All stories · 30 March 2023
Marketing jargon? I’ll brief you ASAP!
You can only read this article if you understand the headline
Welcome to marketing jargon: the language of marketers
There’s no way around it — we have to admit it! The language of communication agencies is packed with such a high (and constantly growing) number of anglicisms and neologisms that it often becomes incomprehensible and indigestible to non-experts. Not to mention the infamous marketing and web marketing acronyms, an endless list of abbreviations that update and blend into one another on a daily basis. In short, chaos.
Even though some people believe we’re just selling “fluff,” we’re not the bad guys and we’re not doing it to confuse you. “Marketing jargon” is simply the language of our profession and, sooner or later, willingly or not, it ends up contaminating us all.
We start young, learning the basics of marketing, then gradually adopt business terminology — from every possible industry — and then the language of the tech world, the web, until we become so immersed that our ears and eyes perk up only when we hear something at least slightly exotic or cool.
At some point, you think you’ve mastered it. You feel in control of the language. But don’t get too comfortable — it only lasts a moment. Sooner or later, new generations, new technologies and new trends arrive, introducing more formulas, more acronyms, more anglicisms to decode and learn. Still, you don’t give up. You study, memorize them all, absorb them into your vocabulary — and then, just when you least expect it, you discover that the word you thought you’d been pronouncing so perfectly, the one that sounded so cool, you’ve actually been butchering for years. No glory at all!
Marketing jargon in everyday life
And then there’s real life — the one outside the agency — and you have no idea what that means. Because, in truth, the first victims of marketing jargon are us communicators. Yes, it’s sneaky — and invasive. It doesn’t politely stay within working hours. Not at all. Sooner or later, the little rascal creeps into your private life.
He is finally home.
She leans out from the kitchen door and says: “Honey? Can you take out the trash?”
He, an account, has his mind on one of the many projects he’s handling and, distractedly, replies without thinking: “Yeah, sure, ASAP.”
That was the last sentence he ever uttered as a cohabiting partner. She stared at him, eyes wide open. He didn’t even notice. Five minutes later, his suitcases were on the landing. Do you think she overreacted? Trust me — living with an account makes you sensitive.
But the acronym torment doesn’t end there. I’ve seen young art directors ruin their lives over acronyms.
She: “Babe, come on, log off work so we can go to the restaurant.”
He: “IDK, I’m on a call, EOD is endless, and the WOM is terrible!!”
He doesn’t know it yet, but by the fifth reply like that, she’ll start looking at the mailman differently.
If you only knew what kind of lexical hell people working in communication agencies live in, you’d be more understanding. Capable of creating unimaginable linguistic hybrids, accounts and project managers are the worst offenders. After all, they have to master marketing jargon. They’re the ones who have to impress clients — and they’re capable of anything.
The account: “Hey, sorry for the WhatsApp but I’m OOO today. Once I’m free I’ll check the calendar to find an open slot for the call with the client’s board and staff and send the invite. FYI I’ve briefed you by email on the guidelines for developing the brand identity of the boutique company I mentioned (ex start-up, good reputation… focus on custom-made, Made in Italy and corporate know-how… watch the TOV). Also, prep a few content strategy case studies aimed at boosting brand awareness for the call. DM me with feedback ASAP, THX.”
If the recipient — usually a copywriter or an art director — has fewer than five years of agency experience, there’s no alternative: if they want to reply on WhatsApp, they’ll have to Google half the message. If, on the other hand, the recipient has survived more than five years in an agency — a senior or even a creative director — they speak agency language fluently and can even afford to reply “in de col men seivuan prisencolinensinainciusol ol rait” (only the boomers will get this one), knowing full well that account briefs don’t count for much anyway.
In the end, marketing jargon has its reasons
That said, exaggerations aside (see above), marketing is a discipline born and raised in the United States, so it’s only natural that it speaks English. It’s also true that many of the keywords it coins and exports take hold because other languages simply don’t offer an equivalent with the same conciseness and communicative effectiveness.
The same has happened for centuries in classical music, where the dominant language is Italian. All over the world, Italian terms are used in that field (contrabbasso, baritono, tenore, just to name a few), simply because Italy set the standard — just as English-speaking countries have set the standard in marketing — yet no one is scandalized by it.
Languages, moreover, are considered alive only when they are capable of constant evolution, cross-pollination and transformation. So why shouldn’t we poor communicators see borrowed words from foreign languages as enrichment, once they rightfully become part of our vocabulary?
Who among us, in everyday conversation, doesn’t use words and expressions that come from another language? Babysitter, charme, weekend, manicure, fashion, atelier, boutique, turnover, task force, golpe, vigilantes, meeting, smart, collant, macho, selfie — the list is practically endless. And how many of these foreign words have effectively become synonyms of Italian words?
Performance instead of achievement; target instead of goal; mission instead of purpose — how often do we alternate between them? And isn’t a synonym, after all, a form of enrichment? Of course, if we overdo it, we risk undermining the very premise of communication — which is to be understood. But nobody’s perfect, and the only way to learn to communicate better is to do what children do: make mistakes.
P.S.: even if it may not seem so, at Zaki we truly love our accounts.
Related stories
All stories
Zaki tells the story of Delta-ti’s 50 years
Get in touch!
Whether it’s well established or still to be built,
we work on the best communication for your brand.