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The power of metaphor (is like a….)

Time for a nice, fun, non-organizational topic - one of my favorite hobby horses. What is it that the most successful new technologies of the internet revolution have in common? Let’s take a look…e-*mail*, Web *browsing*, Instant *messenger*…starting to see a pattern here?

The things these wildly successful applications all share is that they tap into the power of metaphor, creating that resonance in the mind that says, ‘aha! I know what that should do, and it’s something I can see myself doing.’

This response is the Holy Grail for all of us involved on the frontier between marketing and technology, especially for anyone actually marketing technologies. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to hear quite a few pitches from widget makers for the Internet - especially back in the boom days when there was a company heading public for every 10 lines of actual code. The good ones always seemed to know to brand and sell their whatsit by hitting that same note of the familiar. With something as arcane and new as a *bookmark* site (oddly enough enjoying a resurgence today for companies like Blinklist, metaphors were a reliable way to make it accessible.

All this got me thinking about this powerful communication tool to help get across what could otherwise be challenging new technologies. The very same applies to Websites. Whenever we launch a new interactive application, it may well be a new technology to our users. As such, we can benefit from applying the analogy approach.

First, you need to forget about what your thingie is and think about what it means to your users, how it will play a role in their lives somehow (it’s not about you, it’s about them. From there, consider possible analogies to the real (meat) world. Is there anything people are familiar with that we can tap to trigger that spark of recognition? Should a tool that helps people find the right automobile be named a vehicle decision guide or the virtual car salesman? This may be kinda’ cheesy, but you get the idea.

If you’re involved in the marketing of any new tools or software products and hope to see customers jump on the bandwagon, you may get a real boost if you can score a good metaphor. More to say on naming to come.

About Dan Leeds
Dan Leeds is a Web strategist for a major financial services company, and one of ReveNews newest bloggers. He has an endless capacity to discuss how and why success happens online. Read Dan’s full bio here.

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