Amazing, Incredible Marketese: 10 Over-Used Terms to Banish from Your Marketing Vocabulary

What you’re reading right now could be the most important, ultra-super-wonderful article ever produced in the history of written human communication.

Only it really isn’t. In fact, it’s simply a collection of tips aimed at helping you make better-informed decisions about your marketing efforts. That’s likely the reason you’re reading, and that’s definitely the need I’m addressing.

Somewhere along the line, old marketing began making promises it couldn’t keep. And along with those promises came “Marketese” – hollow, generically positive words and phrases that soon lost all sense of meaning and became about as impactful as radio static.

Today’s consumers are jaded to hype. In the new marketing dynamic, there aren’t enough adjectives in the world to sell your products for you. The name of the game is show, don’t tell. You need real results, proven performance and genuine word-of-mouth to build credibility in what you do.

With that in mind, here are 10 types of trust-busting terms that you’d be wise to avoid in your communication with potential customers.

1. “Fantastic”, “astonishing”

And a dozen more like them. It seems that every product or service ever created is uniquely fabulous in some way. Oh, wait a minute: these positively ordinary adjectives and phrases won’t make your brand stand out. You’ll just blend in with all the others using them.

2. “Life-changing”

That new app might make finding a restaurant a little easier. Those socks are quite comfortable, and the fabric breathes well. But as things go, these niceties do not rank up there with actual life-changing events like, you know, marriage and childbirth.

3. “Awesome”, “off-the-hook”, “swaggy”

Yes, “swaggy” is a thing now. But it won’t be in five minutes. Because a person over the age of 22 (i.e., me) just used these terms in a marketing article, so they’ve all instantly become epic-fail stale.

Youth culture is a highly sought-after market segment, so it might seem like a keen, groovy idea to incorporate their latest lingo into your marketing repertoire. But in doing so, you risk alienating other audiences as well as missing the mark with your efforts to appeal to a constantly moving target. So unless your core market is primarily made up of tweens and teens – and unless your marketing changes as fast as the acceptable height of blue jeans on behinds – lay off the hip-speak.

4.“Cutting-edge” (and its hype-on-top-of-hype mutation, “bleeding-edge”)

The first page of a Google search for “cutting-edge products” reveals that this phrase is used to peddle everything from stun guns to farming supplies to puffy coats for pets, and of course a long list of tech offerings. Talk about death by a thousand tiny cuts – this phrase bled out any impact it may have had long ago.

5. “Vital”, “crucial”

There are certainly products and services out there that fit this category of descriptor: pacemakers, fire extinguishers, accurate accounting software and the like.

Is your product comparable to air, water or shelter within your industry? If not, then take the rhetoric down a notch.

6. “Biggest”, “fastest”, “mostest”

Unless you can legitimately prove that your product or service consistently out-performs the very best your industry has to offer in every measurable way, for every customer, every time…you get the idea.

7. “Revolutionary”

Are customers flooding the streets in celebration of your services? Marching on stores demanding more shelf space for your product? Or, more realistically, does your offering bring a truly new perspective to your field?

An improvement is not a revolution just because you proclaim it to be. It’s simply a few degrees better than what was previously available – and that alone is enough to make a difference to your customers.

8. “Sea change”, “paradigm shift”

What would business conference presenters do without these (dead) workhorse phrases?

If you want to lose the attention of your captive audience to other pressing matters such as checking email, mulling over lunch options and challenging their high score in Angry Birds, by all means sprinkle your speech with these empty terms.

9. “Extraordinary”, “elegant”, “high-end”

Yes, your products are very fancy. One-percenters can’t wait to show off your latest offering when they attend the next big art auction fundraiser at the Uptown Snootatorium.

But here’s a case where showing is so much better than telling. Find ways in your marketing to demonstrate excellence rather than merely claiming it, and you’ll make a much more compelling case with your customers.

10. “Rough”, “tough”, “rugged”

Durability is a legitimate selling point for many products. But this kind of language has been co-opted and drained of much of its power by products like paper towels (hint – it’s not “tough” if half a sippy cup of juice ends its usefulness), cologne (man perfume has little metaphorical connection to mountain peaks or snow tire treads) and children’s toys (which so often break or wear out before their first batteries run down).

Write outside the box (yep – there's another one!)

Undoubtedly, there are many more repeat-offenders like these that could easily be added to this list. And with so many phraseological pitfalls lurking out there, it’s a real challenge to keep your marketing copy fresh.

But there are better ways to say what you want to say than just falling back on the familiar. Remember: winning new customers always starts with building trust first, and to build trust, you must shed the mask of Marketese hype and get real about what you’ve done to deserve their hard-earned dollars.

