C. S. Lewis On Getting To What Matters Most
Found courtesy of my dear friend Jeff Simmermon, who will possibly but surely only fleetingly want to kill me for turning this into a marketing thing but here goes…
The Letters of Note blog posted this lovely letter C. S. Lewis wrote to a young, budding writer, packed with advice on how she could better craft her story. He begins,
“You describe your Wonderful Night v. well. That is, you describe the place and the people and the night and the feeling of it all, very well — but not the thing itself — the setting but not the jewel.”
Lewis goes on to share a quick list of tips, including this gem that might wind up getting printed out and posted on my office wall:
Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description.
While I’m not a writer or editor, I find myself tackling language and meaning in almost every pitch and presentation, particularly when developing original IP or new communications platforms. I spent a fantastic lunch hour on the phone with my colleagues today, turning a proposal inside-out to get to the heart of what mattered most. As we spent time framing and reframing the story, I realized we were attempting to meet the criteria set forth by C. S. Lewis; to pull emotional response out of our audience, to get to the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ of it in the most compelling way.
Click through to read the whole letter — it’s a great read for any of my fellow marketers and branding bods.
![world-shaker:
courtenaybird:
BBC News - App helps blind to send text messages
“[There is] a growing anxiety shared among the blind community that the widespread adoption of touchscreens for many machines and devices is making them ‘truly blind’… from copying machines to machines at the gym - is all coming with touch screens.”
“Blind people say I ‘see’ things with my fingers, but on touchscreens they are truly blind.”
This is awesome.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzrk3iYVmZ1qzsvqyo1_500.jpg)
BBC News - App helps blind to send text messages
“[There is] a growing anxiety shared among the blind community that the widespread adoption of touchscreens for many machines and devices is making them ‘truly blind’… from copying machines to machines at the gym - is all coming with touch screens.”
“Blind people say I ‘see’ things with my fingers, but on touchscreens they are truly blind.”
This is awesome.
reblogged from morpheusmedia
Paying Premiums For Life Made Simpler
According to this survey by branding consultant Siegel + Gale, ease of use (ease of understanding) edges some brands out over their competitors:
consumers are willing to pay a 4-6% premium for brands they believe offer a greater degree of simplicity (defined as ease of understanding, transparency, caring, innovation and usefulness of communications, as well as interactions in relation to industry peers) over their competitors.
Copywriters and brand marketers still love some clever copy, they tend to go for the amorphous and aspirational over direct and attainable. We’ve been taught for years that features and benefits communication is dull and what consumers want is sexy! But this data seems to confirm what’s in our gut; let’s leave the sexy to the luxury brands and keep food, personal care, drugs, home and household to feats, benes, and social proof.
