8 Marketing Buzzwords That Need to Buzz Off

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Simon Dumenco the "Media Guy" for Advertising Age makes a point that particular words in marketing catch-cries are becoming over-used, are uninspiring and are basically murdering the original meaning of the word. We challenge you to avoid using these eight words. Starting now.

B&T Magazine

One helpful thing about the artisan buns at Maccas – They got me thinking about other marketing and media buzzwords that should be put out of their misery (or at least my misery) already. I think this list could be a real g-g-game — well, you’ll see.

ARTISAN

Listen, if the most mainstream, mass-market purveyor of fast food in the universe (McDonald’s) thinks it can get away with saying that the bread in its new artery-clogger (720 calories! 40 grams of fat!) is an “artisan” roll, it’s obvious that the word artisan has officially been drained of the last bits of aura and snob appeal it theoretically once had.

AUTHENTIC/AUTHENTICITY

If you feel like you have to call attention to how real you are, then I’m sorry, your authenticity isn’t authentic enough for me.

CURATED/CURATION/CURATOR

Now that absolutely everybody has access to easy-to-use tools that enable content “borrowing” (cough) and redistribution, absolutely everybody thinks they’re a curator.

DISRUPTION/DISRUPTIVE/DISRUPTOR

I know, I know. You won’t stand for the status quo! You’re shaking shit up! The project you’re working on is not only going to disrupt the ecosystem, it’s going to disrupt the way that disruption of ecosystems is done henceforth!

DNA

When you tell everybody that a particular noble quality or approach is “in our DNA” at your company, I get what you’re trying to say: it’s so second-nature, so intrinsic to your mission (see below), you don’t even have to think about. Except here you are not only thinking about it, but talking about it. And every time you talk about it, you’re reminding me of the fact that nurture is at least as important as nature in creative environments.

GAME-CHANGING/GAME-CHANGER

A totally game-changing move for everyone to make would be to stop saying “game-changing.”

GURU

Let’s get real — er, authentic: If you describe yourself as a guru, you’re not a guru.

MISSION

Finish this sentence: “We’re on a mission to ….” If you can say “explore Mars” or something similar, and you work at NASA, good for you. But if you’re mainly just looking to sell or market some stuff while making some scratch for yourself and your stakeholders, c’mon, that’s OK and there’s no need to get all quasi-spiritual (and/or delusional) about what you’re doing.

Read the full piece here.

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