Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Fish Story

I would like to share this really nice story that Garr Reynolds mentioned in his PresentationZen book.

When Vijay opened his store, he put up a sign that said: "We Sell Fresh Fish Here." His father stopped by and said that the word "We" suggests an emphasis on the seller rather than the customer, and is really not needed. So the sign was changed to "Fresh Fish Sold Here." His brother came by and suggested that the word "here" could be done away with—it was superfluous. Vijay agreed and changed the sign to "Fresh Fish Sold." Next, his sister came along and said the sign should just say "Fresh Fish." Clearly, it is being sold; what else could you be doing? Later, his neighbor stopped by to congratulate him. Then he mentioned that all passers-by could easily tell that the fish was really fresh. Mentioning the word fresh actually made it sound defensive as though there was room for doubt about the freshness. Now the sign just read: "FISH." As Vijay was walking back to his shop after a break he noticed that one could identify the fish from its smell from very far, at a distance from which one could barely read the sign. He knew there was no need for the word "FISH."


Focus on the core, remove the unnecessary. Be Simple. Yes, it hurts to remove the really cool items, but you have to if its not as important as the core of your message.

4 comments:

  1. He could also just put up a picture of a fish. He could reach out to more people including those who cannot read and tourists in his area who do not know English. ;) In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words. :)

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  2. Nice idea,

    but the smell of the fresh fish was enough as they claim,

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  3. Hi!! i stumbled upon ur blog while googling.. funny post u got there!! :)

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  4. @Liquek
    Hey, thanks for dropping by man ,
    great my topic is googable!

    ReplyDelete

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