When I left consumer packaged goods brand management and started working in qualitative research, I received a crucial piece of advice from my uncle. He had asked me about my plans. I gave a detailed explanation of the kind work I planned to do and the type of client I intended to pursue. He nodded and said, “that sounds great. But you need to come up with something much shorter if it’s going to make an impression.” “How short?” I asked. “Ten words,” he replied. I pushed back, saying that such a short description wouldn’t do justice to my abilities. He replied that this was unimportant. What mattered was giving people an explanation that they could easily understand, remember, and see as relevant to themselves. “So what if it’s oversimplified? That’s your problem, not theirs.” In fact, he added, if it’s not oversimplified, it’s probably too long and too complicated to be effective.
So, taking my uncle’s words to heart, these are some overly simple ways I describe myself to people outside the world of marketing or market research:
“I get people to talk to me about stuff.”
“I help clients see their business through their customers’ eyes.”
Here’s another thing I’ve learned; it’s a good idea to describe yourself in comparison to ‘something familiar. People need to be able to categorize you easily—put you in a box—even if you don’t precisely fit into that category. You have to let them think about you in terms that are relevant to them, not you. With that in mind, here are some oversimplified ways I describe myself to people inside the world of marketing and market research:
“I’m a focus group moderator.”
“I’m a qualitative researcher.”
These descriptions go directly to concepts that are familiar to this audience. While my expertise with qualitative research tools goes well past just conducting focus groups, ‘focus group moderator’ is a convenient shorthand that’s often used to describe my profession. Similarly, while I certainly am a qualitative researcher, the type of expertise and insight I provide to my clients goes far beyond just qualitative research skills. But, again, ‘qualitative researcher’ is a well-understood frame of reference, and so it’s a good place to start.
So, the point here is that mere simplicity, while laudable, may not be sufficient by itself. Over-simplification might be necessary to make messages memorable and effective.
This principle also applies to branding and marketing challenges. It’s common to encounter product concepts or advertising prototypes that are overly complicated, and it’s no secret as to why they test poorly. But I’ve tested research stimuli that were simple and straightforward and still didn’t resonate. Only when we oversimplified the message did the respondents react positively. For instance, I once tested concepts for a new high-fat baking chocolate. The first concepts – which were fairly brief but fully accurate descriptions of the product – were greeted with confusion; the participants couldn’t grasp the idea. However, when we showed a concept that said “it’s like chocolate mixed with butter,” the respondents became extremely interested. This really wasn’t an accurate description of the product at all, but it offered the participants a familiar and appealing frame of reference, which made them want to learn more. The oversimplified description was the one that resonated.
Something that makes this principle of oversimplification challenging is the fact that marketers and market researchers tend to be highly rigorous thinkers, and oversimplified messages make us uneasy. So, embracing this concept may require you to go against your nature.
One more thing: an emotional component to a message is crucial to engagement and memorability. The simpler a communication is, the less people have to work to understand it, and the easier it is to find an emotional hook. In other words, the less you have to think, the more you can feel.
So, go ahead—put yourself in a box. Get comfortable with over-simplification. It’s often the path to the most effective messages.
The Underrated Power of Oversimplification.