Rather than stating an MP3 player had "253 megabytes," Steve Jobs said the iPod held "1000 songs in your pocket." This use of "concrete phrases"—terms the brain can easily visualize—is proven to be up to eight times more memorable than the abstract technical language commonly used by enterprise brands.
Customers buy the benefit a feature provides, not the feature itself. Frame your marketing around the desired outcome or 'big three wins' for the user. As the speaker says, 'benefits sell and features tell,' because features only inform while benefits drive the purchase decision.
Your team's internal names for features often confuse customers. Systematically harvest the exact words customers use to describe outcomes during sales or support calls and use that language to rename features. This self-identifying language, used by Apple (e.g., "AirDrop," "Retina Display"), makes products instantly understandable.
Amidst thousands of MarTech solutions, the simplest explanation wins. If a child can grasp why your product exists—to help people get what they want faster—then a time-poor executive can too. This simplicity test is crucial for creating a memorable value proposition in a crowded space.
Donald Miller argues that purchases are driven by words that are easy to understand, not by brand aesthetics. Making a customer think is a barrier to a sale. Simplifying your message to reduce mental effort is more effective than having a beautiful website or logo, as exemplified by Amazon's success.
The popular myth of Steve Jobs's 'reality distortion field' is a misunderstanding. His true superpower was an exceptional ability to see reality with profound clarity and articulate it with the fewest words possible. This motivated teams to act on that clear vision, rather than attempting to bend reality itself.
Abstract jargon like 'real-time visibility' is meaningless to buyers. To make messaging punchy, translate these abstractions into concrete language that describes the buyer's actual experience, like changing 'high performance' to 'V8 engine.'
Instead of focusing on technical specifications meaningful only to engineers, Apple reframed its message to highlight the user benefit. This audience-centric approach made the product's value immediately understandable and desirable to consumers, demonstrating the power of translating features into experiences.
Our brains remember tangible information we can visualize four times better than abstract ideas like 'quality' or 'trust.' Instead of describing MP3 player storage in 'megabytes,' Apple used the concrete, visual phrase '1,000 songs in your pocket,' making the benefit sticky and easy to recall.
Abstract technical specs like "5 gigabytes of storage" are far less memorable than concrete phrases that create a mental image. Research shows people are four times more likely to recall concrete terms (like "white horse") than abstract ones. Effective taglines allow the customer to visualize the benefit.
To make an abstract business idea concrete, tell a simple, personal story that runs parallel to it. By explaining the frustration of a broken dishwasher, a speaker can effectively convey the business necessity of refreshing old server equipment without getting lost in technical jargon.