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

by Frank Luntz

“Spirits” and “liquor” currently carry quite different associations. “Liquor” has many negative implications; it calls to mind “liquored up,” alcoholism, and winos carrying paper bags with bottles of fortified wine inside. “Spirits,” on the other hand, calls to mind the clink of glasses raised in a toast, and that sound itself evokes pleasant, warm images and feelings—an unspoken but all-knowing affirmation and connection between people.

As I discovered in my research, however, not only did people have no idea of what “Le Rêve” meant, they also had no clue how to pronounce it. Put twenty people in a room and only about half would say it correctly. This was clearly a problem. But my market research revealed that Steve Wynn already had access to a far stronger and more widely identified word—a word that had simplicity, brevity, credibility, and relevance to Vegas patrons from across the globe: his own last name. In fact, “Steve Wynn” was so widely recognized and popular within the gaming and Vegas community that people were willing to pay a fair bit more for a product, a service, or a hotel stay if it had a direct association with his name. So “Le Rêve” became “Wynn Resorts,” creating a brand that has proven to be a smashing success. As Wynn himself has said, “Branding this property was the smartest thing we’ve done. Whenever I walk through the casino, people come up and ask to take a picture with me or sign something. That’s never happened to me before. Not after Bellagio. Not after the Mirage. Not even during the days when Sinatra was promoting my Golden Nugget. It’s the name. It’s the name.”

THE LANGUAGE OF CFOS AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY DON’T SAY . . . Honest/credible/truthful data DO SAY . . . Accurate data DON’T SAY . . . Interpretation DO SAY . . . Analysis DON’T SAY . . . Responsibility/professionalism DO SAY . . . Accountability DON’T SAY . . . Capital markets DO SAY . . . Investors/The public interest DON’T SAY . . . Innovative approaches DO SAY . . . Principles and rules DON’T SAY . . . Attested to DO SAY . . . Certified DON’T SAY . . . Experienced DO SAY . . . Independent DON’T SAY . . . Breadth of services DO SAY . . . Back to basics

“Accurate” data is more important than honest, credible, or truthful data because it is a statement of fact rather than someone’s explanation. For similar reasons, “facts” and “fact-based” are more powerful descriptors in the legal world than “evidence.” It may seem like a distinction without a difference but it really does matter. Facts are indisputable. Evidence is open to interpretation. “Responsibility” and “professionalism” are obviously important, but “accountability” trumps them because it implies enforcement and perhaps even punishment for failure. We want all our institutions and all our leaders to suffer if, in some way, they have made us suffer or let us down. We truly live in unforgiving times. “Attested to” is far less effective than “certified” because the former is perceived to be about human judgment and the latter suggests a specific process or procedure followed, along with a guarantee. The phrase “back to basics” appeals because it represents a change in focus and a shift in priorities to those things that matter most. A “back to basics” approach is particularly popular in times of economic instability or personal anxiety.

In a looming strike situation with a Denver supermarket chain, the local union boss (who earned that title with his dictatorial behavior) was constantly threatening management not just privately but in the press as well. Behind the scenes, however, management was communicating with the rank and file at a store-by-store and even individual level, responding to every attack with an immediate response. In some cases, the response was so quick and spread so effectively that employees actually found management more credible and responsive to their questions and concerns than their own official union representatives.

I also tested three different ways of describing how Medicare spending would increase under the Republican plan: 1. Medicare spending would increase from $178 billion to $250 billion over six years (what I called the “billions to billions” approach). 2. Medicare spending would increase by 6.4 percent a year, every year, for six years (the “year over year” strategy). 3. Medicare spending would increase from $4,700 per person per year to $6,200 per person per year (the “personalized” approach). All three statements were true, and all three statements represented the exact same underlying mathematical reality. But the personalized approach was by far the most popular. The billions to billions strategy only works if you’re Bill Gates or Ross Perot, and while math majors or M.I.T. graduates may appreciate a discussion about percentages, no one else does. They’re too abstract. But by zooming in to the personal level, you encourage people to relate the numbers to their own lives and learn exactly what the benefit means to them.

Numbers with the smallest denominators and applied per individual are therefore almost always the most effective.

“THE DEATH TAX DESERVES TO DIE” The language for killing the death tax has evolved over time. From “taxing the American Dream” to “you shouldn’t have to visit the undertaker and the taxman on the same day,” the language of death tax repeal is easy for working and retired Americans to understand and appreciate.

“Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the wisest of our founding fathers, said there were two certainties in life: death and taxes. But I do not believe even Franklin could have foreseen that today, both would occur at the same time.”

AMERICA’S OIL AND NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY (:30) Every day you look for ways to stretch your energy dollar, just as we are looking for new fuel solutions. As you use energy wisely, our industry is searching for new supplies, maximizing efficiency with advanced technology. Working together—consumers, government, industry—we’ll insure diverse, reliable energy to live our lives and keep America going strong. A message from America’s oil and natural gas industry.

Examine this single thirty-second ad word by word, line by line, and you see the rules of effective communication in practice: “Every day you look for ways to stretch your energy dollar” is exactly how Americans behave every time gas prices climb to a new level. It’s a day-to-day struggle for millions of Americans, and an energy company that recognizes this is at least demonstrating that they are listening. “Just as we are looking for new fuel solutions . . . our industry is searching for new supplies, maximizing efficiency with advanced technology” is about the aspiration of solving the energy problem once and for all. It focuses attention not on the present but on the future and the search for something better. Even the individual choice of words—“maximizing efficiency with advanced technology”—communicates a simple but effective message that a new approach will bring better results. We have also found that Americans would prefer greater energy efficiency to increased conservation because “efficiency” suggests getting more for less while “conservation” has a tone of sacrifice to it. For that same reason, “renewable” energy is more popular than “alternative” energy. “Working together, consumers, government, industry, we’ll insure diverse, reliable energy to live our lives and keep America going strong” offers the novel suggestion that we’re all in this together and that we will all benefit if America’s energy companies are successful. Morevoer, Americans equate “diversity...

Rule Two Brevity—Use Short Sentences This is a simple task for President George W. Bush but very difficult for almost every other politician. In debates where emotions are high, the shorter the sentences, the better the audience response. WORDS THAT WORK “This is about the overcrowding of YOUR schools. This is about emergency room chaos in YOUR hospitals. This is about the increase in YOUR taxes. This is about the crime in YOUR communities.” No, this is not beautiful language, but the politicians who used it reported heads nodding and hands clapping. The sentences were simple, straightforward, and to the point—and there were no commas to break up the flow. If your sentence has more than two commas, you have too many.

Rule Four Consistency Matters Rules aren’t just for kids and books. To keep members of Congress focused, consistent, and repetitive, you have to tell them that there are specific rules to follow. Otherwise, they won’t follow them. In the immigration debate, the public opinion research uncovered five specific rules: 1. Always differentiate LEGAL from illegal immigration; 2. Always refer to people crossing the border illegally as “illegal immigrants”—NOT as “illegals”; 3. Always focus on those who are hurt most by illegal immigration—American citizens and immigrants who came here legally and played by the rules; 4. Don’t argue whether illegal immigration is a crisis, a major problem, or a national challenge. Describe the problem, quantify it, but don’t measure it; and 5. If it sounds like amnesty, it will fail.

Rule Nine Ask a Question The best messages intellectually invite audience participation. In this case, it was essential that the speaker used questions that triggered thoughts not just about the present but also about a troubling future if the status quo was allowed to stand: WORDS THAT WORK “I know that there are some who would say that the illegal immigrants are here already so let them stay, let them work, and let them enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship. I don’t agree. What message would that send to LEGAL immigrants who have played by the rules, waiting years for the chance to live and work here? What message does that send to law-abiding American citizens who work hard to pay their taxes—only to see those tax dollars go to lawbreakers? What message would that send to every would-be ILLEGAL immigrant? Just get yourself across the border and you’re home free? Those are messages I don’t want to send any longer.”

When he left the White House in 1989, Ronald Reagan used his farewell address to the nation to warn Americans about the dangers of forgetting our history and heritage: Those of us who are over thirty-five or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. . . . We’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important.

“Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.” —WILL ROGERS

Words not only can determine how we feel. They can also determine what we achieve. And what we hear often defines exactly what we want.

“Common sense” is not just the best argument for almost any policy prescription you might propose—it’s essential. If you win and occupy the rhetorical territory owned by “common sense,” your position will be virtually unassailable.

