Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear
Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear
Luntz, Frank I.
Introduction
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Language, politics, and commerce have always been intertwined, both for better and for worse.
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It's not what you say, it's what people hear.
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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. It's not enough to be correct or reasonable or even brilliant. The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener's shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives what you say is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself.
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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.
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every message that you bring into the world is subject to the interpretations and emotions of the people who receive it. Once the words leave your lips, they no longer belong to you.
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Examining the strategic and tactical use of language in politics, business, and everyday life, it shows how you can achieve better results by narrowing the gap between what you intend to convey and what your audiences actually interpret.
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go beyond your own understanding and to look at the world from your listener's point of view.
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I am a committed advocate of political rhetoric that is direct and clear. It should be interactive, not one- sided. It should speak to the common sense of common people -- with a moral component, but without being inflammatory, preachy, or divisive.
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A New American Lexicon,
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I essentially stopped working in domestic political campaigns years ago because they were filled with such a harsh negativity, which seemed to grow more vicious and inhumane with every election cycle.
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Whether it's a political issue I wish to communicate or a product I wish to sell, I seek to listen, then understand, and ultimately win over the doubter, the fence- sitter, the straddling skeptic. My language eschews overt partisanship and aims to find common ground rather than draw lines or sow separation. The words in this book represent the language of America, not the language of a single political party, philosophy, or product.
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I asked the brilliant Hollywood writer Aaron Sorkin,
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to explain the difference between language that convinces and language that manipulates. His answer stunned me:
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"There's no difference. It's only when manipulation is obvious, then it's bad manipulation.
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When you're writing fiction, everything is manipulation.
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do not believe there is something dishonorable about presenting a passionately held proposition in the most favorable light, while avoiding the self- sabotage of clumsy phrasing and dubious delivery.
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This book will offer readers a proverbial look behind the curtain at what has worked for companies in the past, and at the new strategies they are developing for this new millennium.
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The book recounts personal stories of how commonly identifiable language and product strategies came to be, describing the process that created them as well as the people and businesses who articulated them.
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This book is not merely for politicians or business leaders; it's for everyone who has an interest in or who makes a living using and listening to the language of America.
Chapter I. The Ten Rules of Effective Language
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This chapter seeks to examine the principles behind good communication and, in the process, to discourage some of the most common bad habits that plague everyone from senators to CEOs.
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Actual policy counts at least as much as how something is framed.
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My job, as I see it, is to remain agnostic on the underlying philosophical issues and keep my personal opinions from infecting my work.
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THE TEN RULES OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION
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Simplicity: Use Small Words
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Neither Gore nor Kerry understood that the ideas you might hear in a Harvard seminar will simply not ring true with the stay- at- home mom in Kansas or the department store salesman in Cincinnati.
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The most effective language clarifies rather than obscures.
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The more simply and plainly an idea is presented, the more understandable it is -- and therefore the more credible it will be.
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The more quickly someone believes they understand something, the quicker the stop thinking. Simplicity is not clarity and conviction is not understanding.
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It is no accident that the most unforgettable catchphrases of the past fifty years contain only single- or at most two- syllable words.
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We process so much more visual and audible information than ever before, that it's no surprise many of us don't have the patience (not to mention the education) to tease out the fine nuances and connotations of a lot of ten- dollar words.
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Rule Two Brevity: Use Short Sentences
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The most memorable political language is rarely longer than a sentence.
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a picture is worth a thousand words . . . or is that ten thousand words? Researchers have traced the origin of that phrase to Fred Barnard, an advertising manager in the 1920s. When selling ad space on the sides of streetcars, he used the words "One look is worth a thousand words" to suggest that images are more potent than text in advertisements.
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So when it comes to effective communication, small beats large, short beats long, and plain beats complex. And sometimes a visual beats them all.
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Rule Three Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy
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a "new and improved" product whose changes are merely cosmetic -- the same old same old in different packaging -- is a recipe for customer resentment.
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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. Rule Four Consistency Matters
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Message consistency builds customer loyalty.
