Tim Cook & Co. said “fast” 52 times at the last Apple Event. What does that teach you about synonyms?
Apple has a knack for making incredible event. The coordinated, cool and comprehensive presentation builds and reflects the company brand.
Cooks, Federighi and the whole Apple gang’s communicate a great excitement for new design and faster processors. Longer battery life, shorter wait time. More of this and less of that. It’s awe-inspiring.
Everything is planned — camera angles, animations and so on.
And the words. Yes, the words. Everything is amazing, faster, better, higher, thinner, fantastic, and the list goes on.
As a word enthusiast, it’s difficult not to notice their choice of words. They are carefully chosen to influence our perception and the products and, of course, Apple.
So, let’s open up our thesaurus and dive in together with Tim Cook & co.
Synonyms add nuances and keep things fresh
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many companies to rethink their physical events. So, they turned to digital and started streaming product launches. Apple was and still is one of them.
On November 10th 2020, Apple held one of their online Apple Events.
It was a time-shifted sales pitch for their new Macbooks. A stream of seamless manuscripts and harmonised hooks with the underlying message: buy our new products.
A range of speaker explained features and benefits which highlighted their amazing new products. And yes, words like amazing, incredible, bold, powerful, remarkable and compact was said numerous times during the show.
By the way, I didn’t transcribe the entire speech. Rev did all the hard work. So shout out to them. Read the transcript right here.
Well, back to the synonyms.
Of course, Apple wasn’t to pinpoint that their technology pushes boundaries. That is why they use words that enhance your and my FOMO — Fear of Missing Out.
So, Tim Cook used words like “new”, “more”, “ever” and “amazing”.
Words that all highlight that Apple’s new tech is the latest and greatest. “Creme de la technologie”
A third thing I want to emphasise is how Apple uses adjectives to bring nuances.
During their show, they said “leap” 10 times.
If they just repeated “leap” with no nuances, it would be boring and repetitive. Instead, Cook and co. add adjectives that enrich the substantive “leap”.
For example, they go
- Huge leap (3 times)
- Monumental leap (1 time)
- Quantum leap (1 time)
- Mindblowing leap (1 time)
- Gigantic leap (1 time)
- Giant leap (1 time)
- Major leap (1 time)
- Biggest leap (1 time)
Each variation adds a new dimension to the word “leap”.
At the same time, it gets more interesting for us, the audience. We aren’t bored by the endless repetition.
Become best buddies with your thesaurus
So what is the point of this piece?
I want to encourage you to think about which words you are using and how.
If Tim Cook says “fantastic” over and over and over, you and I get bored. We get annoyed at him. And our mind begins to wander.
So how can you (re)capture people attention?
By keeping your writing and language catchy, curious and creative. But how?
One way is to dive deep into your thesaurus.
www.thesaurus.com is a great website to check out for starters. They give you tonnes of suggestions.
And when you’re done with your text, run it WordCounter. This web app tells you which words you use the most. Thus making it easier for you to shake up your writing and keep it fresh.
Which words should you choose?
The challenge lies in finding the words that enrich your message. The words highlight nuances and make your text enjoyable to read or hear.
If you use a specific metaphor in your text, then choose synonyms that builds on the theme.
Say you are writing about a football organisation. Instead of writing colleagues, you could use a word like “team player”. Draw inspiration from football-related situations and words.
To some, this might be a no-brainer. But never the less it is crucial because it helps make you communicate more excitingly. It adds flavour.
Some sentences can get too dull and needs some salt, whereas other should be spicy and bring out the colours in your cheeks, getting your blood flowing.
Repetition isn’t bad. You can repeat words and sentences if they are important to your message.
Just think of what Martin Luther King did with his famous “I have a dream”.
It’s just important that you are intentional with your choice of words.
Choose the words that resonate with your audience. Adapt your message and aim for their feelings.
Communication should be by humans for humans.
