The Toad Stool by Alan Wolk - Latest Comments in The Power of Buzzwords

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

Ben — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:00:45 -0000

Alan, you're too kind. I've always been around, but lurking rather than commenting. And just to add to the nauseating love-in we've got going here, I think Dave Trott's blog is much better than mine. Keep up the excellent work.

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

Alan Wolk — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:31:41 -0000

@Ben (the inestimable Ben Kay, author of the UK's best ad blog, "If This Is A Blog, Then What's Christmas?) Good to have you back buddy. And in rare form too-- love the 324-degree thing- actually made me LOL. Agree about Just Do It moving beyond sport.
But 100% agree about buzzworders getting annoyed when you ask them to explain the buzzword or what they meant. And while it probably wins me no points, I love being the guy who raises his hand and with a slightly blank look asks "I don't get what you mean by "brand personalization" Can you explain that a little more." And they all just get flummoxed and angry at that question, because it means you're not buying in to the Conspiracy of the Buzzword, which says that you'll all keep quiet about not know what the catch phrases really mean and so long as you all keep using them, it's okay

@Warren-- another big welcome to an old friend: Warren Berger is a former Adweek columnist (he was the Brian Morrissey of his day) and an established author. I checked out your list and it's well worth reading both for buzzword value and as an insight into the mindset of the design industry. Looking forward to the book.

@Raafi: You raise a good point- the ability to appropriately (as opposed to correctly) regurgitate a buzzword is definitely part of getting into the club and is often used to telegraph an insider's knowledge of a certain topic. As to your corollary about buzzwords as defense mechanisms- definitely. How many times have you disagreed with someone to be met by a barrage of acronyms in response.

@Tom K: that's what's so frustrating about buzzwordization (to coin a phrase) - most of the words have valid and concrete origins that have gotten lost as the word takes on broader meaning.

@Michael - Inbound Marketing is a good one. Not sure what it means, but I know that two familiar-but-seemingly-unrelated terms (crowd sourcing, for example) make a great buzzword

@Chapin (RGA) - that's very funny - you should join forces with our fellow Jerseyite Steve Woodruff (here's his version: http://twitter.com/swoodruff/statuses/4481114778) And a big welcome to you too, since this is your first comment on The Toad Stool.

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

R/GA — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:47:55 -0000

Alan, lots of great thought starters and action items here. The real question is, after we capture the low-hanging fruit, what are the blue-sky possibilities? Maybe we can take this conversation offline, if you have the bandwidth.

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

SirMichael — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:29:58 -0000

My favorite buzzword this week: Inbound Marketing. It's so good that I'm going to put it on our website.

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

Tom Kasperski — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:52:27 -0000

I don't have a problem with buzzwords if the person using them can actually dissect their meaning and point to real examples. Marketers hang themselves when they promote a buzzword (or general marketing concept) that sounds more alluring than real world examples.

As for taglines, "Just do it" is powerful because it's a call to action. "Drinkability" - my reaction is 'I hope so!'.

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

raafi — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:37:57 -0000

What's lost in this is the currency that buzzwords have. First off, people like buzzwords. That's why there's always a new crop of them. Much like technical jargon, they give people a way of linguistically determining who's up to speed, or in the know and who isn't. They have superficial use, for sure, but one that probably isn't going away soon. It's the overuse of buzzwords that's really the problem. The people who overreach just to fit more of them in a sentence, or use them to mask the fact that what they're saying is either a) completely bland, or b) completely inane. Because of their specialized nature in describing industry phenomena, and the high effort required to stay current, they can be used quite effectively to ward off any rube who might hear some jumble of them and say, in effect, "that idea sucks."

But the problem is seldom the words themselves. "Crowdsourcing," for example, is an incredibly elegant way of describing how something like Wikipedia works. It's just that too many of us would like to use "a crowdsourcing model to leverage the fandom of our target vertical."

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

Warren Berger — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:21:59 -0000

Hi Alan, hear what you're saying about buzzwords. The only thing more suffocating than buzzwords is jargon -- having just spent a year immersed in the design world for my book Glimmer, I nearly drowned in the insider terminology. Though it can be kind of fun in a way deciphering it - eventually I put it all in a glossary: http://glimmersite.com/glos...

Re: The Power of Buzzwords

Ben — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:25:00 -0000

The other problem with arguing with a buzzword user is that they get quite annoyed when you ask them to explain the buzzword, like you're just some party-pooper who stands near the congo sneering at the enjoyment of others.

And 'Just Do It''s genius lies in its relevance beyond the world of sport. It works well with almost any activity that is threatened by inertia.

My buzzword conversation today consisted of me fretting about the fact that I can only manage 324-degree thinking and feel that the final 36 degrees might be beyond me. Then I worked out that those other 36 degrees are only supermarket shelf signage and Craig's List, so I might be OK.