Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who ever has to give a media interview in 2020 could start the year with a resolution to refresh their vocabulary, and cleanse their speech of annoying words and phrases that no-one ever uses in the real world? The key is to ensure you (or your spokespeople) avoid those words that mark you out as a corporate/marketing person rather than a normal human being. If you are looking to engage with your audience, remember it’s hard to empathise with someone who sounds like they’ve just come out of an intensive course in marketing jargon.
Here are some current ‘favourites’:
innovative – as in ‘this is an innovative end-to-end solution’ – usually only innovative in the narrowest technical sense, and who really cares? What does it actually do?
authentic – vastly over-used
passionate – passionate about on-time delivery/customer service/widgets? Come on…
verticals, as in the x or y vertical, or niche – meaningless to most
space – as in ‘the retail space’ or ‘the consumer space’ – would you really talk like that in the pub?
Others to avoid where possible: enhanced (typical marketing-speak), digital (isn’t nearly everything nowadays?), sustainable (a fashionable claim but does it really stand up?), metrics (most people have no idea what you’re talking about).
Happy jargon-free 2020!
