Posted on by Linda Anger

Before he became the most famous Founding Father of the United States, Ben Franklin was a businessman. His career began at age 12, when he became an apprentice typesetter.

Franklin founded his own printing business at age 22, became the official printer for Pennsylvania at age 24, and was so successful that he retired at age 44.

Some call him the Founding Father of American business.

Franklin’s – 12 rules of management make it clear where modern business gurus have gained their inspiration:

 

1)      Finish better than your beginnings
2)      All education is self-education
3)      Seek first to manage yourself, then to manage others
4)      Influence is more important than victory
5)      Work hard and watch your costs
6)      Everybody wants to appear reasonable
7)      Create your own set of values to guide your actions
8)      Incentive is everything
9)      Create solutions for seemingly impossible problems
10)    Become a revolutionary for experimentation and change
11)     Sometimes it is better to do 1,001 small things right than one large thing right
12)    Deliberately cultivate your reputation and legacy

In “retirement,” Franklin founded the first subscription library in the colonies, the first fire department in Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, a school that became the University of Pennsylvania, the first insurance company, and the first hospital in Philadelphia.

He eventually became a statesman, and was the only Founding Father to sign the three most important documents in America’s young history: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution.

Despite his amazing influence and contributions to the American cause, Congress in 1788 denied him compensation for his service to the government. He died of pleurisy on April 17, 1790.

 

Bob’s Brilliant Marketing Tool

Posted on by Linda Anger

There were over 300 cars in Bob’s funeral procession – the sort of line you would expect for a dignitary or superstar, not a retired tool-and-die designer and small business owner from Detroit. The postman who delivered Bob’s business mail every day for twenty years wept openly. Bob was the only person on his route that greeted him by name, and always shared a smile, a joke, and a cup of coffee.

What made Bob and his business successful wasn’t his skill as a draftsman. He was talented and exact, but so were his competitors. It wasn’t his “convenient” location or the rates he charged – they were industry standard.

What made the difference was Bob. He had a way of letting you know you were important to him, whether you were his client, his neighbor, or his mailman. He didn’t have any 21st-century doodads – no iPod, Blackberry, cell phone, not even a brochure or website. He was so interested in the details of people’s lives – their kid’s names, family birthdays, hobbies, favorite restaurants – that everyone called him a friend. He was so precise and responsive his name was #1 on the “must call” list of all his business associates.

That’s marketing at its best.

There is no question that planning, research, and statistics hold a foundational place in a strong marketing program, but the most brilliant item in your marketing toolbox – the one that makes the most immediate and lasting impact and drives people to come back for more – is you, and what you put into your relationships.

Admit it – at least once in your life, you’ve chosen to buy from one person over another because you liked them and trusted them, not because of their slick brochure or cool TV commercials. And while we’re being honest, admit that for the most part, people who buy from you probably use the same criteria. The most brilliant item in your marketing toolbox cannot be outsourced for production, it can only be developed from within your own heart and mind.

It’s all an inside job.

So what would Bob say about marketing in these unusual times?

  • Be courageous. Be genuine, helpful and upbeat.
  • Share a smile, a joke and a cup of coffee with everyone you meet.
  • Encourage those who need a boost.
  • Give great applause to the smallest victories, and remember this truth: “The most effective marketing does not chase. It attracts.”

The Illinois Rain Forest

Posted on by Linda Anger

Drilling 200 feet below the earth’s surface in Vermillion County, Illinois, coal miners found the remains of a 15-square mile fossilized rain forest. Estimated by the National Geographic Society as about three hundred million years old, the fossilization occurred when an earthquake pulled the forest below sea level and buried it in mud.  Yes, that’s right – a prehistoric, dramatic and devastating earthquake in Illinois, of all places.

Reading the story in an old issue of the New York Times set me to thinking about the “ancient history” items in my home and office – the broken tools, ill-fitting clothes, and old business books stuffed and forgotten in closets and drawers…

…and how the world changes. Earthquakes bury a rain forest in mud, technology alters the way we grow our food, and lightning-fast changes in the social and economic climate change the world of marketing.

There will always be reason to keep a sturdy hammer or a little black dress close at hand, but the profitability of marketing efforts changes incrementally, like a shoreline altered by the tide, or dramatically, like a rain forest buried by an earthquake. Successful marketing requires frequent, careful review and strategic change.

What worked when things were moving fast may not work at all in a slow economy. What attracted a buyer last year may be worn out and cliché today.

A “geological survey” of your content files may unearth timeless treasures, or a pile of worn-out tools and fossilized processes. What’s working for you? What’s not working? What needs to be changed?

The hardest part is putting aside emotional attachment, having a clear vision of your goal and an awareness of your options, and heaving what no longer serves you. Perhaps what once was diamonds has turned to dust – or maybe what you thought was a depleted coalmine is actually a lush rain forest.

Will you sing “I’m proud to be a coal miner’s daughter” while you work?