5 Creative Metaphors in PowerPoint

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Discover five creative PowerPoint metaphors you can use for your business presentations. Get inspired to come up with your own variations.

Applications of metaphors in PowerPoint:

Good metaphors have a way of simplifying a complex concept. They help you ‘connect’ with your audience and make your message memorable. However, it is not always possible to get graphics in PowerPoint to portray your metaphors visually.

In this article, you will find five useful metaphors to use in your business presentations. You can come up with your own variations to suit your specific context.

1. Comparing Apples and Oranges

This metaphor signifies concepts like ‘unfair comparison’, ‘inappropriate comparison’ etc. The following diagram template helps you visualize the comparison:

Metaphors in PowerPoint ComparisonYou can replace the sample text to indicate the two things being compared and the ‘visual’ does the rest. The template is quite useful for your sales and marketing presentations.  You can see more compare & contrast visual ideas here >>

2. Elephant and Blind men

Sometimes simple stories can help you put a complex business situation in context. For example, everyone knows the story about blind men describing an elephant ‘as they see it’. The following diagram template helps you capture the story in one slide. We used the silhouettes of business people to help you contextualize the story to a business situation:

Metaphor for blind menYou can use the slide to convey concepts like:

  • Interpreting market conditions differently
  • Reading a new ‘trend’
  • Making sense of consumer behavior etc.

You can replace the sample text to indicate different ‘interpretations’.

3. Block the functioning

Gears are commonly used as a metaphor to signify business processes. The following diagram template builds on the metaphor to convey blockage in functioning:

Blocked Process Metaphor in PowerPointYou can easily replace the sample text to indicate what the ‘blocker’ means in your business context.

Source :

All the metaphors shown in this articles are taken from PowerPoint Graphics and Concepts CEO Pack 2.

The Pack has 815+ premium quality graphics, charts and diagrams to help you capture business ideas visually. You just need to choose the template that captures your idea and replace the sample text with your own text. Your business slides get ready in no time. Creating professional quality presentations has never been easier.  Browse the pack here >>

4. Money growing in a tree

Sometimes phrases we use in everyday language can be used in business situations. Take a look at the following diagram template that conveys the idea of ‘money growing in a tree’:

Money in a tree metaphorThe PowerPoint tree could be…

  • Your ‘sustainable business model’ which gives you residual income for times to come
  • A patent you procured which assures you of business revenues in the future
  • A source for your ‘Royalty income’ etc.

The metaphor signifies the idea of ‘One time work – leading to ongoing benefits’

5. Tip of an iceberg

Sometimes clichéd phrases like ‘tip of an iceberg’ work so well as business metaphors in PowerPoint. The following diagram template helps you visualize the concept:

You can replace the text to indicate what the ‘10% and 90%’ mean in your business situation.

Thus, you can use simple metaphors to make your business message memorable. All the diagram templates you saw in this article are taken from our ‘CEO Pack –Volume 2’. You can find more such templates by following this link.

As you can see good visuals have the power to grab and hold audience attention.

Related: More Visual Metaphors for Business Concepts

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