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Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear is a book by Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, who developed talking points and other messaging for Republican causes and business alike by running focus/interview groups, testing of languages, and finding words that are most effective. Luntz is an advocate of political rhetoric that is direct and clear. It should be interactive and speaks to the common people.

This book is mainly concerned with two topics: 1) The ten rules that govern the effective use of language 2) Application of these principles in political speeches/ads/campaigns, private enterprise commercials, and in everyday life, arguably in decreasing order of thoughtfulness. Luntz urges his readers to adopt a listener-centered approach to commutation and craft messages from their listeners' point of view. As he eloquently peaches "It's not what you say, it's what people hear".

This is an extremely useful book to those who want to improve their communication skills. Some of the book's principles are familiar, but so deeply fundamental that they are worth repeating – which is one of Luntz's 10 rules of effective language use.

The book uses case studies to recount how identifiable messages and product strategies come to be, many of which are Luntz's own work. He also describes the process that created them and provide readers with the specific words that work, and those that don't.

Key Themes

1. The Ten Rules of Effective Language - what give rise to words that work

Luntz argues, with reference to Orwell's 1984 and the Room 101, effective words should trigger emotion and imagination, as well as understanding. They should go beyond explaining and motivate people to act. Luntz also notes caveats that he is only concerned with commonsense language of small town, middle America languages. Also actual policy counts at least as much as how something is framed.

Simplicity: Use Small Words. Otherwise readers will either let your real meaning sail over their heads or worse, misunderstand you.
Brevity: Use Short Sentences.
Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy. People have to believe it to buy it.
Consistency Matters. “Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Good language is like the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going . . . Find a good message and stick to it. Coke's “It’s the real thing” and Wheaties's “Breakfast of Champions” sound as fresh and memorable as they were decades ago. Ronald Reagan also repeated value based messages that helped him sustain personal credibility at a time when many Americans opposed his policies
Novelty: Offer Something New. Businesses should use messages that have a new take on an old idea and bring a “sense of discovery”.
Sound and Texture Matter. Use language that rhythms, use alliteration, and use a sounding slogans to the make the message memorable. E.g.,: M&M’s “Melts in your mouth . . .”
Speak aspirationally. “say what people want to hear". The key is to personalize and humanize the message to trigger an emotional remembrance.
Visualize. Something we can see and almost feel.
Ask a Question. “‘Got Milk?’ may be the most memorable print ad campaign of the past decade.
Provide Context and Explain Relevance. You have to give people the ‘why’ of a message before you tell them the ‘therefore’ and the ’so that.

Tie your verbal message to an image. Invite people to share a vision with you.

2. Listener-centered communication: focus on results

Luntz argued that how we receive messages are strongly influenced by the experience and biases of the listeners. For instance, children centered arguments consistently score better with women than economic based messages.

It's important to position an idea linguistically so that it affirms and confirms an audience's context. Use the exact world to create the exact context and therefore trigger the exact response you want.

3. The focus group method:

Luntz explains the technical details of his work with focus groups and with clients, this is practical and helpfu, giving a behind-the-scene view of how his focus group research is conducted.

Format: Room with a two-way mirror. About 20 participants who are shown video or ads. Sheets of words to be tested. Electronically measures each respondent's feeling of a topic by measuring the turn of a dial. Moderator sit with the participants.

Step 1: feelings poll: the first step of the research involves reading a sheet of words to the focus group. For each word, participants will raise hands if they approve of a world. Luntz is mainly looking for a majority about on the words that word.

Step 2: approve/disapprove dial

Here participants are given a dial that can be turned to indicate if they approve or disapprove of statements in a speech. As the speech progresses Luntz get a real-time readouts of when the focus group participants are turning their dials and thereby perform an instant analysis of the speech. He then determines which words work and which do not.

This is a robust method. Though XXXXX

4. Be the message:

It's not enough to just have the perfect words. It's important for the messenger to project a credible, authentic, and strong persona to make people feel as if they really know them. People forget what you say. But they remember how you made them feel. Luntz used the Swift Boat Veterans ad case study to show that when the messenger's credibility is torn down by another powerful narrative, the credibility of the messenger and thus the original message is not longer valid until he provides an equally powerful counter argument. He then went on to show how politicians like Bill Clinton showed authenticity and personality that allowed them to be the living breathing embodiment of what they are trying to sell, politics and products alike.

5. The Campaign Trail

If you are running for office, the public will fuse your character and your message, so address both factors to present a winning profile. Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeded because he fused celebrity with politics. The public believes Schwarzenegger is authenticity. Don't let others define you. If they attack your image, answer fast and decisively; the public sees silence as an admission of guilt and weakness.

To craft your message, look to history for well-presented political messages. in 1952, Eisenhower's advisor Rosser Reeves created an ad campaign titled, "Eisenhower Answers America." He showed staged clips of citizens asking questions with clips of Eisenhower answering, creating the impression of an interactive exchange. The more effective conversation and information the better.

