Recently, we published a short piece on the folly of using generic business pictures in communication. So it’s only fair to say something about typical business words.

As a writer, I admit to having used them on more than one occasion – often against my better judgement. I think you know sort of the words I mean: Proactive, sustainable, holistic, commitment, downstream, challenge, reliability, flexibility and the ubiquitous unique, to list just a few. These (and other) tired words are often complemented by an arsenal of equally trite expressions: carbon footprint, gold standard, front-end, hearts and minds (even Pentagon-speak seems to have entered the corporate vernacular) and, of course, one of the all-time favourites – paradigm shift. Like wallpaper visuals, these clichés communicate nothing but sameness. Just as using the word differentiation doesn’t actually differentiate, someone screaming at the top their voice that they’re interesting doesn’t make them so.  The remedy is as easy as it is hard. The easy bit is thinking deeply about your offer and your audience and trying to find distinctive (and relevant) ways to communicate. The hard part is persuading your colleagues that something needs to be done – and then doing it. But if you know deep down that your communication is riddled with shopworn words and expressions, I can only recommend you start the process as soon as possible.

PS. A word of warning, if your communication is even remotely like this the time for action is long overdue. If not, you can amuse yourself by typing your competitors’ names into the box and see what happens.

They say that all healthy things grow. But even if your company is healthy and you consistently work hard, there is always the risk that your competitors will grow more. Or that you don’t grow at the rate you want. So what do you do?

One way to increase the rate of growth is to acquire one or several companies. Something that sounds a lot easier than it is. There are many pitfalls and a risk that the acquisition leads more to your downfall than your success.

Which is why Excore in cooperation with Setterwalls and BDO have produced the book Tillväxt till salu (Growth for sale). Sandberg Trygg was commissioned to make the text clearer and more exciting. This is the second book we have edited and more are in the pipeline.

To order “Tillväxt till salu”, please contact Daniel Lifveredson at Excore.

Would you like to swap jobs with me for a few weeks? Before saying yes, I must warn you, it’s only for those who enjoy writing. You do? Great, then read on. Just so you know, you’ll be sharing an office with Cecilia, a delightful woman and a fellow copywriter. You two will get along really well.

You’ll write a lot while you’re here – in fact, all day every day if you want. What sort of stuff? Just about anything, from brochure text to web content to film scripts to poster headlines to e-mailers, to, well, you get the message. And before you know it, Beatriz, another charming lady, will send you an e-mail to say it’s time to write some more – this time for the blog. By the way, everything you produce is checked by our secret weapon, the eagle-eyed Barbara Walton. One final thing, make sure you deliver your carefully crafted words on time. The production managers here – Stina, Anna-Lisa and Louise – will give you an earful if you don’t.

What does your job involve? I’m hoping you work for a company that sells products and/or services to other companies. I’m also hoping you have a significant export. Above all, I’m hoping to get an insider’s feel for the challenges you face in your communications – internally and externally. Because truth is, there’s a limit to how much insight I can glean from sitting on my duff staring at a computer. One thing you should know: I’m pretty low maintenance, as long as there’s an ample supply of coffee and fresh fruit.

I guess the only question now is, ‘When do I start?’

PS. For a closer look at my workspace, check out the pictures. It’s quite roomy, but the view from the window is disappointing. Still, my comfy new ergonomic chair makes up for that. Hope you feel at home.

When I was growing up in England (many moons ago), advertising was liberally sprinkled with all manner of grammatical transgressions.

These ranged from the tantalisingly tautological ‘Domestos – kills all known germs dead’ (they’re already dead if you’ve killed them, right?) to the British Egg Industry’s admonition that we all ‘go smash an egg.’

More recently, there was Butterfinger’s ‘crispety, crunchety, peanutbuttery’, Hyundai’s ‘powercision’ and Snickers’ irresistible ‘Substantialicious.’

The moral of this short blog entry is if you have something to say and others have already taken your favourite words – or the most relevant ones – don’t be disheartened. Just toss the rules of grammar out the window, and start inventing.  It’s not only embiggening, it’ll make you feel beyonderful, too.

PS. Embiggen was first used in an episode of The Simpsons in 1996.

Nowadays it’s pretty easy to check if a tagline has already been used. One way is to google the expression in inverted commas. Search “feel the difference” for example, and you’ll see that several companies have had the same thoughts. You can also search in this database for advertising slogans in several areas of business. The database is also useful as a source of inspiration when trying to come up with a tagline for your company.

Mark Twain once said ”I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead.”
There is, of course, something in what he said. But how do you write briefly and succinctly? Here are some useful tips.

