Zazou Marketing

A few days ago I was working on a brochure about a new product launch. In it I needed to explain that matcha green tea has more antioxidants in it than any other tea. To do so I wrote, “Matcha has 10 times the antioxidants, when compared to traditional green and black teas.”

Then I thought… “Is that right?”

As I have done in the past, I headed over to my “APA Style Book” and looked it up. Here’s what it has to say:

compared to, compared with

Used compared to when the intent is to assert, without the need for elaboration, that two or more items are similar: She compared her work for women’s rights to Susan B. Anthony’s campaign for women’s suffrage.

Use compared with when juxtaposing two or more items to illustrate similarities and/or differences: His time was 2:11:10, compared with 2:14 for his closest competitor.

So, according to the “APA Style Book,” no, I was not right. It would be: “Matcha has 10 times the antioxidants, when compared with traditional green and black teas.”

It’s one thing to waste free space. It’s another to pay top dollar and waste it.

In an earlier post, I talked about a banner at Lincoln Center that simply tells you to “Celebrate Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary.” I brought this up as a reminder that advertising copy and marketing materials need to include the information that people want, as well as what will make them care–both of which this banner sorely lacks.

So that covers the wasted free space. What about paying to waste it? Well in the May 2009 O Magazine, there is a similarly uninteresting and uninformative Lincoln Center advertisement. It splashes the same “50″ across the page and has the following copy: “Saluting Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on its 50th anniversary.” Then there is the “Lincoln Center 50 Years, just the beginning” logo and the website, LincolnCenter.org.

Lincoln Center 50 years ad campaign

Is it just me, or is this another missed opportunity to make me care?! Seriously, use your advertising copy to tell me something, anything that will entice me! What have you done that’s so special? What are you planning that is so special? What exactly are you doing to celebrate? If I am interested, what can I do to celebrate? And why should I take any time out of my day to go to your website when you haven’t told me a thing about why I should go there?

Whether you are writing a website, brochure, advertisement, newsletter, or email, it’s important to look as professional as possible. That means getting your spelling, grammar, and word usage correct. So, here’s a quick reminder on a few words that we use all the time: “everyone” and “every one.” And remember that there’s a difference between them!

• Use two words when you are referring to an individual item: “We used every one of those sales tips in our pitch meeting.”

• Use one word when you are referring to all persons: “Everyone wants a bonus this year.”

Zazou Marketing

When you’re writing words like shake up, shape up or set up, do you ever wonder whether to use two words or combine them into one with a hyphen? Well, you’re not alone. Here’s a little rule to follow, use “shake up” when you need to use a verb and ”shake-up” as a noun or an adjective. Others that fit in a similar camp are:

Verb            Noun or Adjective
shape up        shape-up
speed up        speedup
set up            setup
sell out          sellout
stand in         stand-in
tie in              tie-in

Of course, the English language often makes no sense at all. For example, “second hand” is a noun, while “secondhand” is an adjective or adverb.

So, remember, next time you shape up your house, set up a garage sale and get rid of all of that secondhand clothing…

In this series, “Quick Tip”, we offer you linguistic rules of thumb. These explore grammar rules that will help you keep your business correspondence and marketing materials error-free. After all, you want your writing to reflect just how professional you are, don’t you?

So, here’s our first grammar tip for writing business correspondence and marketing materials:

The last time you wrote an e-mail asking a colleague to meet a deadline, you may have written, “Will you try and have that done on Monday?”

That’s fine for everyday relaxed conversation (and e-mails).

But for formal, precise prose, use the infinitive: try to (“Will you try to have that done on Monday?”).