Presidential debates are make-or-break branding exhibitions — as are sales and investor pitches, TV/radio commercials, TV/radio interviews, keynote speeches, brochures, highway billboards, and homepages.
Successfully grabbing one’s audiences, through each of those exhibitions, is predicated on fulfilling a single, basic principle: Get to the point.
Has anyone ever demanded that you get to the point? It was an embarrassing experience, right? Rambling wastes time, tests patience, and pisses off the audience.
Turns out, getting to the point is a double entendre. Ergo, the speaker/author/creator must:
- Use as few compelling, memorable, repeatable, jargon-free words as possible to convey his message to the listener, in the listener’s language
- Convey his message via the point of entry: the listener’s gut. Why? There are no cerebral purchases (for more on this subject, go to GutShare.com).
Speaking in Their Language
Why is Donald Trump confounding pundits and establishment Republicans? People are sick of political-speak; Trump is speaking in their language. Those who “get it” correctly observe that Trump is tapping into voter anger and frustration.
Tapping into is a euphemism for my branding axiom above. Trump’s campaign theme, Make America Great Again, is simple, memorable, repeatable — and resonates in voters’ guts. And, they believe he can deliver on his promise. Trump has successfully grabbed his audiences.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, places climate change at the top of the priority list, citing the upcoming climate conference in Paris thusly: “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.” He says this even as top scientists from MIT and Princeton call it nonsense, and 97% of Americans disagree with him. He hasn’t grabbed his audiences.
In the business world, entrepreneurs with marginally good ideas can get funded if they get to the point with brevity and by tapping into the investors’ emotions. One can see this occur frequently on ABC’s The Shark Tank.
Parting Advice to CEOs
You and your employees must successfully grab your audiences: customers, investors, and reporters. And, you must do so by getting to the point, both in your message and via where you aim that message. See Rudov’s Branding Axiom above.
Review all sales pitches, investor pitches, media pitches, TV/radio commercials, TV/radio interviews, keynote speeches, brochures, highway billboards, and your homepage. Do they get to the point? What is the point? Why is it the point? Who decided?
After your review, would you buy from, invest in, and write about your company?
POSTSCRIPT #1: Amanda Carpenter Chastised Ted Cruz for His Verbosity
© 2015 Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Marc Rudov is a branding advisor to CEOs,
producer of MarcRudovTV, and author of four books