I obsess over word choice.
Choose letters carefully…
Maybe I do it to a fault, but I don’t think enough of us spend the time to think about what word was just hacked-out in an earnest attempt to hit a deadline. The marketing, public relations, and communications fields are especially susceptible to that deadline guillotine, but I always review my content with a singular purpose: have I used the right word?
I can almost pinpoint the moment when this obsession began. It was fall of 2004 and I was drafting a press release on a new, European luxury vehicle and was stuck on the description for a new piece of engine technology. Basically, it had a computer that varied the opening and closing of the valves leading to the combustion chamber. It was applied to increase the engine’s efficiency; the benefit being more power, less fuel burned, and lower exhaust emissions.
In an earnest attempt to hit a deadline, I copied the terminology from material published by the communications department at my client’s global headquarters: Intelligent Variable Valve Timing.
When I distributed the release for review, a colleague and mentor called me up, pointed me to that exact term and asked: “Do you really want to assign human intelligence to a piece of engine technology? What expectation would that set in the minds of customers?”
He was right. Intelligence created the technology; the computer was merely following a set of programmed parameters. So, I fixed it by dropping the word “Intelligent”.
From then on, the perspective stuck and I became a stickler for words.
I was thankful it did, as this same situation would repeat itself over and over as the automotive industry introduced system after system to help the driver or the vehicle be more efficient, comfortable, and safer.
I argued against the use of grandiose terms to describe systems that can apply the brakes if a driver fails to notice a potential impact at low speed; headlights that swivel in relation to steering wheel position; dampers in suspension systems that adapt to road conditions; modern cruise control systems that can recognize and adjust the vehicle’s trajectory to lane markings as well as speed to traffic flow; or the emergency braking systems found in so many new vehicles to help avoid collisions.
Of course, these systems were the first baby steps in the sector’s journey toward autonomous vehicles. The auto industry is on a long road toward vehicles that can drive themselves and, if you’re looking for a resource on the various levels of autonomy, Kelley Blue Book recently published an excellent summary that can be found here.
Every time there was a word that over promised, I suggested something to dial it back. I did it to the point that colleagues started to label me as “Dr. Words”.
Through all of those communications campaigns, I took a hard, long look at the terms being used to describe or name the technology. I tried to put myself in the perspective of a customer, learning about it for the first time, and how I might perceive the company or the technology if I thought it didn’t deliver on its promise, for whatever reason.
Some may see that as being overly cautious. Instead, I see it as a way to better articulate what the system actually does, provide some boundaries, while ensuring there is room for variation and evolution… because there will always be a new, improved version of what you’re launching now.