BMW Brief messaging works! The ultimate marketing machine London Wentworth PGA

Much of the time , buyers want sellers to keep it short and to the point.

Research from the Buyers views of supplier salespeople confirms that they don't think we listen enough and when we talk - we talk too much.

Learning to be brief and clear is an craft Salespeople need to acquire and continually work at. Brevity is an ongoing work in progress.

The limit of the 140 character of twitter-in-business also places such a discipline on us

The Gherkin Building in the City
 - hardly Wentworth but a teeing off point
 in the message

The skills of brevity are powerfully used by advertisers and headline writers. 

They have little time and space to catch our attention and sell their message. 
It is worthwhile examining their skill in brevity and see what we can learn.

How do we balance accuracy and detail versus the demand of brevity placed on us ?

Your first tee is ' your gathering point':

When people reply to the question "Where do you come from?" often the respondent mentions the nearest town/city rather than exact location. So it is in brief business communication.

Word Association can help brevity.

 For example the name "London" attached to some airport’s  location  to make it instantly recognisable to foreigners. London Luton, London Stansted and London Gatwick. Yet  all are some distance 25-40 miles from the City centre but  all attach London for instant recognition.

Iconic Red Pillar post box

Back in the day in my first full time job with an American multinational building materials manufacturer, I remember being asked  by my boss to dig out some images of London for the HQ folk in Pennsylvania.

 It was for some PR brochure project. I was not to spend too much time on this but the photographs that I was to submit had to include a red double-decker bus. In those days the iconic “Routemaster.”




For American consumption the red bus, the red post box or the red telephone kiosk immediately communicated London or England. (Much as a yellow cab says New York to Brits.)

Red Phone box K2 design
 by  Sir Giles Gilbert Scott from a tomb design
 of Sloane in St Pancras cemetery

Yet  images eventually date

BT's new look phone box is
a poster site ( reverse side) with a phone bolted on
The Barrel roof has been kept

With the growth of personal ownership use of mobiles , the proliferation of messaging systems like twitter, texting have made such 'visual images' rather dated. A red telephone box is now 'frozen' in time rather 'of our time'.

Today it is our buildings such as the Shard, Gherkin, Canada Water and the London Eye that promote London rather than red bus/phone/ post boxes.

London Wentworth !

The PGA European Golf circuit hits UK this month. It takes place in leafy Virginia Water in Surrey. But for many outside the UK the county of Surrey means little.

For overseas readers of this blog Wentworth refers to  Wentworth Club which  is a privately owned golf club and health resort in Virginia Water, Surrey on the south western fringes of London, not far from Windsor Castle. 

The club was founded in 1928 . It does not even have a London post code but a Guildford post code ( Zip code) GU25 4LS

The images of Golf stars on the Office buildings and Tourist sights of the City are the short hand for the BMW sponsored PGA event. Entitled London’s premier Golf tournament.

From a cartographic perspective Wentworth is some distance from the heart of London. (Coincidentally as far away as Luton, Gatwick and Stansted ) But to communicate quickly the name London does the job.

In conveying your offering succinctly you need to know what are the shorthand words that pin point your offer? Initially our job is to engage and capture attention. The detail and accuracy comes later.

The BMW Poster gives a Gulliver's Travel
 lilliputian  mini golf look

The Shard  is the new building icon  of London
south of the City in Southwark 

St Paul's Cathedral in the crazy golf  poster photos

Canada Water , Canary Wharf the site
 of the former London Docklands

Lesson for Selling ?

What tired old analogies, stories, images, phrases need updating is your sales story telling. What are your equivalents to old red phone boxes, red post boxes ? What are your new equivalents to the Gherkin, Shard and London Eye ?

What brief messages will work for you tomorrow?

Related Links

Add attention getters link http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/five-ways-of-getting-client-attention.html