The Apartment That Pinterest Built: CB2 Redesigns Social Engagement

In May, 873 Broadway in New York City became the epicenter of a truly innovative social media campaign from home decor chain CB2, as an empty apartment was furnished from start to finish in five days, with designers transforming the blank canvases of five separate rooms into livable spaces – all based on the preferences of Pinterest users. So how did this campaign work, exactly? CB2 selected five popular designers, stylists and lifestyle bloggers, each of whom was assigned to one of the rooms. Each of these five pinned many potential pieces for their rooms, and the items that received the most likes from other Pinterest users ultimately found a place in the room’s final layout – resulting in a decorating style CB2 calls “modern together.” As if this concept wasn’t intriguing enough, CB2 added another element of engagement by posting cameras and video crews in the apartment, documenting the events as they unfolded in real-time so that users could watch the rooms take shape around their selections via time-lapse photos. The Apt CB2 campaign was CB2's first venture into big brand advertising, and they entered the arena with a vengeance. By leveraging their own fan base combined with the followings of five popular designers, they created a powerful foundation of motivated participants, whose efforts and engagement in the campaign were rewarded through a unique real-time connection between the online world and the real world. The campaign is, in fact, a veritable showcase of savvy modern marketing strategies, and it offers some great takeaways for other brands looking to follow suit. Let’s examine the anatomy of the Apt CB2 campaign and uncover the secrets to its success:

Customer driven decision-making

In the era when traditional advertising reigned supreme, push marketing was the norm. But in today’s marketplace, word-of-mouth recommendations, reviews and in-store interactions now carry far more weight with consumers. As a result, contemporary marketing gives greater focus to the "pull." CB2 showed a masterful grasp of pull marketing in the Apt CB2 promotion, which gave users a vehicle by which they could make choices and have their voices heard in a way that was both tangible and immediate.

Real-time engagement

The ability for brands to interact directly with their customers is one of the hallmarks of the digital marketing era. And according to research presented at SXSW 2012, when that interaction occurs in real time, brand marketing gets a huge boost. So what kind of boost are we talking about here? The research noted a whole laundry list of benefits, including:

• More positive perceptions of brands
• Greater willingness to try a new product
• Greater willingness to recommend a product to friends and family
• Better performance of related marketing campaigns

The social celebrity factor

CB2 didn’t rely solely on the appeal of real-time interaction alone to drive the success of its campaign. After all, if a pouf lands in the living room of an apartment and nobody is watching, did it really land there at all? That’s why they cleverly added prominent design celebrities to the mix, guaranteeing that they’d get an immediate fusion of new eyes and new fingers eager to click their favorite selections. Just how much interest can a celebrity add to a marketing campaign? A lot, actually. Each of the five designers selected for the Apt CB2 campaign came to the promotion with a sizable fan base. Let’s take a look at the numbers based on their Pinterest following alone:

• Los Angeles design pro Ross Cassidy (dining room): 4.5 million
• San Francisco's Caitlin Flemming (office): 4 million
• New York interior designer Athena Calderone (bedroom): 5,200 (plus all the readers who follow Eye Swoon, her popular food and design website)
• Nashville brand manager Daniel Bear Hunley (living room): 1.6 million
• Los Angeles lifestyle and design blogger Justina Blakeney (rooftop): 1.2 million

Of course, not all of their followers would participate in Apt CB2, but even a small percentage of numbers like these is nothing to sneeze at.

There's a contest, too

This super-sized promotion isn't done yet, though. For those Pinterest fans who weren’t moved by the menu of celebrities or the fascination of real-time "vote and view" apartment decorating, Apt CB2 offered yet another draw – the chance to win a room furnished by CB2 valued at $5,000.

News coverage and PR

Needless to say, Apt CB2 has garnered a lot of interest in the news media. And that interest is accompanied by some extremely high-quality free publicity. We at Fame Foundry aren’t the only ones who’ve taken notice of this innovative campaign. News about Apt CB2 was picked up almost immediately by major outlets including Fast Company, the New York Times and International Business Times as well as a raft of lifestyle and home decor websites and blogs. CB2 has also supplemented their free exposure by placing paid advertising on relevant websites, notably Apartment Therapy.

Social integration

The real genius of the campaign, however, is the synergy that it creates between all of these different features. The whole, in this case, really is much greater than the sum of its parts. Without question, social media is a valuable way for brands to reach their intended audience, providing great opportunities for brand building, messaging and conversation marketing. Even the best luxury brands know the power of social media. Take, for example, the innovative ways in which Burberry has incorporated social media into their marketing efforts. And while the Apt CB2 campaign is a bit reminiscent of Burberry's best efforts, it takes social integration several steps further. The result is a brilliant combination of social media, marketing strategy, public relations and targeted advertising – all rolled up into one highly engaging package.