August 2002

MARKETING ANGEL ™
Throw the buzzwords out with the bums

by KIMBERLY MCCALL

Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

 

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  Related Story:
Readers vote on top buzzwords

 

  'Buzzspeak' hall of fame:
Throw out those buzzwords!
Readers have submitted their nominations for business jargon that we need to retire. To see the nominations and to vote for the worst example of corporate 'buzzspeak' on the planet, click here.


Recent columns by Kimberly McCall:
The secrets of selling Maine (July, 2002)

Unravelling the mysteries of print(June 2002)

Complete index

Like any culture, business creates its own language — a shared lexicon lifted from myriad sources such as technology, sports and business books of the moment. Once unleashed, "buzzspeak" spreads as only bad fashion and spam can.

But in our moral and financial crisis wrought by miscreants of the board room, Americans are clamoring for a cleanup on the corporate ethics aisle. While we demand leaders with conscience, I say it's time to do a bit of corporate terminology cleansing as well. Let's pitch loathsome CEOs and the vocabulary of their companies right into a chasm of obscurity, shall we?

Here are a few nominations for words and phrases that should be sacrificed to the gods of verbiage at once:

  • "At the end of the day," as in, "At the end of the day we'll fire 17,000 people and file Chapter 11."
  • "Disconnect," as in, "Oops, we put 4 billion in the wrong column. Darn. Must've been a disconnect."
  • "Synergy/synergistic," as in the most overused word in technology-company marketing materials. Evah.
  • "Grow," as in, "Let's grow the biz, make a gazillion dollars off shareholders, then sell it all before anyone knows we're under SEC investigation."

    Plus a few more we should all strive to eradicate from our vocabulary:

  • "Going forward"
  • "Getting buy-in"
  • "Strategic partnership/alliance"
  • "Value proposition"
  • "On the same page"

    Now it's your turn. What words and phrases drive you batty? Tell me which buzzwords should be retired by sending e-mail to business@mainetoday.com. Please send in your nominations by Sept. 1. MaineToday.com will collect the nominations and allow readers to vote for those that need to be retired to the hall of fame of passé "corporisms."

    Kimberly L. McCall (a.k.a. Marketing Angel™), is president of McCall Media & Marketing, Inc., a business communications company in Freeport, Maine. McCall writes monthly columns for Entrepreneur magazine and contributes to inc.com and The Wall Street Journal's StartupJournal.com. Sign up for her free weekly bulletin at www.MarketingAngel.com or contact McCall at 207-865-0055.


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