1. Think before you write. Before you start writing – think about what you are going to write and in which order your ideas should come. Your text will be both easier to write and read if there’s a structure.

2. One thought per sentence. Each sentence should only express one thought. Otherwise you risk confusing the reader and giving them an excuse to stop reading. And that’s not the object of the exercise.

3. Keep sentences short. Sentences must vary in length to avoid boring your reader. But the average length should be short. Fifteen to 20 words per sentence would be a good average.

4. Simple English is best. You need both simple and more complex words for clear expression. If the right word is a big word, go ahead. But if a shorter word does the job, use it instead.

5. Avoid unnecessary words. Most texts can be cut in half and still say the same thing. Unnecessary words are often included unconsciously but they just slow things down. Or even worse, confuse the reader.

6. Put action into your verbs. Passive verbs kill sentences. Things happen without you knowing who did them. Active verbs liven up sentences while making things clearer. Here is an example:
Passive: The car is driven to the petrol station to be washed and waxed.
Active: John drives the car to the petrol station to wash and wax it.

7. Sleep on it. Let the text rest overnight. When you sleep your subconscious is working hard, finding a new way to express that tricky sentence.  In addition, you take a break and waken with new fresh eyes, ready to fine-tune the text.

8. Get a reader’s opinion. Ask someone else to read what you have written. It’s a quick and easy way of getting valuable comments.

Don’t be fooled by the ready smile and the polite, friendly manner. Like a bird of prey, she hovers over our printouts, swooping down with her red marker to eliminate stray umlauts, greengrocer’s apostrophes and a thousand other illiteracies. For sensitive American audiences, she happily removes taps and installs faucets, while never straying from the sidewalk to the pavement. In fact, very few words in any language or medium leave the building before she’s cast a critical eye over them – carefully weighing linguistic and cultural subtleties. The people who wrote or translated them wouldn’t have it any other way. And neither would the clients. Thank you, Barbara, for not only being a patient sounding board, but also our ultimate quality insurance policy.

PS. If you have any questions of your own about English copy, by all means get in touch with Barbara at

Many of our customers are looking to sell their products and services internationally. So they need solid, confident, native English copy.

Because it’s not just about grammar. Texts need to have a style and tone that rings true to the reader. A reader who is often more wary of foreign suppliers and needs extra reassurance that they are speaking the same language – both commercially and culturally.  One word out of place and you’ve suddenly got a much bigger mountain to climb to gain their confidence.

In Sweden, there is an impressively high level of English. But with that comes the real risk of overconfidence, which can lead to gaffes the size of the Gulf of Mexico. The well-known phrase “fit for fight” is, in fact, an entirely Scandinavian invention. To native English ears, the right expression is “fighting fit”.  It might look like a small thing but so do lederhosen … and they’re equally threatening to overseas customers.

Here’s an article about this for the Swedes.

It is even more important to express yourself well in social media. What you write can spread like wildfire.  And there’s no way you can erase what you’ve written on the net.

How do you learn to write good texts? Hemingway said: Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent. OK, Hemingway did win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 but is perhaps a bit extreme in what he says.

A simpler and more positive answer is that you learn to write by writing, writing and writing again. Whatever – a letter to a local newspaper, a letter to a good friend or a poem. But of course it helps to get knowledge and inspiration from somewhere.

Here are some book tips from our copywriters at the agency. Read and enjoy being seduced by what King, Strunk & White, Hemingway, Crompton and Öhlin say about the art of writing good texts.

Steven King, On writing: A Memoir of the Craft

William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, The Elements of Style

Ernest Hemingway, Monologue to the Maestro: A High Seas Letter

Alastair Crompton, The Craft of Copywriting

Fuck Logic, Per Robert Öhlin

During the 1960s our predecessors Anderson & Lembke produced a publication called ”Technical advertising texts – how and why?”. It was meant as internal training material for copywriters.

The publication is of course dated in many ways (few would call an art director a layout man today). But on the whole, it contains thoughts and writing tips that as just as relevant today as they were then.  Here are some of them and if you are interested you can download the whole publication as a pdf. (Only available in Swedish. The ten points below are a summary of the contents)

“Ten things to think about before you start”

1. Most of what we have previously taught you about the art of writing does not apply to technical advertising texts. You have to learn to condense large amounts of complicated information into a few, simple words. You have to go through every line you write and weed out all the unnecessary words.

2. Readers read fast. They don’t take the time to read a long unclear sentence. It’s easier to turn the page than look for facts in a stodgy text.  Say it clearly, say it simply and say it fast.

