To communicate, human beings have developed language. We call it a common code, but in reality it’s not. There are 6,500 living languages, an incalculable number of dialects, and worst of all, not everyone can fully use language to describe precisely what they think.

So we take shortcuts by using images: simple, condensed formulas that illustrate—literally—what we’re talking about.

Everyone uses and understands them. The French headlines* to the right, which appeared the day after a budget was tabled in the legislature, use a variety of images to describe the same event. One of them talks about “cleaning house” to describe the meticulous analysis of public finances, or “opening up a can of worms” to talk about something that’s done and can’t be undone. These few examples—you can think of dozens more—show that

Images are effective because they replace a lot of words.

Images are not neutral. They carry an emotional charge that quickly conveys where their users stand.

It’s this emotional charge—what’s left unsaid—that MetaforteTM looks at.

*Metaphor-rich headlines published in French newspapers the day after the Quebec 2010 Budget announcements.

It would be easy to present metaphors as a way to find out what the “rest of the brain” is thinking. We’ll leave to pop psychology that reassuring dichotomy between the emotional and the rational, the cortex and the limbic system, and the right and left brain.

We do know that, whatever the contributions of one side or the other, emotions and rational thought each have a share in the decisions people make. That’s why we believe in inviting both to the brand management table and getting the part that’s left out of purely language-based studies.

Businesses spend a lot of energy distilling a mass of research on their products and customers into short, distinctive, and evocative slogans. If we grant that these few words have value, it’s only logical to look at the unconscious slogans we offer consumers in the images they select to express their opinions about brands.