Make Your Words Count

Several great minds, including literate Mark Twain and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, have been credited with saying in one form or another, “I apologize for the length of this letter. If I had more time, it would have been much shorter”.  

Whether giving a speech, visiting with a customer, or writing an ad, being concise and unique is far better than being long-winded, typical, and boring.  

Remember when we only had a limited number of automotive choices?  A typical mid-sized market might have had Ford, GM, Chrysler, and maybe one or two German or Japanese products to choose from.

In that same period, there were probably only one or two fast-food chains and no big box stores in your market.

Today, the typical market has added BMW, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Audi, Volvo, Jaguar, Honda, Acura, and Lexus, just to mention a few.

In addition, McDonald’s now has many competitors in the burger category alone, not to mention the taco restaurants, Italian eateries, sandwich shops, even convenience stores all vying for the consumer’s attention.  

The average consumer today receives in excess of 3,600 advertising messages a day, including radio, TV, newspaper, packaging, signage, internet, and more.

Before today’s cluttered and competitive world, many advertisers succeeded with clichés and by simply keeping their name in front of the public. Today it’s much more competitive, and simple name recognition and repetition are not enough to ensure a return on your advertising investment. You need to brand your business before the consumer is in the market for your products or services.

Branding by definition necessitates differentiating yourself from your competition. Being different cannot be accomplished by saying the same thing as your competitors or using the same tired clichés used by other marketers. 

Whether in your advertising or when having conversations with customers, make sure the words you use aren’t the same words that all your competitors are using!  

I have developed a list of clichés that should be avoided if your advertising is to stand out among the crowd and be remembered. To see the complete list of clichés, click here.  

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