Keep your language simple or chaos will reign...
Malcolm Auld
Marketer, advertiser, educator, author, commentator, keynote speaker, Host of The BIG Marketing Show - You get better results, or else...
This sign was sent to be by a good mate who lives in Tasmania. As he said “aka scooter, by chance?”
This is typical of the erosion of language, often championed in secondary and tertiary education, now damaging communication throughout society.
The visual tells you all you need to know – no scooters.
But the use of the phrase 'personal mobility devices' creates utter confusion. The image and the words are at complete odds with one another.
I’m sure a lawyer would have a field day arguing the definition of said device, if their client was in a motorised wheelchair.
If you search for a definition of a 'personal mobility devices', here are some of the results:
Why do communicators make life so difficult?
Know how skilled your readers are … or not
In the book I published with John Hancock ten years ago - Write like you mean business - Hancock wrote:
Just how well can your target market read? The answer comes from international surveys of adult literacy. Here’s a table showing the average reading abilities for adults in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the USA. Most of the data come from the International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2006, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
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People with Level 1 literacy skills have great difficulty understanding anything they read. Those with Level 2 skills have frequent difficulty. Level 3 is considered average – roughly equal to 10 or 11 years of education. Those with Level 4 and Level 5 skills normally have university or post-graduate educations. People with the highest skills (Level 5) are only 1% to 4% of all adults, so they are usually reported in combination with the Level 4 group.
Write for average readers
In other words, one out of every five university-educated Australians is either a poor or a very poor reader, including those with post-graduate degrees. And Australia ranked second-highest of the countries surveyed in 2006. So the same will be true if your readers are in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand or the USA.
No matter how affluent or well-educated your market is, many of them cannot read very well at all. If you really want to do business with them, your writing must be especially clear and concise.
Confucius said it best
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything."
So, when writing marketing messages, keep it simple - or chaos will reign. You don't want your prospects or customers standing about in helpless confusion.
You want them to do, what you want them to do, when you want them to do it - and that requires real writing skills...
And in case you're wondering, the sign should have just said "No e-scooters" accompanied by the image.
Product Manager, Parcel, Post & eCommerce Services, at Australia Post
1 年What about mobility scooters used by the elderly and disabled? Are they prohibited?
Visual Communicator: I create images that humanize brands and distinguish them from competitors. You have to get noticed before you can gain someone's trust.
1 年No wonder so much advertising and marketing is pompous and convoluted-- it's Level 5 literacy folks writing for themselves and others like them. But at least it gives them a better shot of winning the awards they give themselves, right?? ??