Perhaps the best example is the politically conservative "Contract With America," developed in 1994 and spearheaded by then-Congressman Newt Gingrich. He sought to present Americans with "a platform that clearly highlighted not just our principles but a plan to get it done." The campaign started with the term "contract," implying a mutually binding agreement. The platform listed ten items – resonating with top ten lists from popular culture and classics, like the Ten Commandments – and promised to act on them within 100 days. The contract was signed, like a public pledge, and was advertised in TV Guide, a venue more likely to reach the non-reading American public.

Through careful crafting of the messages it was clear, simple, aspirational, highlights the most eye catching values, and effectively defined the mater narrative of the republican party and what they stood for. It was controversial enough to draw attention both positive and negative

6. Business Communication: Word Choices

Using Jack Welch's clarity and bluntness in communicating with his employees, Luntz points out that too often corporations don't communicate with their customers or workers, leaving them frustrated and disconnected. Communicate frequently with your target audience. When managing relationship with worker's unions, Luntz advocates for more information, effective communications, and faster response. To improve messaging of private enterprise PR, he suggests using simple lingo, dropping words such as "capitalism" and "private".

Luntz advocates for personalized corporate communication that appeal to the public. Companies should apply the ten rules of communication, use catchy advertising slogan, and become the living embodiment of that slogan. Never use industry jargon or complex phrases, especially when discussing values. Craft hopeful slogans in vivid language. Offer a vision for your industry that everyone will want to join.

At times, selling this vision will mean consciously reshaping how your industry is discussed. For example, look at the shift that casino marketers accomplished by recasting "gambling" as "gaming." Relabeling the U.S. estate tax as a "death tax" made it sound less fair. Changing the phrase from "drilling for oil" to "exploring for energy" helped recast the oil supply debate, as did referring to exploring "American" locations instead of "domestic" ones. Such tactics work because they identify the negative associations linked to their core concepts, and then recast the discussion in more useful, positive ways.

7. Cutting Through Myths about People and Language

To make your message persuasive, you must understand who is an average American: white busy female with little saving despite higher salary. What's at least as important, though, is what isn't true.

"Americans are educated" – They aren't. Far less than half of the population has graduated from college, and many American are ignorant about their history and government.
"Americans read" – Slightly more than a third of the people read the paper once a week.
American women all respond to politics the same way – Women's positions vary by "age, income and education." Men's political opinions tend to stay the same throughout their lives
Americans can be grouped into easy categories – People often ignore "exurbia," the move beyond suburbia into relatively homogeneous, mostly Republican, planned communities.
To reach Americans, strike a patriotic note – Americans are patriotic, but they shy away from explicit calls on their patriotism, which seem manipulative and overdone.
To sell, go retro – Americans want the new and the fresh.
The candidates' stands matter – Candidates' positions matter to only a few of the voters. Americans judge candidates by their "personality, image, authenticity, vibe."
"Americans are happy" – They listen to Bill O'Reilly and vote for Schwarzenegger, because they're tired of seeing established leaders fail them.
Americans like big business – People may want to own large corporations, but they don't trust or like them.
Americans have put 9/11 behind them – Never. The attack on U.S. soil crushed the sense of casual invulnerability that most Americans took as their right.

8. What Americans Care About

To integrate messages with American's real values, one needs to understand American's true values, chief among these principles is opportunity.

Community is another key value. Common sense, rather than intellect, matters to Americans. Make your ideas sound reasonable to the average person. Americans want their government to run like a good business, to give good value and to work efficiently. It should protect their communities and families.

To reach Americans, tie your message to the future, and make it positive. One reason Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole for the presidency was that Clinton was positive, and spoke of, "building a bridge to the twenty-first century." Dole, by contrast, often seemed negative. Americans value accountability, and they want solutions (not ideologies). They are pragmatists who seek respect for their individual efforts.

9. Practical advice going forward: 21 words and phrases for the 21st century

Top 5: Imagine, hassle-free, lifestyle, accountability, result/can-do spirit, to name a few.

10. Personal language for personal scenarios:

Luntz gives some final thoughts manipulative strategies for getting out of traffic tickets, boarding airplanes at the last minute and apologizing to one's wife with the "miracle elixir" of flowers. Some could argue that these suggestions are to simplistic and manipulative. Perhaps more than serving as practical tips, Luntz is trying to remind us of the power of effective communication in daily live.

11. Discussion:

Some of the chapters, such as "the contemporary youth language and definitions" that explains origin of words, comes across as pedantic and an attempt ot show erudition.

Because the book use many case studies to advance argument. These seem to be presented in ways that best serve the needs of the chapter and sometimes in contradictive manners. E.g., Coca-Cola's failure to stick with a slogan hurts its brand. Whereas Avis' rebranding on "we tray harder" helped to advance it as a industry leader.

Luntz seems to regard Orwell as a spiritual lodestar. While both Luntz and Orwell claim to seek political rhetoric that achieve worthy goals, this is where the two diverge. Although Luntz's book has achieved its intended practical purpose, the influence of this otherwise brilliant book is limited by the author's aspiration of partisan interests and everyday mandates (e.g., getting out of a speeding ticket), rather than rising to the worthy courses fought by Orwell against totalitarian regimes and hypocrisy in politics at large.