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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.
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Rule Five Novelty: Offer Something New
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Americans are easily bored. If something doesn't shock or surprise us, we move on to something else. We are always in search of the next big thing,
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while we appreciate the predictability of friends and family, we also cherish those things that surprise and shock us -- provided that the outcome is pleasant rather than painful.
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a brand- new take on an old idea
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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.
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Rule Six Sound and Texture Matter
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The rhythm of the language is in itself musical -- even when there is no tune.*
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Rule Seven Speak Aspirationally Messages need to say what people want to hear.
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The key to successful aspirational language for products or politics is to personalize and humanize the message to trigger an emotional remembrance.
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people will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
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Consumers have to see themselves in the ad and perceive a genuine benefit and value to themselves from using the product.
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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.
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Since women determine the largest percentage of consumer purchases, most successful aspirational language is targeted at them.
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Rule Eight Visualize
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Paint a vivid picture.
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Rule Nine Ask a Question
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"Got Milk?"
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sometimes not what you say but what you ask that really matters.
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"What would you do if you were in my shoes?" puts direct pressure on the recipient of your complaint to see things your way.
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The reason for the effectiveness of questions in communication is quite obvious. When you assert, whether in politics, business, or day-to-day life, the reaction of the listener depends to some degree on his or her opinion of the speaker. But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal -- and personalized communication is the best communication.
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Tony Schwartz, and he called it the "responsive chord theory" of communication.
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No profession depends more on the strategic use of the rhetorical question than criminal lawyers (also known as "attorneys" by those who actually like what they do and how they do it). The best lawyers use the rhetorical method to remove their clients from the proceedings and in essence put themselves on trial instead.
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"When I'm done, they believe that the person sitting next to me is no more guilty of any crime than the person sitting next to them in the jury box."
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Rule Ten Provide Context and Explain Relevance
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You have to give people the "why" of a message before you tell them the "therefore" and the "so that."
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Without context, you cannot establish a message's value, its impact, or most importantly, its relevance.
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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.
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The "so that" of a message is your solution, but solutions are meaningless unless and until they are attached to an identifiable problem.
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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.
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Context is only half of the framing effort. The other half -- relevance -- is focused on the individual and personal component of a communication effort.
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Put most simply, if it doesn't matter to the intended audience, it won't be heard.
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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.
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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.
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there were a rule eleven, it would address the importance of visual symbols.
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no public event in the twenty-first century is complete without the packed stage with the various shades of America huddled on top of each other -- all smiling and nodding on cue.*
Chapter II. Preventing Message Mistakes
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There's an old joke. A guy is marooned on a desert island, alone, for twenty years, until one day a ship arrives. The ship's captain looks around and notices that there are two synagogues. The castaway says, "I built both of them." The captain replies, "You're here alone?""Yes.""And you built both?""Yes," the castaway says. "That one I go to, and that one I'd never set foot in."
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Few words --
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are ingested in isolation.
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Their meanings are shaped and shaded by the regional biases, life experiences, education, assumptions, and prejudices of those who receive them.
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When a member of Congress complains about having to support one family and two homes on $160,000 a year, he's announcing to the world that he's out of touch.
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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.
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DON'T ASSUME KNOWLEDGE OR AWARENESS
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What percentage of the American public even knows what a filibuster is? How could anyone expect the public to be outraged about a word and a process that most of them didn't know anything about?
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education must precede motivation and even information.
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teaching always has to be the first step. And to be a good teacher, you have to know from where the pupil is starting.
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Too often, corporate chieftains have used language as a weapon to obscure and exclude rather than as a tool to inform and enlighten.
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GETTING THE ORDER RIGHT
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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.
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The language lesson: A+B+C does not necessarily equal C+B+A. The order of presentation determines the reaction. The right order equals the right context.
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By and large, we're concerned about the realm of our jobs and our families, not the larger unfolding of History with a capital H.
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the most effective, least divisive language for both men and women is the language of everyday life.
