Unpopular Opinion: don't hate the word, hate the buzz.

If you have the bandwidth, you should socialize this edutainment post across your ecosystem.

Buzzwords in business aren’t inherently bad.

They are sometimes comically overused, but the words themselves serve a purpose. For example, in my intro above I used quite a few and you understood what I meant. While there may be better words, the meaning is more important than the size of your vocabulary.

Even “unpopular opinion” is a buzz phrase businesses and people use to get you to click on something because we all like to get riled up over stupid stuff and spout our opinions on the internet. The irony, right?

On an Indeed list of 30 common buzzwords in business, almost all had a valid use. Yet we constantly joke about people using these words. The person who says they will “circle back” on several issues in a meeting, will have IM’s floating between other meeting participants poking fun at the speaker’s expense.

But I think buzzwords have a valuable place in business.

Language is always changing

If you use a word incorrectly long enough, it becomes correct.

That’s a unique thing about language, it evolves and shifts. The dictionary isn’t a fixed document to list the only words you should use. The dictionary is to formalize and share the meaning of words that are already being used to communicate.

Consider slang words making their way into the dictionary. It happens often. Cool is a description of temperature. It is also slang that has lasted generations and the definition of cool as ‘something stylish’ is in the dictionary. Now things may get a little confusing because cool = hot. We still have to apply context. Something can be both cool and hot, particularly if it’s a conversation between a Gen X’er (“that’s cool”) and a Millennial (“that’s hot.”) The word ‘literally’ is going this way where its opposite will also be as valid as its original meaning. I digress, but buzzwords are like slang, they impart meaning and become institutional.

Language changes because the world changes. We need new terms to better express ourselves.

One of the words I came across in my reading was “phygital.” My first thought was will I need to have my phygital removed as I get older, but as a marketer, I do like this. Physical + Digital. I love a good portmanteau, and this was a great new one. I can see the need for it. The physical location of selling or experiencing a brand was historically different from experiencing a brand in the digital space. Marketers have pushed to make these more similar as the consistency from one touchpoint to the next makes the brand stronger, and potentially the assets more efficient to produce.

Prior to the 2000’s we really didn’t need a word that blended these two realms because one really didn’t even exist.

Marketing changes. Language changes to keep up.

Meaning is shared.

The “buzz” part of buzzword sounds impermanent and dismissive. Maybe it wasn’t intended but that’s the feeling that seems to persist whenever I hear the term. I argue that buzz is a key part of the phrase.

Language is nothing if it is not shared. It absolutely must be common to be correctly understood. You may have heard about twin language, which I feel is more of a Hollywood invention (Nell, I’m looking at you here) than a regular occurrence, but even with twin language, you must have two people share it to be understood.

Buzz suggests the word is spreading. It is catching on. It is making its way into common vernacular. And we need this to happen so understanding is solidified.

In developing new processes, I have long contended that taxonomy is the first and most critical step. If we are not aligned on exactly what words mean, we have no hope of sorting through the sequencing of actions.

It would be easy to assume that I think people are stupid or they lack vocabularies but language, in particular business language, is highly contextual. Consider this: your colleagues could span 30 years in age and experience. During that time, the internet came about. eCommerce became a thing. 800 numbers and catalogs essentially died off. What was “media” to someone 30 years ago is quite different now.

People went to different schools, in different parts of the country, and were taught by different professors with their own different books and backgrounds. The context in which a word was first learned has changed. However, we can guess the meaning of a word through a shared context. Buzzwords are an attempt to bridge the gaps in context.

As a result, I believe a taxonomy first is a critical component of marketing operations. The organization doesn’t have to define all the terms, only the terms they plan to use.

One manager may think a “key benefit” is a product feature, while another may believe a “key benefit” must be expressed in terms of how the customer views the brand. As briefs are drafted and information shared, these terms cannot continue to have these variations in meaning. The beauty of having an internal taxonomy is that no one is wrong, we simply define how we as a collective are going to use certain words moving forward.

If at Company A, we all agree that down means up and up means down, then when someone says this is going down, we all know to look up. It would be ideal if these terms were better defined across business in general, but agreeing on them within your organization will improve communications. When a new manager joins Company A, they are trained with the new taxonomy. They are told that in the world, up means up, but here at Company, we ask you to only use up to mean down.

Buzz helps the words we use begin to emerge as the ones that will make the final cut in our taxonomy. Buzz is the start to shared meaning.

The “better” words are loaded or too long.

At a former company known for long names, we had a culture of abbreviating everything. We even abbreviated the abbreviation with the term TLA (which stood for Three Letter Acronym). I am not a fan of the acronym because I generally think things should be better or more simply named. However, in marketing, with legal considerations, and a need for differentiation, we can’t always find the best, simple name. In those cases, the TLA makes sense.

Let’s say we name a product the Premium Widget Service.

Now I have to communicate across my organization in depth talking about the Premium Widget Service. I’m going to refer to the Premium Widget Service frequently. I need to tell my Premium Widget Service partners what we are doing with the Premium Widget Service. I am going to tire of typing Premium Widget Service so often, so I’m just going to save us time with PWS.

Often, the abbreviation will become an internal buzzword. Some will hate it. The brand naming team will tell us we need to use the full word. But it will catch on and PWS will be used by many. It is simply a matter of convenience. The buzzword is easier than the name.

In addition to those we create for expediency, there are other words we adopt from general business because the actual terms may be loaded.

Consider a Point-of-View Document (or POV). The definition is a specific set of beliefs about your brand/product shared with a specific audience. If I called this what it really is, I would likely call it a Counter Point. In my experience, a POV is needed when you suspect others do not share the view that you have about a specific topic. This feels combative, even if its intent is to just tell someone why you think the way you do. The buzzword is less confrontational.

Two words/phrases that made the popular list from Indeed were “Core Competency” and “Bandwidth.” These are buzzy words with the scent of MBA vellum on them, but they may still be strong alternatives to more direct words.

Core Competency is a way of positively stating what you do well. You could just say “competency” but by adding “core” you focus your organization away from things that are not as relevant to the customer. A product manager might say, “we have a really good insurance plan” but our company sells high-end watches. The product manager may be totally correct that the insurance plan is great and worthy of talk, but when I say “it isn’t our core competency,” I am essentially telling that manager we’ve agreed to talk about the watch quality, our core competency, not the insurance add-on. The buzzword is a positive way to focus vs. telling someone to stop pushing your product, we have limited dollars for promotion.

Bandwidth is a way of saying stop making me do other people’s jobs, I don’t have time. Bandwidth makes it sound technical and that you are purposeful with all of your time. The reality is more loaded: you don’t have time to add one more project to your workload without getting paid overtime or having the quality of the work suffer.

It’s just nicer to use the buzzwords where everyone knows what you mean but you don’t have to come off feeling combative or resistant.

I started out saying don’t hate the word, hate the buzz, but I really don’t even hate that. Buzz has a purpose. What I do want to circle back on is the user that can only use buzzwords to express themselves.

Despite having a place in business, buzzwords can be overused and make the speaker seem to lack substance. Choose your buzzwords carefully.

Do I really think I’m going move the needle on my own ROI by helping stakeholders unpack personalized key takeaways from my thought leadership?

Doubtful. But I’ll bet you understood that sentence which proves my point.

I can help your organization communicate more effectively and efficiently both internally and externally. My experience with processes will help your business simplify and refocus on delivering compelling messages to consumers.