Continuing on my earlier article on communicating simply, here is one more reason why you should always use easy to understand language in all communication.
According to Chip & Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick, Simplicity is one of the key attributes of ideas that stick.
Here is a quote from the book, which is a great example to prove this point –
Contrast the “maximize shareholder value” idea with John F. Kennedy’s famous 1961 call to “put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.” Simple? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Concrete? Amazingly so. Credible? The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible. Emotional? Yes. Story? In miniature.
Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.” Fortunately, JFK was more intuitive than a modern-day CEO; he knew that opaque, abstract missions don’t captivate and inspire people. The moon mission was a classic case of a communicator’s dodging the Curse of Knowledge. It was a brilliant and beautiful idea — a single idea that motivated the actions of millions of people for a decade.
As small business owners, you must keep your message to your customers as simple as possible – starting all the way from your website design, to your product categorization, to your shipping/return policies, to your advertisements. Never underestimate the power of simplicity.
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