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The biggest difference between the genders is in response to tone. Women react much more negatively to negative messages than do men. They don't like companies that trash the competition, and they don't like candidates that twist the knife. Cola wars, beer wars, and burger wars are entertainment to men . . . and noise to women. When you articulate what you are for or about, you reveal something of yourself.
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Listen more than you ask questions, and ask questions more than you "talk."
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From a balanced budget to welfare reform, child-centered arguments consistently score better with women than economic or more factually based messaging.
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HOW YOU DEFINE DETERMINES HOW YOU ARE RECEIVED
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Americans will often come to diametrically opposite conclusions on policy questions, depending on how the questions are phrased -- even if the actual result of the policies is exactly the same.
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For example, by almost two-to-one, Americans say we are spending too much on "welfare" (42 percent) rather than too little (23 percent). Yet an overwhelming 68 percent of Americans think we are spending too little on "assistance to the poor," versus a mere 7 percent who think we're spending too much.8
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What I am arguing is that "welfare" and "assistance to the poor" are in fact different topics. To be more specific, while welfare is, by definition, assistance to the poor, not all assistance to the poor comes from welfare.
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They teach responsibility, not dependency.
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Several years ago I asked Americans whether they would be willing to pay higher taxes for "further law enforcement," and 51 percent agreed. But when I asked them if they would pay higher taxes "to halt the rising crime rate," 68 percent answered in the affirmative. The difference? Law enforcement is the process, and therefore less popular, while reducing crime is the desirable result. The language lesson: Focus on results, not process.
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This one is my own personal favorite. Back in the mid-1990s, a majority of Americans (55 percent) said that emergency room care "should not be given" to illegal aliens. Yet only 38 percent said it should be "denied" to them.
Chapter III. Old Words, New Meaning
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Doublespeak twists and inverts the definitions of words and eliminates terminology the oppressive regime considers politically incorrect in an effort to thereby also eliminate the subversive concepts associated with them.
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words that had certain definitions when your grandparents were your age may have an entirely different meaning today.
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good communication requires conviction and authenticity; being a walking dictionary is optional.
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Most of you reading this are, shall we say, more "worldly" (never use the word "older" -- those who think they are not will be offended, and those who know they are won't appreciate being reminded),
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Americans are constantly creating new words even as they give old words new meanings.
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E-mail is informal. It rewards brevity, but brevity and clarity are not always the same thing. E-mail lacks both the inflection and subtlety of speech and (generally) the careful thought and consideration of an old-fashioned letter.
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times. Companies face "issues" or "challenges," never "problems."
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unless we communicate in overdrive and hyperbole, we believe -- perhaps correctly -- that nobody will hear us.
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In the process, we've sacrificed nuance and judgment and distinctions, and thereby cheapened the conversation.
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As liberal Northeastern Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats flirt with extinction, each party grows more ideologically pure, philosophically consistent -- and less inclined to compromise. At the same time that this partisan reshuffling takes place, the ranks of the uncommitted independents are growing like never before,
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since the late 1990s, the term "liberal" has been widely replaced by "progressive."
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Making assumptions about the extent of your audience's vocabulary is not only stupid -- it can cost you your career.
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In the political realm, blogs have had massive influence on the mainstream media -- even though almost none of them are run by professionally trained journalists.
Chapter IV. How "Words That Work" Are Created
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Effective language is more than just the words themselves. There is a style that goes hand-in-hand with the substance.
Chapter V. Be the Message
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the messenger should not be allowed to get in the way of the messag
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A superstar creates a persona in the public mind by conveying certain essential characteristics about himself or herself. Successful leaders establish this persona not by describing their attributes and values to us, but by simply living them.
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Unless and until you say something to break the rhythm of a negative story, it will continue. A graphic profanity would have broken the rhythm, changed the focus, and, while a debate about the use of such words in politics would have ensued, that would have been a better debate for John Kerry.
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more interested in who he was and what he had done than in his beliefs and convictions.
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Messengers who are their own best message are always true to themselves. You cannot get away with acting in politics for long. As soon as an audience catches a politician performing rather than living the role, he is on the road to ruin.
