Tattoo This Message On Your Brain

You may remember I called for a ban on corporate speak in 2011. Many of you reached out and told me you’ve taken the challenge to heart. Usually New Year resolutions are broken by the first quarter, so as we sum up Q1 2011, I wanted to share some encouraging news to keep you on track.
Researchers at Stanford have concluded that word choice can have a significant impact on how your message is perceived. In the study they created two different styles of messaging to describe a fictional town’s crime problem. The results were very interesting:

“In one study, 71 percent of the participants called for more enforcement when they read: ‘Crime is a beast ravaging the city of Addison.’ That number dropped to 54 percent among participants who read an alternative framing: ‘Crime is a virus ravaging the city of Addison.’”

I think it’s interesting to note the concrete visual that is attached to the words used. You can picture a beast in your mind but you can’t really “see” a virus. The use of concrete imagery is often a primary reason why someone remembers one message over another. The Heath brothers covered this extensively in their book, “Made to Stick.”


The Stanford researchers further concluded “People like to think they’re objective and making decisions based on numbers…They want to believe they’re logical. But they’re really being swayed by metaphors.”
So let science reassure you that reducing corporate speak is in your best interest. Words that provoke concrete imagery or relate to something familiar have a far greater impact than trying to sound like a “corporate professional.” If you want your message to be remembered – and why wouldn’t you? Isn’t that the point of communication? – use words that tattoo an image on someone’s brain.
The full study can be found in the February 23 edition of PLoS ONE.
Jim Nichols is Senior Digital Strategist at Stern + Associates, a full-service communications firm that fuses the best of public relations, traditional media, digital, marketing and direct engagement strategies through its  Connected Communications ^SM approach.  He can be reached at jim@sternassociates.com