Most people\u2014and perhaps marketers most of all\u2014want to be trendy and to sound important. In fact, marketers seem to perpetually be reaching for language that sets their product apart. This effort is perpetual because the effect is temporary\u2014other marketers quickly adopt the new jargon, lest they be perceived as falling behind.<\/p>\n
A recent\u00a0New York Times article<\/a>\u00a0highlighted the lengths to which we can go (the comments are as enlightening as the article itself). Authors Tiffany Hsu and Sapna Maheshwari provide a glossary of the latest contrived terms. They take particular issue with a snack food maker\u2019s term \u201dhumaning,\u201d which means connecting\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0humans (to sell something) instead of marketing\u00a0to<\/em>\u00a0them. It\u2019s supposedly not about using data to drive marketing tactics but instead discovering \u201cwhat unites us all.\u201d<\/p>\n A more ubiquitous term is \u201ccustomer journey,\u201d wherein customers undertake a heroic quest for the holy grail\u2014or product\u2014with the marketer as their guide on the path from ignorance, to awareness, to buying. Of course, the idea of a customer continuum from awareness to buying is far from new.<\/p>\n These examples are both funny and cautionary. No one is immune from jargon\u2014words like pivot, unpack, hack, granular, and goingforward have wormed their way into regular business language with no particular harm.<\/p>\n With all businesses determined to make up lost ground and more in the coming months, look for a surge of sales-speak or, as a Stanford professor quoted in the NYT article dubbed it, jargon monoxide. But remember that insider jargon only goes so far, which, as we emerge from a pandemic, isn\u2019t far at all\u2014because jargon is often just talk smothering or substituting for strategy and action.<\/p>\n The organizations and marketers who emerge furthest ahead will be the ones focused on nuts-and-bolts action: implementing a strategy that reaches their best prospects and delivers quality and value, using partners and systems\/tools most effectively. In other words, those who come up with better ways to actually\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0things, as opposed to new ways to\u00a0describe<\/em>\u00a0what they do.<\/p>\n For print marketers (and experts agree that an effective strategy blends print and digital), there\u2019s a wealth of potential partners\u2014print management software and services\u2014to connect you with the print suppliers offering the best quality, price, and service and to help you manage the complexities of the print process.<\/p>\n Finding the right partner or software-and-service provider to help you reach your goals is a critical post-pandemic choice you still have time to make. For technical and print expertise (but not humaning), contact\u00a0info@elynxx.com<\/a>\u00a0or 717-709-0990.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most people\u2014and perhaps marketers most of all\u2014want to be trendy and to sound important. In fact, marketers seem to perpetually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,30,43,72,8],"tags":[33,40,41,73],"class_list":["post-19702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-marketing-materials","category-marketing-supply-chain","category-print-procurement","category-software","tag-better-results","tag-graphic-communication","tag-marketing-materials-2","tag-print-procurement-software"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t