Unclear messaging — what’s the worst damage it can do to your brand?

Can you guess what this street sign means?

This is what some people thought:

• “Hit the squirrel with a rubber mallet, win $100!”
• “Crossing INTO the dedicated squirrel lane is a violation of $100.”
• “If you are able to hit a squirrel with a hammer inside the crosswalk, you win $100.”
• “You have to ignore squirrels and keep walking or else you will be fined 100$”

They’re not kidding. That’s what you’ll probably think too.

Looking for the right answer?

I don’t know either.

That’s what unclear messaging can do to your brand — break it.

If your message is like this:

• Your users would be scratching their heads
• They won’t go where you want them to (your products)
• They’ll leave confused, so no word-of-mouth for you

While you don’t even know about the looming problem.

So when you approach writing for real users — Maybe don’t put squirrels in the picture that confuse the pedestrians.

Your homework?

Edit the above pedestrian sign with squirrel to make it understandable and send it to [email protected].

The best ones will be published right on this page. Good luck!