Maybe three years ago, give or take a bit, the company I was with then was wrestling with a good tag line to use for its products and services. Ultimately they went with something that made me cross-eyed and therefore even funnier looking than  normal, and decided against the other option that I liked: “Right message. Right Place. Right time.”

Sound familiar? Sure it does. Because several companies use variations of it as one of their key messaging points. I just saw it used again today by a software company, and this was after seeing it in a couple of new places last week.

This is not a tired or meaningless buzz phrase like all those ones we’re advocating to see banished. I actually think it’s pretty good in explaning what well designed software can do for clients. It’s just that a lot of people now use it.

Is that a bad thing? Not as part of the narrative of marketing materials or press releases, because that simple message beats the hell out of blabbering away about “business rules-based message targeting” and the glories of meta data.

I just wouldn’t lead with it or put it in bold on marketing materials. Intended or not, the Right Message thing is going to read like Borrowed Message.

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