Chapter VII. Corporate Case Studies
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Regardless of the facts, even if it's unfair to do so, it's only human nature for audiences to regard silence as a tacit admission of wrongdoing. Every attack that is not met with a clear and immediate response will be assumed to be true.
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the switch from "gambling" to "gaming" in describing one's behavior contributed to a fundamental change in how Americans see the gambling industry.
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"Gaming" is a choice. "Gambling" is taking a chance, engaging in risky behavior. "Gaming" is as simple as playing a game with cards or dice or a little ball that goes round and round and round.
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FROM "LIQUOR" TO "SPIRITS"
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The revival of the term "spirits" is analogous to the coining of "gaming."
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Also important in the credit union advantage is the idea of membership. Being a "member" rather than a "customer" sounds much more inclusive, participatory, and friendly.
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"Wynn" is one of the few names from the business world that evokes an immediate and favorable image.
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In rare cases, applying words that work is about focusing on people's fears rather than appealing to their hopes and dreams.
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sizeable minority of Americans reject "capitalism" for its perceived winners-and-losers outcome and for its constant competitive nature. In a poll I conducted in the late 1990s, fully one-quarter of the electorate had a negative opinion of capitalism -- and the primary reason was the perceived behavior of corporate America.
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the pharmaceutical profession (notice I didn't call it an "industry")
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you want to know which side is most likely to win public approval, the answer is almost always the side that is communicating more often to the workforce and more frequently through the media. When it comes to labor issues, quantity is almost as important as quality.
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Employees tend to accept the arguments of the side that made them first, particularly when they are made with a personal and passionate tone, and a written presentation has more credibility than verbal.
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establishing credibility is a never-ending process.
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A charge made is a charge believed unless and until refuted.
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A third language lesson is to exceed expectations. Message timing is important.
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Our work in strike situations allowed us to develop a specific lexicon, a "words that work" dictionary. Companies facing labor action need to keep employees informed by putting out a weekly "Tough Questions: Real Answers" document. Why that title above all others? Since employees assume management will duck the substance, a company that is responsive to the "tough questions" has an advantage. And the "real answers" component is exactly what they want to hear and is more credible than management claiming simple "honesty."
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But written communication is still no substitute for direct dialogue. Some companies call them "roundtables." We recommend "conversations" because the term suggests a more informal and interactive environment where the "facts" of the dispute can be openly discussed.
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Another mistake companies make is to bash the union leadership when a softer touch would be more effective.
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If it does become necessary to go on the attack, it's crucial for management to draw a bright-line distinction between union "leadership" and union "members."
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Peace of mind is one of the most powerful phrases in the public mind today, but in today's environment of economic and job anxiety, we put even greater emphasis on security.
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Being rewarded is about financial compensation, and that is obviously important. But being valued transcends dollars and cents.
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Being valued is a throwback to the days when employees (don't call them workers any more -- a worker is a lower valued job) had a sense of loyalty to their employers because their employers had a sense of responsibility to them.
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The smartest strategic communication decision we've seen in the recent history of contract negotiations was when several companies linked their own Web sites right to the union's Web site. Imagine the surprise, and positive impact, when employers said that their people had the right to see both sides of the contract debate, side-by-side.
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If the forces of change have descended on your doorstep and you find yourself having to defend the status quo, the phrase that pays is "do no harm."
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Determine all the individual values that define "corporate democracy" and then linguistically undermine each one:
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"Shareholder democracy" looked good on paper and in a vacuum, but when the consequences were examined, alternative outcomes probed, and a lexicon created to respond, the bloom came off the rose. And so the reply to "shareholder democracy" became "corporate responsibility," and the language and examples referenced above were utilized successfully by a coalition of Fortune 500 companies in reversing the SEC efforts.
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The successful result of this case study is living proof that the principle of do no harm still resonates on both Wall Street and Capitol Hill. Similarly, the language of "unintended consequences" is also an effective argument for defending the status quo -- particularly among more sophisticated audiences.
