If you work in marketing, PR or journalism, you’re reading constantly. Email. Websites. Text messages. Blogs. Project briefs. Ad copy. Scripts. Court filings. Government documents. Speeches. Talking points. Press releases. White papers. Case studies.
Time permitting, you probably read books and magazines. Possibly you groom your screenplay or novel (the most ambitious of you out there).
Words come at us through pixels, off pages, in high definition from wide-screen TVs, from your smartphone.
But not many messages make it through with the sender’s desired effect. There’s only so much noise we can endure to receive every signal — the essence of message, a story remembered, the remark that crystalizes.
Who won the Super Bowl early this month? Easy. OK, what was the score? Not so easy. Who was honored with an Oscar for best supporting actress Monday night? For what movie? What did U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tell Congress Wednesday? Those messages were important to their senders. Were they important to you?
It’s no different with whatever you are trying to market, position or sell.
The next time you’re deep in a project, step back and gauge the signal-to-noise ratio. Be critical. Can you reduce signal degradation? Can the signal be heard and remembered? Do you need to sharpen or shorten?
Starbucks did this week. So did the European Commission. As did a research firm that reported nearly half of all teenagers did not buy a single music CD in 2007.
One of the best motivators for me is in the Universal Principals of Design. On page 182, signal-to-noise ratio is boiled down: “Increase signal by keeping design simple. . . Minimize noise by removing unnecessary elements, and minimizing expression of elements.”
More signal. Less noise.
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