I see some variation of this a lot, and while I get what they’re trying to say, it wildly misses the point.
A seven second pitch without a five page level of understanding is useless.
Let me explain…
First, when you are writing a marketing slogan or a business pitch, you should be coming at it with the full knowledge and understanding of both the problem and your solution. Yes, you need to convey to the customer immediately what you are doing and why they need it, but if you don’t have the broader intellectual backing behind it, your words are quite literally meaningless.
Second, when we (teachers, professors, instructors, or whatever) assign a longer essay, the goals behind that assignment are fundamentally different from a marketing pitch. Unless we’re specifically trying to teach marketing, the goal is usually for the student to make an argument and prove it. This means you need evidence to back it up. Otherwise, just like a marketing pitch with no substance behind it, your argument doesn’t work.
Moreover, if you came away from your education with the idea that an essay is assigned to be five pages just to fill up space, then you have misunderstood the goals of the assignment. You can and should be able to summarize the arguments of your paper into one sentence; that’s what a thesis should do! But the point of a paper with any given page length is that it forces you to think through the logic of the argument and prove that you can do so to the person assessing you.
Personally, if I find a marketing strategist that doesn’t understand that their seven second pitch needs to be backed by facts, data, and the ability to analyze both, then I’d be disinclined to trust that person with my business.
School lied to you. 🤥
In PR, in marketing, in business, be succinct or be irrelevant.
Brevity = empathy for your audience.
This is the way ✊
Credit: Parry Headrick