3. It is two totally different things to write a text about an ice cream and a contractor’s machine. There is no impulse buying when you sell producer goods.

A businessman that invests in expensive equipment is tied to it for a long time. If the equipment does not correspond to the promises you give him, he can not throw it away or put it in the freezer and forget about it. His existence as a businessman is dependent on the efficiency of his equipment.

It is possible to hypnotise a buyer by shouting loud and long enough. But as soon as he has bought his equipment, the brainwashing ends. And one of two things happens. Either the goods work as they should and everything is fine, or you have promised too much and you can just as well cross that customer off your list. And not just him but also many of his colleagues – word travels fast in the world of business.

4. Too many superlatives, too broad generalisations and far too much emphasis on secondary product features can have a negative effect. Just one incompetent, exaggerated or naive statement is all that is needed to blow away his interest and get him to turn the page.

If you promise too much, you set a trap for yourself. The text is not credible, and at the same time creates dissatisfaction with customers. Sooner or later they will work out that the promises aren’t real. This can lead to discontent with products that actually work faultlessly. And just one dissatisfied customer can make all your customers in a sales district start buying from the competitors.

5. Write simply and to the point. Keep to the spoken word as much as you can without the text getting too familiar. Eloquence and the style of essays and fiction are not suitable when you want to sell producer goods.

6. Write directly to your buyers.  Not everyone who reads the publication is a buyer (less than 25% for nearly every product in most trade journals). Of course, it is fun if others also read the ad. But still always write only to those who are buying or who can influence the buying process. Forget all other readers.

7. The B2B advertising manager nearly always has a limited budget. He must therefore make sure that he primarily does advertising that helps sell the company’s products. Such advertising is also often the best corporate advertising. Corporate advertising of the conventional type is seldom a profitable investment taking into consideration how narrow and clearly defined the markets are for the majority of producer goods.

If a company wants to give to charity, it should be done in a more suitable way than through the advertising budget. If you want to use advertising to help recruit qualified personnel or try and influence the company’s share price, then you should have a separate budget for this. The advertising budget is normally administered by the sales department and then it should be used for producing sales results.

8. Do advertising for the company’s products and services, not for the product name or technical quirks. It may be necessary to work up a product name. Do it by clearly associating it with specific product advantages. The company may have made interesting technical progress. This may be incredibly interesting but it does not belong in advertising if it does not offer the customer a direct benefit.

9. Avoid meaningless, boring and tiresome ”advertising language”. Words like biggest, best, unsurpassed, revolutionising – and quality, operational safety and operational economy  – are so worn out that they are completely ineffective. Avoid comparisons that are not comparisons. Build on facts and common sense.

10. Speak to one reader at a time. He’s sitting at his desk in a quiet room. There’s no reason to shout. He’s a professional in a business where they use the product you want to sell, and he probably knows more about how to use the product than you do. Far too much B2B advertising is written as if it were a ceremonial speech. It’s easy to fall into that trap. You think of the 18 000 civil engineers that read technical journals or the 50 000 leading people within business that read financial journals. And suddenly you are standing on the podium looking out at an auditorium of 100 000 people – then you begin your speech. You use solemn phrases, you make dignified gestures, you formulate, generalise. You get drunk on your own knowledge and the result is just words, words, words …

To the reader sitting alone at his desk using some of his limited time to look for useful facts, you come across as plain silly. Writing B2B advertising should be like writing a personal letter, a business letter to a business acquaintance. The advertising reaches thousands of readers but it reaches them one at a time. They read it during a time when they are expected to do something of value for the company, every minute, every hour. Or they read it as ”homework” in the evenings, which they would really prefer to spend with their families or friends. There is only one reason for reading B2B advertising – the advertising must give the reader something of value for his work. The reader wants facts, served as clearly and simply as possible.

The reader is in a hurry. He skims and jumps in the same way as you read an evening paper. As soon as the copywriter starts to generalise, use cliches or gets lost in discussions that only interest the advertiser, he gives his reader a chance to give up. The same effect is achieved when the text contains unsubstantiated statements. You have to keep in mind that the reader does not know the author personally. Not even the company brand
is any guarantee for credibility of the text. Advertising is always regarded as biased and that’s a fact. Which is why it is vital to give clear, convincing evidence in the text that the statements made are true.

Speak calmly, clearly and as simply as possible to the reader. Explain the benefits that the product can offer. Avoid superlatives. Avoid generalisations. Give specific facts. Don’t write fiction, hold lectures, don’t boast or sound like a high-flying salesman. Write simply, understandably and genuinely for one reader at a time. End by asking him to test the correctness of what you say. Offer him more information. But never urge him to buy.