Political campaigns are, I believe, pretty heavy marketing exercises with candidates and their messages being constantly tweaked, adjusted, and analyzed.  This election is a lot about words at this point so thought I would pick up Frank Luntz’s Words That Work for travel reading.  His focus groups are pretty interesting to watch after the major debates and he has brought us many of the phrases that dominate the news and pundit-speak these days.  I’m not all the way through it just yet but did want to highlight what he sees as the ten rules of effective language at the beginning of the book.  Here they are:

1. Simplicity – use small words
2. Brevity – use short sentences
3. Credibility is as important as philosphy
4. Consistency matters
5. Novelty – offer something new
6. Sound and texture matter
7. Speak aspirationally
8. Visualize
9. Ask a question
10. Provide context and explain relevance