Cedar Mill Communications

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One of the things I think a lot about is product or company messaging. I try to look at all the facets of a product or service, analyze the intended audience and then figure out the most effective messages. If I do this job well, the message will strike a chord and the product or company will be on its way. If we’re off, then it’s back to the drawing board until we get it right.  Sometimes it involves product design changes, or adding features based on feedback.

I was recently reminded of how important it is to understand what the customer cares about when I went scooter shopping with my oldest daughter Jessica. She’s been home this week for spring break.  After spending the last couple months without a wheeled form of transport, she decided that a scooter would be the ideal way to circumnavigate the University of Oregon campus and surrounding areas. 

As life-long fan of anything with two wheels, I was all for it. Scooters are inexpensive, reliable, fun and environmentally friendly.  What’s not to love.  First stop was a Vespa store in Portland where Jessica spied a pink Buddy Scooter made by Genuine Scooter. While this little made-in-Taiwan 125 cc model was good enough, I figured I could do better.

The next stop was the local Yamaha/Honda dealer to look at what the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had to offer in the way of scooters. There we found a blue Yamaha Vino for about the same money as the Buddy. Then we saw that the Schwinn bicycle company had gotten in the scooter business, and we could buy a handsome grey Schwinn for less money. Moreover, the Schwinn had a 150cc motor which would make the scooter more practical for occasional freeway trips.  To me, this was a no-brainer.

Turns out it was also a no-brainer for Jessica. If there was a pink scooter available, then it was going to be a pink scooter going back to Eugene. Period. End of discussion.  And indeed, the pink Buddy is now cheerfully lodged in our garage. While my priorities centered on performance and price, Jessica’s centered on style.

 The moral of this tale to all you marketers and communicators out there: make sure you know what your intended buyers want and give it to them. Genuine Scooter company figured it out and secured our business over what could have been, in a number of ways, a superior offering.  Do you really know your customers, or just think you do? It makes all the difference.

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That word has been on a sticky near my desk for a couple of months. I love that it’s a classic work of Germisch (or Denglish). Team is obvious, but geist means spirit. Put together, you’ve got team spirit. The German writer could have said Mannschaftsgeist or Gemeinschaftsgeist. Maybe what he was after was something more inclusive. Maybe he, like loads of Germans, is just enamoured with English.

Whatever the reason, he wanted more of it. In a survey his company commissioned, he wrote that the whole place needed “mehr Teamgeist,” more team spirit.

I hope he got it. It certainly brightened up my geist.

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An interesting  study just out indicates that just 15 minutes per day is enough to keep kids slim. While intense exercise is better, even moderate exercise is enough to do the trick.

With the level of exercise needed to keep the fat at bay this minimal, it’s somewhat shocking to think that there are indeed fat kids and that it’s a growing problem. That means that kids aren’t even getting 15 minutes of exercise.  If they were, obesity in children wouldn’t be a problem.

I highly doubt that “finding time” is the problem. There’s a big chance that kids are finding plenty of time for sitting around watching TV.

By extension, I’d venture that same is true of pets.  Our dogs get daily exercise and they can pretty much eat all they want and keep their youthful figures. Here’s an easy formula for staying trim: a) get a dog b) walk the dog often.  Beats counting calories.

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If you’re new to the Cedar Mill Communications blog and website, you’re probably wondering what that handsome dog is doing in the upper right-hand corner. And you’re probably wondering why Brian is getting all the airtime. Wonder no longer! The dog is Felicity, our mascot and spiritual guide. A Buddhist priest once told me dogs are gurus, and he couldn’t have been more correct about Felicity. She and our small auxiliary dog Frankie will crop up from time to time because our world includes much more than just words.

About the heretofore (isn’t that a great word?) lack of words from the other half of CMC — me — I’ve been mulling over this whole blog business for some time now. I couldn’t decide if I really wanted to join this public airing of thoughts. It can get you thrown in jail in Egypt or fired or just dissed. But I do have something to say now and then, and a blog is a good place to throw out thoughts and elicit comments. So, I’ll likely add thoughts about my editing, writing and other word-related stuff — both written and spoken.

Among the kinds of editing I do through CMC is localization editing. That means I edit documents that have been translated into English. I try to make sure the copy reads as though it was written by a native English speaker. Editors needn’t speak or read the source language, but I think it helps to be able to do that. Maybe that’s because I’m a perfectionist about meaning. From three years living in Germany, I read and speak German well enough (though I need another class!).  I work with a fine German-to-English translator, Hilary Higgins. The two of us fuss over wording so that the German writer’s core message comes through, but in a way an American reader (or sometimes British) can fully grasp.

After nearly six years of doing this type of editing, I’ve learned some valuable (wertvoll) lessons: 

1. Discerning meaning is hard to do, but when you get it right, the ah-ha moment is wunderbar.

2. Translating describes only half the job; copywriting is the other half because clients often want us to make the translation better than the source.

2b. The source could have been better.

3. Working with a good translator makes the job a pleasure.  

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