Chapter VIII. Political Case Studies
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day, I'm best known as the pollster for the Contract with America, and the question I'm asked most often is "Why did you call it a contract?" The real answer is that every other option was out. A "plan" wouldn't have sounded sufficiently binding, plus we all know what happens to the best-laid plans. "Promises" are made to be broken, especially when politicians make them. "Pledges" go unfulfilled. "Platforms" are too political. "Oaths" have legal connotations. "Covenants" have religious overtones (and Bill Clinton had used the "New Covenant" motif in his 1992 presidential nomination speech).
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Words That Worked Case Study: Changing the "Estate Tax" to the "Death Tax"
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Words That Worked Case Study: Changing "Drilling for Oil" to "Exploring for Energy," from "Domestic" to "American"
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a sure applause line for anyone in the energy industry is to talk about "American oil, American energy, American fuel, American innovation, American exploration -- and American energy policy for a twenty-first-century American economy." Redundant? Sure. Words that work? Absolutely.
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With this language, Americans could finally visualize an important industry at the cutting edge rather than lagging behind.
Chapter IX. Myths and Realities About Language and People
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One reason why there is so little successful communication in this country is that so many of our communicators don't truly understand something as basic as who their audience is. In this chapter, I explore and explode a number of all-too-common myths about America, Americans, and what we really think and believe.
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the profile of an average American.
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this up-to-date profile provides a vital examination of mainstream America.
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THE AVERAGE AMERICAN: MEET JENNIFER SMITH2
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MYTH: AMERICANS ARE EDUCATED
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False.
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First, in the formal sense, fewer than half of us have graduated from college. In fact, only 29 percent of adults in the United States over the age of forty-five have a bachelor's degree or higher, and only 27 percent of adults over the age of twenty-five are college educated.4
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Most higher education in the United States these days has taken on a distinctly vocational bent.
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The upshot, in business and in political communications, is that complexity or intricacy of any degree almost always fails.
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Many of us get our understanding of the legal system from Judge Judy and the second half-hour of Law & Order.
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Our perceptions of the American health care system are shaped by Grey's Anatomy, House,
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Our ideas of law enforcement come from the CSI franchise or the first half hour of Law & Order.
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And as bad as kids are with simple historic facts, their parents aren't much better.
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Americans' lack of education also extends to the meanings of many words. After World War II, safety officials worried that people would erroneously think that the word inflammable meant "un-flammable" or "fireproof." So they campaigned for the use of flammable instead, a word that had been out of fashion for decades. These days, you rarely hear the word inflammable any more.12 Once again, it all comes back to understanding the listener's context.
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MYTH: AMERICANS READ
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False.
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Now, it's true that some of the drop in circulation is from people getting their news online rather than in paper format.
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Magazine readership has also dropped precipitously.
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There is one compelling counter-example, however: e-mail and the Internet. Over the past ten years or so, e-mail has done a great deal to raise the importance of the written word -- even if typos, misspellings, and acronyms like LOL (laughing out loud) have replaced dramatic prose.
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Among those who still do read, layout matters almost as much as content. The fewer words on the page, the more likely they are to be read
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And when it comes to newspaper advertising, often the only content consumed is at the very beginning and the very end.
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MYTH: AMERICAN WOMEN ALL RESPOND TO MESSAGES LIKE . . . WOMEN False.
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It is true that there are real differences in men's and women's policy priorities, and one great ideological divide: Women typically put more faith in government than men, so they are less hostile toward Washington.
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Lifestyle relevancy is an important linguistic tool in creating language for women.
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Age, education, and income -- the traditional demographic targets for women -- are less important in determining how to speak and appeal to women than knowing whether they have kids at home and whether they work full-time outside the house.
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Men are exactly the opposite. Family status and career barely matter, while age, income, and education matter considerably.
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A thirty-year-old man is far more likely to share attitudes and opinions with a fifty-year-old man than are two women with the same age spread.
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Men's political and ideological opinions tend to change far less as they get older than their female counterparts'.
