Drilling for Diamonds

Few teenagers have trouble translating this text message.
“Talk to you later, gotta go to work, love you lots.”

If teenagers are your customers and you don’t understand how they talk you have a problem.

The first step in understanding any group of customers is to understand how they talk.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Business is drowning in meaningless acronyms. How about this one I came across in Why Business People Speak Like Idiots:

SCUBA - a System to Clean Up Bogus Acronyms

Acronyms that act as memory aids are useful tools.

Acronyms for the sake of acronyms irritate and frustrate.

Popularity: 9% [?]

This heading is a punchy and persuasive chapter in the best book on plain communication I’ve read in a while: Why Business People Speak Like Idiots.

An example taken from Accenture’s annual report which attempts to spell out what sets them apart from competitors: “We harness deep industry, process and technology expertise and unrivaled large-scale, complex change capabilities.”

What does this sentence communicate to you about the style and personality of Accenture?

The authors, Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky have developed Bullfighter a software that quantifies idiocy in the world of business writing.

Popularity: 9% [?]

“I notice that you use plain simple language, short words and brief sentences.

That is the way to write English — it is the modern way and the best way.

Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.” - Mark Twain

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttle fish squirting out ink.” - George Orwell, Animal Farm

Popularity: 10% [?]

To succeed in life you have to be able to sell your case. In today’s media savvy world most of us understand this.

Persuasion in all its forms has become a multi billion dollar industry. A 1995 research paper by Donald McColoskey and Arjo Klamer published in the American Economic Review calculated one quarter of the gross domestic product of the USA is linked to persuasion.

So, why is it that ad agencies, PR companies and businesses continue to spew out so much double speak and bull?

Perhaps they have something to hide? That is certainly what the public thinks. Is it any wonder that surveys testing the publics’ believability, of the truth in advertising messages, continue to fall?

Persuasion starts with believability. And believability starts with words that are jargon free, clear, and full of meaning.

Popularity: 16% [?]

In the June 2007 HBR, Gail McGovern and Youngme Moon ask why companies bind customers with contracts, bleed them with fees and battle them with fine print?

Their answer is simple.

Confused customers make bad decisions and lock themselves into dumb deals.

The banking, health care and mobile phone industries are full of examples where customers lock themselves into long-term deals that make them angry and frustrated.

Beware!

Competitors who come up with customer friendly alternatives are making a killing.

Virgin Mobile USA has enticed millions of angry mobile phone customers away from incumbent carriers.

ING Direct, has quickly become the fourth largest bank by offering accounts without fees, without tiered interest rates and no minimums.

Popularity: 15% [?]