Avoid Alphabet Soup
Or, one person’s acronym is another’s “Huh?” It gets even more fun (confusing, maddening, and nonsensical) when you consider the same letters can mean very different things, depending on the industry, group, business, or location. (Tip of the blog bowler to Maureen for her comment re GUI (Graphical User Interface) on a previous post of mine - jogged my synapses re this problem.)
Example: SNA
As an old data networking type, I automatically think IBM’s System Network Architecture. But it also means:
Special Network Access (telephony)
Southern Nursery Association
John Wayne Airport (SNA)
Snap On Inc. (NYSE stock symbol…Oh, and that’s New York Stock Exchange)
School Nutrition Association
Social Network Analysis
Suburban Newspapers of America
Syndicat National des Antiquairies (French Antiques)
Singapore Nurse’s Association
Sofia News Agency (Bulgarian news in English)
Example: SPOC
To me it means Single Point of Contact. It also means:
(Ahem) Sex Professionals of Canada
Support for Parents Overcoming Challenges (of Spokane)
Snowshoe Property Owner’s Council
So, before you prepare your next presentation, write an article, or change your company’s name - stop and think. Am I talking the same language as my audience and/or customers?
Tags: communications, marketing, marketing communications, marketing troubleshooting, presentations
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December 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
I was at a service in a Catholic church recently, and the pastor’s name had the initials “STD” after it. It took me a moment to figure out that this stood for Doctor of Sacred Theology.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:09 am
I’m doing my best to avoid going for the ridiculously easy cheap shot re Catholic priests here - but snort, snort, heh.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Mary - I’m with you on the cheap shots: I try to avoid. And I was in a beautiful church, with a wonderful pastor, who invited the homeless shelter I work with to have someone speak about our mission at all of its Masses and ask the generous parishioners to contribute: which they mightily did. (Generosity to the poor is one of the Catholic “brand attributes” that has been lost in some of the recent shuffle.) But I think that the Doctorate of Sacred Theology only applies to Catholics, so the didn’t think the anecdote would make sense without it.
(And I’ve gotta say that, as a cradle Catholic, it’s a real rush to get up on the altar and speak from the pulpit.)
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:10 am
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