Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear

by Frank Luntz

“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way.”1 —GEORGE ORWELL (1946)

You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs.

Words that work, whether fiction or reality, not only explain but also motivate. They cause you to think as well as act. They trigger emotion as well as understanding.

“Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.” —WINSTON CHURCHILL

“When we disregard the rules altogether we get anarchy or, worse yet, Enron.” —POLITICAL HUMORIST BILL MAHER

but unless you speak the language of your intended audience, you won’t be heard by the people you want to reach.

The most effective language clarifies rather than obscures. It makes ideas clear rather than clouding them. The more simply and plainly an idea is presented, the more understandable it is—and therefore the more credible it will

Rule Two Brevity: Use Short Sentences

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” —Mark Twain

Be as brief as possible. Never use a sentence when a phrase will do, and never use four words whe...

Sometimes two or three words are worth more than a thousand.

So when it comes to effective communication, small beats large, short beats long, and plain beats complex. And sometimes a visual beats them all.

Rule Three Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy

People have to believe it...

If your words lack sincerity, if they contradict accepted facts, circumstances, or percepti...

The words you use become you—and you become the words you use.

The combination of broken promises and blown expectations is always a fatal concoction.

Credibility is established very simply. Tell people who you are or what you do. Then be that person and do what you have said you would do. And finally, remind people that you are what in fact you say you are. In a simple sentence: Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Good language is like the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going . . . and going . . . and going.

Message consistency builds customer loyalty.

Finding a good message and then sticking with it takes extraordinary discipline, but it pays off tenfold in the end. Remember, you may be making yourself sick by saying the same exact same thing for the umpteenth time, but many in your audience will be hearing it for the first time. The overwhelming majority of your customers or constituents aren’t paying as much attention as you are.

Rule Five Novelty: Offer Something New In plain English, words that work often involve a new definition of an old idea.

So from a business perspective, you should tell consumers something that gives them a brand-new take on an old idea (and then, in accordance with rule number four, tell them again and again). The combination of surprise and intrigue creates a compelling message. Although often executed with humor, what matters most is that the message brings a sense of discovery, a sort of “Wow, I never thought about it that way” reaction.

There’s a simple test to determine whether or not your message has met this rule. If it generates an “I didn’t know that” response, you have succeeded.

The sounds and texture of language should be just as memorable as the words themselves. A string of words that have the same first letter, the same sound, or the same syllabic cadence is more memorable than a random collection of sounds. The first five rules in this chapter do just that: simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, and novelty stand out because they all end with the same sound.

The sound of music has magical powers that transcend the language it is meant to augment.

Rule Seven Speak Aspirationally Messages need to say what people want to hear.

people will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel. If the listener can apply the language to a general situation or human condition, you have achieved humanization. But if the listener can relate that language to his or her own life experiences, that’s personalization.

Aspirational advertising language doesn’t sell the product as a mere tool or as an item that serves a specific, limited purpose. Instead it sells the you—the you that you will be when you use the product . . . a smarter, sexier, sunnier you. It’s not about creating false expectations, for that would diminish credibility. It’s about encouraging the message recipient to want something better—and then delivering it.

In the same way, aspirational advertising language taps into people’s idealized self-image, showing them a picture of the other, better life that they wish they had, the life that feels like it’s just out of reach right now . . . but that your product may finally help them grasp.

And good advertisements, in a much more minor way, accomplish much the same thing. They make idealists of us all.

Rule Eight Visualize

But visualizing has as much to do with words as it does with pictures, and there is one word in the English language that automatically triggers the process of visualization by its mere mention, simply because it has 300 million unique, individual, personal manifestations to match the 300 million Americans. That word: imagine. Whether it’s the car of your dreams or the candidate of your choice, the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds.

Rule Nine Ask a Question

A statement, when put in the form of a rhetorical question, can have much greater impact than a plain assertion.

The question-rule has day-to-day implications as well. A customer complaining to the store manager that her meat has too much fat in it is less effective than if she asked: “Does this look lean to you?” Similarly, asking “What would you do if you were in my shoes?” puts direct pressure on the recipient of your complaint to see things your way.

But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal—and personalized communication is the best communication.

Context is so important that it serves not only as the last and most important rule of effective communication, but also as its own chapter. You have to give people the “why” of a message before you tell them the “therefore” and the “so that.”

In corporate advertising, as in politics, the order in which you present information determines context, and it can be as important as the substance of the information itself. The “so that” of a message is your solution, but solutions are meaningless unless and until they are attached to an identifiable problem. Finding the right “why” to address is thus just as important as the “how” you offer. Products and services alike must all respond to a felt need on the part of the public.

Context is only half of the framing effort. The other half—relevance—is focused on the individual and personal component of a communication effort. Put most simply, if it doesn’t matter to the intended audience, it won’t be heard.

Relevance is one reason market research is so crucial. Until you know what drives and determines a consumer’s or a voter’s decision-making process, any attempt to influence him or her is really just a shot in the dark. It’s relying on luck to hit its target. But once market research has identified the key factors on which a decision turns, then your message can be tailored specifically to those relevant points.

By the same token, most buyers of Hebrew National don’t want to see how those hot dogs are made, and the average buyer of a home computer doesn’t give much thought to how a semiconductor works. Don’t get so caught up in your own insider’s perspective that you lose sight of what the man or woman on the street really cares about. Hassle-free technology is a lot more important to a lot more people than the brand of chip in Dell’s laptop computer.

These, then, are the ten rules of effective communication, all summarized in single words: simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, novelty, sound, aspiration, visualization, questioning, and context. If your tagline, slogan, or message meets most of these criteria, chances are it will meet with success. If it meets all ten, it has a shot at being a home run.

Words aren’t everything, of course. If there were a rule eleven, it would address the importance of visual symbols.

Never lose sight of whom you are talking to—and who is listening. Remember that the meaning of your words is constantly in flux, rather than being fixed. How your words are understood is strongly influenced by the experiences and biases of the listener—and you take things for granted about those experiences and biases at your own peril.

Too often, corporate chieftains have used language as a weapon to obscure and exclude rather than as a tool to inform and enlighten.

The order in which words are presented also affects how we perceive them.

Achieving the desired effect requires the presentation of the right information in the right order.

The sequential arrangement of information often creates the very meaning of that information, building a whole whose significance is different from and greater than its constituent parts.

The mind takes the information it receives and synthesizes it to create a third idea, a new whole.