The local florist has a great tagline: “We send happiness around the world.” Isn’t that fabulous?
  • It’s short.
  • It’s memorable.
  • It engages the emotions.
  • It sends a positive message about FlowerNow and its impact.
Great stuff.
It’s also just the sort of thing that some nonprofits (or small businesses and entrepreneurs) would want to muck up.
“But wait!” they would say.
  • “We don’t send anything. We work with an international florist services company.”
  • “Our product is not happiness; it’s flowers. We don’t have any data linking our flowers to increased happiness.”
  • “This covers only a small part of what we do. We also sell flowers right here. We have live plants and gift baskets. We do weddings and funerals. You can’t leave out any of those things.”
The result would be one of those mishmash mission statements that tries to cover everything but ends up saying nothing.
Whatever some committee wrote to be more comprehensive and accurate, it would never communicate as effectively as “We send happiness around the world.”
Simplicity connects. Complexity confuses. Choose simplicity!