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MYTH: AMERICANS DIVIDE NEATLY AND ACCURATELY INTO URBAN, SUBURBAN, AND RURAL POPULATIONS False.
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Over the past five years or so, we've seen the emergence of a fourth, wholly new category: affluent homeowners with growing bank accounts, growing families, bigger big-screen TVs, and a bigger outlook on life.
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Welcome to exurbia,
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Peace and quiet . . . open spaces . . . a slower, more old-fashioned pace -- these are the values to emphasize when communicating to exurban neighborhoods. Their communities have the look and the feel of a Pepperidge Farms cookie commercial from the 1970s or a Smuckers Jam commercial from the eighties.
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Exurban dwellers prefer the familiar to the foreign. They want serenity and security, not risks or revelations. To them, a Hallmark card is not a "moment," it's a way of life.
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Exurbia is small town, Main Street USA, even if it's not authentic and was only manufactured to look that way.
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Think of the exodus to the exurbs as a "return to normalcy" -- upwardly mobile young families projecting themselves forward . . . into the past. They are not trying to live their parents' lives; they are trying to live their grandparents' lives. Their communities, their values, and their aspirations recall an older, idealized age that may never have really existed for most people outside of Norman Rockwell paintings and Frank Capra movies.
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ugly. Like strip mall, strip mining, and clear cutting, sprawl is a word that developers themselves came up with -- and they have regretted it ever since. It's the most deadly word -- and weapon -- in the arsenal of those who oppose construction.
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Exurbia is defined by the traditional American family. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of exurbanites live in a single-family home -- far more than their urban and suburban cousins. And in a higher percentage of those homes than anywhere else, the husband commutes to work while the wife stays home. It's almost Ozzie and Harriet.
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Economically, exurbanites may not all be rich, but very few of them are poor.
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exurbanites hate property taxes more than any other simply because, to them, it truly is a tax on the American Dream, and because their larger property means a bigger tax bill.)
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Being geographically twice removed from the urban center has led to a psychological break as well. Exurbanites turn inward, to their own communities, rather than outward, toward the city.
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While many suburbanites live to work, exurbanites work to live.
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Show them that their arduous commutes are not merely a sacrifice for their homes and families, the price necessary to live in exurbia -- that they can also be opportunities for learning, self-improvement, personal enrichment, and entertainment.
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They get their news from the radio in the morning, the Internet during the day, and from television at night.
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Exurbanites "think rural" but "act suburban." They love exurbia's closeness to nature and lack of noise pollution.
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They think of their current living conditions as, in their own words, a "refuge," and an "escape" from the suburbs.
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At times, exurbanites may look and sound downright rural, yet they live like suburbanites, with the same toys (only bigger) and disposable income (only more).
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The phrase "new and improved" is not necessarily better in the minds of exurbanites.
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"Hassle-free" genuinely means something to these people.
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They place a premium on service, which to them means speed, accuracy, and dependability.
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Politically, exurbia is a Republican bastion.
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And what of the suburban America that exurbanites left behind? The subtle political left turn that the suburbs are making is not so much a turn as it is a change of drivers. In other words, the suburbs are not becoming more liberal because residents are shifting their ideology to the left, but because conservative voters are fleeing for, quite literally, greener pastures.
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What we are witnessing is a twenty-first-century "right flight" to the exurbs, a flight that is as much ideological as it is emotional.
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MYTH: AMERICAN CONSUMERS RESPOND WELL TO PATRIOTIC MESSAGES Wrong, sort of. It's American pride that sells products.
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There is an essential perceptual difference between "American patriotism" and "American pride." To some, patriotism connotes arrogant, obnoxious, xenophobic, red-white-and-blue, flag-waving, America-can-do-no-wrong jingoism.
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Those most likely to hold these views are people younger than thirty, ideological liberals, blacks and non-Cuban Latinos, and residents from the Boston to Washington, D.C., Northeast corridor and the Seattle to Los Angeles Pacific Coast corridor.
