At the height of the dotcom era, a few high-tech journalists created “Buzz Saw,” an email filter that would bounce messages from PR and marketing people who larded their pitches with overused buzzwords. If you laid it on too thick with catchphrases like “bleeding-edge,” and “strategic paradigm,” not only did your email get bounced, but you received a Buzz Saw autoreply that snarkily pointed out your infraction—sticking the knife in a little deeper.
A tough-love approach to heavy-handed marketspeak, perhaps, but you can’t blame the poor journalists who had to read this stuff day after day. Ten years on, tired words like “synergy” don’t turn up all that much in well-crafted marketing copy—but new catchphrases still enter business writing from time to time, get overused to the point of ridicule, and then fade away. At the moment, “disruptive” and “game changer” are the descriptors getting slapped on everything coming out of corporate America. Soon, when even new menu items at KFC are described as “game changers,” we’ll file this buzz phrase away and find new ones to exploit.
(By the way, the media is just as likely to get sucked into the buzzword blender—search for the phrase “game changer” at the Fast Company website, and you’ll find a steaming pile of citations.)
Marketers need to be vigilant of the spread of meaningless buzzwords in their collateral, and strive to find clear, direct language to describe products and services. Easier said than done: top executives want to use the same lingo that the cool kids spout at other companies, so they’ll ask the marketing team to start drinking the Kool-Aid (catchphrase alert!) and pile on the buzz.
You won’t win the battle to cut buzzwords 100% of the time, but you can excise out the worst offenders from key documents, making sure they are used sparingly, if at all. (Buzzwords are more annoying in bunches.) We like the idea of creating a frequently updated “Top 10 Overused Buzzwords” list for your colleagues, raising awareness of overreliance on the latest industry jargon. Check out Wikipedia’s list of business buzzwords if you need a head start. You should also add the list to your corporate style guide—see our previous post on how to create style guides.
Your Content Bureau editors and writers will tell you if we think you’re wading too deeply in the buzzword swamp, and we’ll suggest fresh alternatives. Our nomination for Catchphrase that Refuses to Die but Must Be Killed: “open the kimono,” meaning improve visibility or share data. Um, ick. If we see that one in your collateral, we promise to smother it.
I write business copy, but I also write for a regional “Edible” magazine on food and farming. The inescapable buzzwords there are “local, sustainable, seasonal, artisanal, organic”—I just can’t figure out a way to dodge them. Help!