Good Marketers Eschew Obfuscation

A good start is not to use words like eschew and obfuscation.

Here’s a tip for all marketers, not just the little guy: Big words don’t make a marcom writer sound smart and neither does business-speak. Buzzwords and buzz phrases are not cool.

Clichés deserve their lumps. Still, most of the more apt have stood the test of time. Not so with buzzwords. Some are so recently coined, only a few know what they mean and that sometimes includes the coiner.

Buzzers are second cousin to politically correct language. When you call killing people “collateral damage,” that’s a real stretch. Buzzers, like their cousins who create such PCL, sometimes deliberately mint stuff to cloud meaning. For example, when someone says they want to “deep dive” a subject I assume he wants to examine it thoroughly, but I may be wrong.


Nevertheless, “deep dive” is ready to take the plunge as a substitute for solid words like explore or examine. Actually, it’s not a bad choice of words ---yet. But when empty heads start using it to impress, the novelty and power dissipate. It looses the ability to communicate.

Viable is another good word that has been demoted by folks who overwork it trying to sound smart. Doesn’t “good alternative,” “a possible alternative” “a workable alternative” or “a lousy alternative” tell you more than a vacuous “viable alternative”?

Another word that smacks of buzz to me is “operationalize.” I think…but may be wrong…that it means what you do to make something work. The danger is that it can be dumped into a meeting by a presenter (a.k.a. The Shadow) and cloud men’s minds so they can not see through him.

And, that’s the big danger of buzzwords and buzz phrases. Under the guise of sounding like they know what they’re talking about the perps are often guilty of shallow, sloppy thinking or just plain ignorance.

Just for the hell of it, the next time someone lays a buzzword or buzz phrase on you, ask for an explanation. If it’s good, you can add it to your repertoire or repartee.

For a good laugh, and a lesson in “How Not to Communicate” visit http://www.buzzwhack.com/. You’ll chuckle at the pompous stuff that folks are generating in an attempt to impress.

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