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Conversely, overtly patriotic commercial messages resonate most with people older than fifty, self-described conservatives, whites from Southern, Midwestern, and Western states, and people who drink a lot of beer.
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sales messages involving the word pride beat straightforward appeals to patriotism by better than two to one.
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To younger consumers, American "patriotism" represents blind acceptance of the actions and behavior of the country -- but American "pride" is a celebration of its people.
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MYTH: RETRO SELLS PRODUCTS AND POLITICIANS
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Retro and nostalgia may attract attention, and people may have a longing for the past, but they won't pay for products from the 1950s or 1970s or 1990s when they can get a piece of the twenty-first century.
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If you want to propose an old idea, don't acknowledge that you're stealing from the past. Present it as something fresh: renewing a concept and revitalizing it.
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MYTH: AMERICANS VOTE ACCORDING TO A CANDIDATE'S STANDS ON THE ISSUES
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Americans, by and large, decide who to vote for based on the candidates' attributes -- personality, image, authenticity, vibe.
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issues and ideology are less significant is simply that most Americans don't know the substance behind the issues, and even though we seem on the surface to be a divided nation, most Americans are not intensely ideological.
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we don't place a high priority on perceived intelligence.
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Americans would rather have a candidate with genuine common sense as their leader than almost any other attribute -- including brains.*
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MYTH: AMERICANS ARE HAPPY
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No we're not -- not by a long shot. In fact, with each election season, the media seems to anoint a particular group as emblematic of mounting discontent, the key to an accurate understanding of what's going on in America.
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During the past five years, a new attitude and a segment of American society has emerged -- the "Fed-Ups" -- along with a brand-new lexicon.
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the Fed-Ups are nearing a majority of the population.
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In the past, the unifying emotion was anxiety. Today, it is frustration. In the past, the language expressed a mixture of fear and hope. Today, the lexicon is stark, dark, and bitter.
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It doesn't matter what the issue is, the members of this group are fed up.
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They're not ideological. They just want their country to work again.
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They are fed up with illegal immigration and the state of the war on terrorism. They tend to be nationalistic -- you could even call them "America Firsters."
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They are not swayed by idealistic arguments about spreading democracy and freedom or ending tyranny elsewhere in the world. They want to bomb the enemy back to the Stone Age and then come home to their gated communities.
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The "new and improved" corporate lexicon doesn't appeal to them, and the political approach of promising to do things "better" won't work, either. They didn't like the original to begin with -- and they don't want a Band-Aid for what they see as a gaping hole in American society.
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MYTH: AMERICANS PREFER BIG ORGANIZATIONS
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Wrong. In fact, Americans distrust anything big.
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The music industry is one of the greatest victims of consumer anger. Much of the illegal music downloading that takes places isn't done just because the music is free but rather because stealing music costs "the suits" money.
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Our nation's historically deep rooted anti-big, anti-authoritarian streak is alive and well in the MySpace generation of consumers. Simply put, Americans hate hearing the word no.
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"Big enough to deliver; small enough to care" created for a cell phone provider in 2005.
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MYTH: AMERICANS HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN OVER 9/11
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Unfortunately, wrong. September 11, 2001, changed everything.
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It rocked our confidence, undermined our beliefs, changed our expectations, and altered the language landscape forever.
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shared loss of national confidence.
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An anxiety began to take hold, the old habits of division began to return, and the unity of purpose and spirit began to dissipate.
Chapter X. What We REALLY Care About
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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.
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Americans know what they believe, even if they don't know or can't explain why they believe it or give you any evidence to prove it.
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Thoughts or feelings are random, inconsequential, and often not particularly important or relevant. But principles, much like values, represent deeply held convictions -- they don't change overnight, or sometimes ever.
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Principles are rigorous, examined, serious. They have weight. If your principles match their values, the details won't matter.
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One word that bridges the partisan divide is "opportunity."
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We relate to smaller institutions and subsets of society much better than we relate to large and remote entities such as Big Business, Big Media, and Big Government.
