Steer clear of sesquipedalian language

Remember:

  • Fuzzy thinking about brands spawns fuzzy language
  • To convey a brand simply, clearly, and powerfully requires a deep understanding of the brand
  • A lack of clarity is a branding problem as much as a wordsmithing problem

Congratulations if you know what sesquipedalian means! Just please never use it in a sentence. For those scratching their heads, it means a tendency to use really big words. Great for Scrabble® players, bad for communicators.

Simplicity is best when it comes to copy, too. This may be readily acknowledged, but the source of unclear copy isn’t.

Writing that lacks clarity is not always the result of an overused thesaurus or an over reliance on buzzwords. The bigger culprit is a lack of clarity in the thinking that comes before the writing. In our case, a lack of brand clarity.

The origins of fuzzy thinking

It's happened to many of us in marketing. The first time was probably in your salad days. That first day on the job when you were handed a pile of marketing material to digest.

You read that this technology was proactive and value-added. That technology has synergy and paradigms. (“If your paradigm shifts for more than four hours, please consult your physician.”) There were so many acronyms in the brochure that it may have been texted by a tween.

You probably didn’t realize, but what you were experiencing was a brand trapped in its own vicious circle: fuzzy thinking spawned fuzzy language … which spawned more fuzzy thinking. It’s like Whisper Down the Lane, with a bit of the brand lost in the translation at every hand-off.

Simplicity isn’t easy

Simplicity should not be thought of as dumbing down. Dumbing up would be more accurate. Because to convey an idea simply, clearly, and powerfully requires a deep understanding of the idea. Now replace idea with brand in the last sentence. Same premise applies.

A lack of simplicity is a branding problem as much as a wordsmithing problem. A clearly defined brand begets clear language. So hunker down with your brand and clarify away.

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