A analogy (or any other rhetorical device that uses commonly understood imagery or words to explain or elucidate a complex subject) is a common, and often powerful, tool in any marketing or communications effort.
Comcast Cable has had great success with its “Slowskys” campaign: the husband and wife turtles who prefer poking along with dial-up internet service instead of Comcast’s faster broadband connection. The image of a turtle tells you all you need to know about dial-up. In the political arena, President Obama used the “third term of George Bush” analogy against John McCain with devastating effect. An insurance executive recently testified before Congress about how publicly-traded health insurers had become “an ATM for Wall Street.” Few people understand the ins and outs of health insurance financing, but everyone understands how an ATM spits out money.
In fact, when we counsel clients, we often work on developing an effective analogy that can help explain their product or service in a powerful and memorable way. Analogies work.
The problem is, a bad analogy will work against you. Take Sarah Palin’s recent announcement that she would step down as governor of Alaska. Here is a section taken in its entirety from a transcript of her remarks:
Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me - sports... basketball. I use it because you're naive if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that - keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities - smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball - for victory.
OK, I get it. She’s like a good point guard. Let's ignore for now the fact that most people probably don't really know what a point guard does. The more serious problem is, if you take this analogy to its conclusion, it goes horribly wrong. A good point guard passes the ball—but he (or she) doesn’t walk off the court after doing so. To use her own analogy, Gov. Palin has passed the ball and then left her team to play four against five. With a ham-handed analogy like that, it’s no wonder her detractors have delighted in questioning Palin’s motives and even her mental capacity. Let’s hope she’s not trading her governorship to coach basketball somewhere.
A powerful analogy can be explosive in effect, but please, make sure it doesn’t blow up in your face.