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Geographically, as Americans move to exurbia, as they organize themselves more and more into small communities of the like-minded, they are looking for politics and politicians that acknowledge their new reality. There's a power in community relationships that politicians are only now beginning to discover.
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There's no such thing any more as "broadcasting." It's all narrowcasting now, and the implications for our politics are clear.
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Instead of one "American conversation," there are dozens and dozens of individual community conversations going on at all times.
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"Common sense" doesn't require any fancy theories; it is self-evidently correct, like the truths of the Declaration of Independence.
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"Common sense" is not just the best argument for almost any policy prescription you might propose -- it's essential.
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What is closest to us we tend to accept and appreciate more -- particularly when we can see and feel the impact.
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"value" is a measurement of result rather than overall cost.
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"CONVENIENCE"
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"convenience" is directly proportional to time: the more time it takes, the less convenient it becomes.
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Personalization and individualization are all important elements of "convenience."
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"MAIN STREET, NOT WALL STREET"
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Americans have an ongoing love-hate relationship with corporate America.
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Therefore, the more convincingly you can present your company as personal, relatable, down-to-earth, and in touch -- the virtues of a small business -- the better you will weather large-scale growth.
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So talk about "Main Street" values and a "Main Street" approach, and you will evoke all of these subconscious associations. "Wall Street" is about profit. "Main Street" is about people. "Wall Street" is about greed. "Main Street" is about green. "Wall Street" is about buyouts and takeovers. "Main Street" is about family.
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FAMILY VALUES
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Americans want and expect to see "family values" exhibited by their political leaders.
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Americans do not define the term values in a strictly religious context.
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"Family.""Freedom.""Opportunity.""Responsibility.""Community.""Sacrifice."
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There is one set of "values" that no one should want to endorse or promote: "Hollywood values."
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THE FUTURE (NOT THE PAST)
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You'd have to be an optimist to leave your homeland behind, brave a perilous ocean crossing, and attempt to carve a new civilization out of the harsh wilderness of an unknown continent (unless, of course, you were brought here on slave ships against your will).
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It's no great surprise, then, that we prefer as our politicians those who see the proverbial glass as half-full rather than half-empty. A cramped, sour, negative outlook on life comes across as downright un-American. Both Al Gore and John Kerry learned that lesson the hard way.
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ACCOUNTABILITY
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RESPECT
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SOLUTIONS
Chapter XI. Personal Language for Personal Scenarios
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In this chapter, we take a brief look at some rhetorical techniques we can all use in our daily lives to help people better hear what we have to say.
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Men want to speak; women want to be heard.
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The male focus is on self-expression, not on the other person's reaction to or understanding of what he's saying.
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Women are strikingly focused on the recipient of their message.
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their primary desire is not to make all their points, as if following a checklist, but rather to be heard, understood, and validated.
Chapter XII. Twenty-one Words and Phrases for the Twenty-first Century
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WORDS AND PHRASES FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
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1. "Imagine"
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2. "Hassle-free"
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3."Lifestyle"
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4. "Accountability"
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5. "Results" and the "Can-Do Spirit"
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6. "Innovation"
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7. "Renew, Revitalize, Rejuvenate, Restore, Rekindle, Reinvent"
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8. "Efficient" and "Efficiency"
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9. "The Right to . . ."
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10. "Patient-Centered"
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11. "Investment"
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12. "Casual Elegance"
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13. "Independent"
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14. "Peace of Mind"
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15. "Certified"
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16. "All-American"
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17. "Prosperity"
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18. "Spirituality"
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19. "Financial Security"
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20. A "Balanced Approach"
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21. "A Culture of . .
Chapter XIII. Conclusion
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The real problem with our language today is that it's been so coarsened. Words and expressions once considered horribly vulgar have become a part of the common parlance, their original meanings all but forgotten.
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our language has become so unimportant and disposable that we feel we can say anything we want whenever we want to, and after it is spoken, it disappears into the ether.
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Beyond the vulgarity of such talk, there's a harshness to it -- a disturbing discourtesy, even viciousness, that's relatively new in American life.