by Peter Keers

Among the business writer’s best tools are symbolic words, phrases, or depictions that express big ideas in a short amount of text. Similes, metaphors and analogies are common examples of these devices.

On the smaller end of the scale are the fraternal twins, simile and metaphor. A simile is always preceded by “like” or “as” (“he staggered like a wounded deer”). A metaphor is more direct with, “raining cats and dogs” as a common example. Unlike similes, metaphors require no setup word. The writer simply employs the symbolic phrase to describe the intensity of the rain.

As the more complex sibling of simile and metaphor, analogy is a comparison of a familiar idea or thing to an otherwise unrelated idea or thing. A simple example is, “His usually tidy room looked like a tornado struck.” The writer is comparing a messy room to a well-understood weather disaster. Like simile or metaphor, analogy aims to pack maximum meaning into a small container.

Analogies also give the business writer the power to explain complex ideas that simile and metaphor cannot handle. For example, sports analogies are frequently used to convey complex topics like competitive strategy.

While an analogy’s usefulness springs from its ability to deliver big ideas in a few words, thoughtful business writers use this tool carefully.

Familiarity Required

An analogy must be familiar to your audience or at least intuitively understood. A millennial audience would understand the analogy, “Far from being innovative, the market perceived the new product as if it was Quake introduced in the era of Fortnite.” If your target audience is Boomers, many will not have a clue about the comparison posed by the analogy.

Cultural Fit

Familiarity is determined largely by cultural dynamics. There are other cultural considerations when choosing an analogy. Sensitivity to nationality, ethnicity, sex, gender orientation, and other factors should influence the choice of an effective analogy. I used the analogy of a “tar-baby” in my earlier writing to indicate a problem that only got worse from attempts to solve it. (It is a reference to an American folktale from the 1800s by Joel Chandler Harris). Since that time, “tar-baby” has been identified as a racist term. Business writers need to keep up to date with ever-evolving trends to avoid using culturally insensitive analogies.

Overuse = Risk

Analogies can be overused and become boring to audiences. As mentioned above, sports analogies have been around for a long time. A former boss once told me not to use sports analogies in any in company communications because they were too common and conveyed a sense of lazy thinking.

Coining Your Own

A business writer may introduce novel analogies if there is adequate context or explanation provided.

I previously marketed a database product that organized data from multiple sources into a unified model. Many different applications could operate using this model as a source of data. However, in the early days of the product, the company did not create any such applications. Rather, the strategy was to recruit 3rd party application providers to become compatible and use the product to provide data for their applications.

It was a complex concept to explain to customers, so the marketing team searched for an analogy to simplify the message. One idea was to use the analogy of a house foundation. The database product was the foundation, and on this foundation, any number of different style houses could be built (3rd party applications). Unfortunately, the analogy did not create many “aha!” reactions from customers.

Then we tried the analogy of an XBOX game console. The database product was the XBOX, and the 3rd party applications were the games. This analogy was a big hit because customers seemed to understand the message better as a result of this pop culture analogy.

Analogy Strength

Business writers must be careful in assessing the strength of the analogy versus the complexity of the idea to be communicated. Earlier in my career, I worked for a prosthetic heart valve manufacturer whose product was implanted by cardiac surgeons to replace a patient’s diseased valve. The prosthetic valve had two leaflets that opened and closed “like the swinging doors of a saloon.” While this analogy helped explain the product’s function to patients, it was somewhat misleading. Saloon doors swing both in and out. The heart valve leaflets (doors) closed when they reached the middle of the swing. Some patients were confused because the analogy was too simple to describe the actual product function.

In this case, the analogy oversimplified the product description. The customer, therefore, received an incomplete message. Business writers need to match their analogy to the complexity of the subject because oversimplification could lead to customer dissatisfaction, increased costs (e.g. - complaint calls) and decreased revenue (e.g. – returns).

Choose Wisely

While analogies can deliver a powerful information payload in a small package, business writers need to evaluate analogies carefully on several dimensions. The aim is to ensure they are a good fit to both the information to be conveyed and the target audience.