The old slanders against the robber barons of the Gilded Age never really lost their currency in America. We remain suspicious of great concentrations of old wealth that still symbolize Wall Street today, though we don’t begrudge Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and the Google guys their billions, because they started small and grew in front of our eyes.*

Winston Churchill: “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use to be anything else.”

Harry Truman: “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

Robert Kennedy: “All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”

But just as nostalgia doesn’t sell consumer goods, it doesn’t sell political candidates. This was the exact opposite of Reagan’s “Morning in America” language, and it left Americans cold.

Much more consistent with the American ethos was the conclusion of Ronald Reagan’s farewell letter to the American people in 1994, in which he disclosed that he had Alzheimer’s disease: “I know that for America, there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”5 Indomitable good cheer—in a letter announcing that he was afflicted with a cruel, terminal illness. THAT is the winning optimism Americans love.

On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy delivered what was probably the best unscripted political speech of the modern era. Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated earlier in the evening, and it was left to Kennedy to deliver the horrible news to a mostly black audience in Indianapolis, Indiana. While his many well-crafted speeches have been overshadowed by the man he eulogized that night and by his brother the president, this impromptu address represents aspirational language at its very best because it was delivered from the heart, without notes, rather than from some scribe’s pen.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization—black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love. For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

“Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.” LILY TOMLIN1

From years of research on gender attitudes and communication roles, for clients ranging from Coca-Cola to General Motors to the hotel and healthcare industries, I can offer one overarching communication fact: Men want to speak; women want to be heard.

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When a guy says or does something wrong in a relationship and it comes time to apologize, one of the unquestionably best ways to say “I’m sorry” is to go beyond words and communicate it with flowers. Yes, it is true that I have worked for Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers, but that’s beside the point. You may think it’s corny, old-fashioned, or even sexist, but you’re wrong. For most women, receiving flowers fixes just about everything.

Most of us are uncomfortable marching into our boss’s office and demanding a raise or a promotion. I know it’s one of the conversations my own employees hate the most. It’s a situation that at once requires delicacy and diplomacy, strength and determination. Most importantly, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your boss. To him or her, your raise or promotion is not viewed as a reward for past performance. It’s a speculative investment in your future performance. The question your boss will be answering for you is not “What have you done for me lately?” it’s “What are you going to do for me tomorrow?” Be prepared to explain how you’ve done your job well—but realize that demonstrating past and current value is only half of the message you need to deliver. You will be most effective if you emphasize what your boss is most concerned with: the future. The next client. Future contracts. The upcoming project. Employ the concept of (but not the actual word) consequences. I’m not suggesting you use threats or extortion. No one appreciates his or her back being put to the wall, and doing so makes it easier for those in authority to say no. Just realize that the pivot point of your boss’s decision will not be that you deserve a raise, but that there are certain implied consequences of your not getting one. You have demonstrated value . . . and now your effort must to be to convince your boss to imagine what would happen if that value were no longer there.

How do you apply the communication principles of this book to an encounter with law enforcement? The first and most important thing you can do is to recognize the police officer’s authority and superiority—immediately and totally. Over the years I’ve questioned hundreds of people who’ve been stopped for all manner of moving violations and their experience tells me that the number one way to avoid a ticket is to acknowledge your offense at the outset and beg for mercy. This may not be what you want to hear, and it may not be in your nature to do, but language laced with pity, sympathy, and a plea for leniency is the best strategy.

Police have a life-threatening job. So indicate that you pose them no threat by turning off your engine promptly after you pull over, rolling down the window (don’t make the cop tap on it like they do in the movies), and putting both hands on the wheel or the dashboard where the cop can see them, with your license and registration ready. And when the police officer reaches your window, look him or her straight in the eye and say, “I’m sorry, officer.”

Be short and to the point. Make your case in no more than four sentences. Begin and end with “please.” And when the airline employee opens that door, say, “This will change my life” and “I will forever be grateful.”

if you want to talk your way into a table, you need to tell the hostess an emotional hard-luck story. It should be personal, and it should involve a relationship that tugs at the heartstrings and makes you the bad guy or girl. It also needs humor. A funny story that explains, at your expense, why the table is so important can work wonders. If you can make the hostess laugh, she will certainly find a way to get you a table. Or at least she’ll try. As in the case of getting on an airplane—and unlike when you’ve been pulled over by a cop—your aim should be to create empathy, to make the person in power put him- or herself in your shoes. If the hostess can see the situation from your perspective, she may consider the potential for karmic reciprocity—helping you out today means someone some day in a similar situation will do the same thing for her. The important first step is to get the hostess talking. It’s like flirting; as long as she continues to reply to your jokes and your story, she hasn’t completely closed the door on you. Make her laugh, or feel genuinely sorry about the hazard to your love life, and chances are she’ll say, “I’ll see what I can do” and come back with a table.

