The Messenger of Meanings  After three hours in hard chairs listening to a desperately average middle manager present his views on the business world, Gerry called him “the oracle of the obvious.”

When speaking to an audience of first generation tech-heads who equate their ability to collect and dispense data as a means of measuring success, Charles quipped sardonically, “Information is not the same as intelligence.”

After blowing the sawdust from a miter cut two-by-four and fitting it perfectly into place, Norm pridefully chided, “Measure twice and cut once.”

These expressions are powerful because they’re meaningful to a particular audience and are presented in a memorable way. When words and phrases deliver intelligence and attitude, they express the personality of the presenter. When such maxims become a corporation’s positioning statement or a product’s tagline, the audience begins to understand and appreciate the character of the presenter almost immediately.

Intelligence and attitude are at the heart of every compelling phrase. The following are instructive metaphors. These guides help the examination and creation process when developing positioning statements and marketing taglines, as well as names for companies and products.

Say what you mean and mean what you say is probably the best advice when creating a positioning statement for any organization, institution or product.

Keep it simple, stupid. Use each word in a particular order to define an objective and articulate an attitude in very few words.

Too many cooks will spoil the broth. This occurs when positioning statements or taglines contain too many messages, representing different or ambiguous internal agendas.

Some assembly required. Just because you understand what you’re talking about doesn’t mean that everyone else does.

Honesty is the best policy reminds us that every attempt to exaggerate an organization’s virtues will diminish its value.

The proof of pudding is in the eating implies that what is said in a positioning statement about a company or a product may be used to evaluate its performance.

To give the devil his due warns us to remember that the message will not only have to exist in a world of competitor’s messages but also compete in that world.

Nothing ventured nothing gained gives permission to create a phrase that defines one’s greatest aspirations, if only to identify what success looks like.

The sky’s the limit identifies what is possible when true exploration of a new positioning statement is allowed to fully develop without preconceived notions or historical governors.

Can we ever have too much of a good thing? We don’t think so.

Ideas and ideals with attitude and aptitude.  Our forte is the ability to use words and images to create memorable concepts in the minds of our clients’ audiences. We have created names for companies and products, taglines and positioning statements for organizations and institutions. When refreshing a brand or repositioning an organization after an merger or acquisition, allow us the opportunity to help your company say what you mean, both visually and verbally, to all of your audiences.

Spiegel “A Department Store in a Catalogue”
www.sx2.com/spiegel1.html

American Fiber, Textile, Apparel Coalition
“Crafted with Pride in America.”
www.sx2.com/craft1.html

Bell+Howell “Transforming Information into Intelligence”
www.sx2.com/bandh1.html

Civitas “Tools for Shaping Children’s Lives”
www.sx2.com/civitas1.html

ReVital “Put Color Back into Their Cheeks”
www.sx2.com/revital1.html

1800 Clybourn “Shop. Eat. Play.”
www.sx2.com/clybourn1.html

Stepan Company “We’re in the Bubble Business”
www.sx2.com/ARstepan1.html

David Allen Robbins “Fresh Furniture”
www.sx2.com/new.html

Worth your time:  Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly
This is a thriller in the classic sense, a strong story, interesting and complex characters driven by forces beyond their control. But, the biggest twist is at the core of the plot. The next generation of computers will take a chemical, not mechanical, form and will use the body’s own electrical system to provide computing power at a microscopic scale. The owner of this product will dictate the future.