Corporate speak is the plague of business communications. Even the most skilled writers sometimes catch themselves peppering their prose with buzzwords like “robust,” “leverage” and “empower.” (Then they cry bitter tears into their keyboards. Ask us how we know.)
While it’s mildly annoying in a press release or a PowerPoint presentation, corporate speak can cause real problems when it creeps into a company’s marketing and advertising. Here are three good reasons to keep it out.
- It makes you sound like a robot.
People want to connect with other people, not with jargon-spewing machines. That’s why the most successful marketing campaigns—“Just do it,” “Think different,” “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand”—have often been the simplest. If your marketing uses natural language, you’ll come across as more human and approachable and connect at a deeper level with both current and potential customers.
- Too much is confusing.
If we had a dollar for every time we’ve read a company’s mission statement and still had no idea what they did, we could retire now to that Caribbean island we’ve been dreaming about. What does it mean to “visualize best-of-breed content” or “maximize value-added synergies?” We don’t know, and neither will your customers. Keep it clear and direct to get your message across and help people understand what you’re offering.
- You’re not fooling anyone.
Some companies fall back on corporate-speak in their marketing because it feels like a shortcut to sounding professional or making their products and services seem important. The truth is, if you have a great product or service, you can describe it in simple terms and it will still be great. If you don’t, all the elaborate language in the world won’t make it any better.
Need help eliminating corporate speak from your marketing? Agency Ingram Micro can help. Contact us today to find out how. And if you’ve spotted an especially egregious example of corporate speak in the wild, share it with us in the comments. If we collect enough, we’ll feature them in a future post.
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