First, start with a single authoritative statement. The best opening paragraph is just a single sentence. Whether verbal or in writing, your first words are by far the most important.

In these real-life scenarios, as in most situations in life, the immediate reaction is the only reaction that matters. When we meet someone new, whether at work or in a social situation, we begin making judgments instantaneously, based on dress, mannerisms, body language, demeanor, and literally dozens of other small details. This process of reasoning and judgment is subtle, often subconscious—but it never stops—and it is the basis of words that work.

“Imagine” “Imagine” is one of the most powerful words in the English language. It evokes something different to each person that hears it. Every person has a unique definition of the American Dream that they imagine and someday hope to achieve. The point is that “imagine” leads to 300 million different, personal definitions—and that’s just in the United States alone. No matter what your company’s product or service, the word “imagine” has the potential to create and personalize an appeal that is individualized based on the dreams and desires of the person who hears or reads it. The word “imagine” is an open, nonrestrictive command—almost an invitation. Its power is derived from the simple fact that it can conjure up anything in the mind of the one doing the imagining.

Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities is one of the most read and applauded novels about business and greed ever written because of its visionary and descriptive prose,

President Clinton came up with one of the most important linguistic innovations of the 1990s when he began to use the term “investment” instead of “spending.” “Spending” suggests waste. “Investment” suggests the responsible handling of resources. A dollar “spent” is a dollar you’ll never see again. A dollar “invested” is a dollar that comes back to you many times over. “Spending” is morally neutral—it could be good or bad, responsible or wasteful. “Investment” is by definition reasonable and responsible. “Investment” is also by definition forward-looking, whereas “spending” implies instant gratification.

Even on a personal level, “investing in your future” is one of the strongest motivations for making long-term purchases. Buying is for now. Investing is forever.

Because we identify so closely with the products we use, because they are often such a crucial element of our own self-images, we don’t want them to be the same as everybody else’s. Everybody’s iPod has its own, individual playlist. Everybody’s TiVo has a personalized schedule of TV shows. Everyone’s cell phone now has its own ring—a must for those under twenty-five.

“Peace of Mind” “Peace of mind” will eventually supplant “security” as a primary political value. It’s a kinder, gentler, softer expression of “security” that is less politicized, more embracing and all-encompassing. “Security” has a somewhat limited, very specific meaning that is often scary and militant. It is what employees want most in their jobs, but peace of mind wins every other comparison. “Peace of mind,” described by Franklin Roosevelt as “freedom from fear,” implies the same result, but the tone is far different—and more appealing, especially to women, because it is the positive side of a very negative concern.

“Certified” The reason “certified” has begun to enter the lexicon is because trust and confidence in people and promises has evaded. It’s not just used-car salesmen that we don’t believe anymore. We want and need ironclad agreements that what we buy won’t fail us months or even days after our purchase. A warranty only addresses the future of the product.

“Financial Security” “Financial freedom” used to be one of Americans’ top values and the number one definition of the American Dream. But that was before the dot-com bubble burst, the stock market plummeted, and the September 11 attacks occurred.

A “Balanced Approach” Just as professing your independence from partisanship and ideology will win you credibility points with the public (as long as you also appear to practice this philosophy), so too will arguing for a “balanced approach” to our nation’s problems. People understand that America is faced with multiple, competing priorities. They know it’s a juggling act to address numerous issues at the same time. All they ask is that you balance these conflicting needs in a responsible and thoughtful manner.

“Straight talk” is a powerful concept. It’s exactly what Americans want from their political leaders—and what they believe is sorely lacking in most of them.

As Roger Ailes, the greatest media guru of the twentieth century, so accurately put it: “You are the message.”

For most people, language is functional rather than being an end in itself. For me, it’s the people that are the end; language is just a tool to reach them, a means to an end. But it’s not enough to simply stand there and marvel at the tool’s beauty . . . you must realize that it’s like fire, and the outcome depends on how it is used . . . to light the way . . . or to destroy.